South Africa Government relations with media and Presidential Press Corps Juxtaposed against this desire to restrain the media by certain sections of society, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, took a new conciliatory approach, which was seen, when he conducted a meeting between three cabinet ministers, three deputy ministers and editors and senior journalists from the SA National Editors’ Forum in Pretoria in November. In effect this was a resumption of annual meetings that had taken place between the two institutions. The most exciting media related news of the year in South Africa was a declaration by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) that it planned to remove criminal defamation from common law. He spoke about strengthening relations with the media, acknowledged the tensions between it and the government and the media’s critical role in the country. He also expressed the government’s commitment to a free and thriving media that should scrutinise the policies and actions of government. He said the government looked forward to more exchanges of views between the two groupings through quarterly meetings. Three months later there was no indication of this proposal being put into effect. During the meeting he also announced the launch of the Presidential Media and Communications Working Group whose aim would be to contact media owners and sectoral experts to improve government understanding of developments and challenges in the economic sector. He announced the revival of a plan to create a Presidential Press Corps composed of journalists who cover the presidency. This proposal had been discussed several years earlier between the cabinet and the media but collapsed when the government wanted to introduce security checks on the journalists who would form the corps – a suggestion to which journalists and Sanef raised strenuous objections. Security checks will not be applied to journalists nominated for the new body. MEDIA REGULATION Press Council reimaging itself to include online publications in its code In April, Joe Thloloe, Executive Director of the Press Council of South Africa announced that his entity was starting a process of reimaging itself following an announcement by the Print and Digital Media of SA (PDMSA) that it was in the process of dissolving to take account of the changes in the print media industry brought on by declining circulations and revenues. This meant that instead of the PDMSA representing its members on the Press Council the membership had to be ex-