South Africa: Ban on cartoons 'worrying' (S.A. not quite as free as many had thought)

News 24 (South Africa) ^ | February 5, 2006

[Stoat]

Ban on cartoons 'worrying'

05/02/2006 22:40  - (SA)  

Related Articles

• SA Sunday papers gagged

• Cartoons offend SA Muslims

 

 

Johannesburg - The ban on the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in South Africa was worrying and conflicted with press freedom, the Media Institute of Southern Africa said on Sunday.

Misa's Raymond Louw said the Johannesburg High Court's ruling on Friday stated that the right to dignity outweighed the right to freedom of expression.

Judge Mohammed Jajbhay concluded that the cartoons were offensive and an affront to the dignity of the Muslim people.

"Misa regards the ban as an unacceptable intrusion on media freedom and freedom of expression by the courts and believes it is unconstitutional," Louw said.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance said it was dismayed by the decision.

"Media freedom is explicitly constitutionalised in South Africa as part of the right to free speech and expression.

"This means that the media decides without prior restraint by other organs of state what it will publish, and how," said spokesperson Dene Smuts.

The Jamiat-ul Ulama Transvaal sought the interdict late on Friday.

Protests

Publication in Europe of the set of Danish cartoons has given rise to protests, flag-burning and commercial boycotts across the Middle East.

The DA welcomed the resolve shown by the SA National Editors' Forum and the newspaper groups affected by the ruling to resist prior restraint when the matter returns to court at the end of the month.

"The interdict must be lifted - thereafter matters of substance such as the relative importance of the rights to free speech and dignity can be considered," said Smuts.

The Union of Muslim Students Associations said the publication of the cartoons would be offensive.

"Freedom of speech is an inalienable right of all South Africans, enshrined in our Bill of Rights after centuries of struggle to free our land of the oppression of one by another", the students said.

"Another freedom enshrined in our constitution, after this same struggle, is that of religion, belief and opinion.

Limitations" Further, the Bill of Rights enshrines that everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected.

"Tainting and mocking the character of the Prophet Muhammad and any other prophet of Islam or revered Islamic figure, such as Jesus, Moses, Abraham, and/or Mary, is tantamount to degrading the dignity of those who follow Islam.

"All freedoms have limitations... We call for a national dialogue through institutions such as the parliament of the Republic of South Africa, and the media, to promote an understanding of this issue, especially focusing on the reasons why it provokes such a passionate response from the Muslim community."

[The Cuban]

Judge Mohammed Jajbhay? Maybe he is methodist.

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

SA is in bed with Iran. SA which has nuke power and "had" the bomb back mid 70's is quietly helping Iran. There are lots of high level back and forth between the two and SA has strongly supported Iran on the UN Nuke board (SA is currently on that board) Lots of muslims in the Cape Town area. Lots of jihadi type muslims.

[zimdog]

denying 85% of the people their freedom was breathtakingly violent.

defending apartheid south africa is the moral equivalent of defending saddam.

[Stoat]

denying 85% of the people their freedom was breathtakingly violent.

defending apartheid south africa is the moral equivalent of defending saddam.

ummmm....  take a deep breath please.  Nobody here is "defending apartheid".

There's a HUGE difference between simply saying that the crime situation has gotten dramatically worse in SA (I've never heard anyone suggest the contrary) and saying "apartheid was cool".

[Lancey Howard]

(S.A. not quite as free as many had thought)

Huh? The next Zimbabwe, run by the communist ANC, is not as free as many had thought?
Heavens....!

[Stoat]

 

(S.A. not quite as free as many had thought)

Huh? The next Zimbabwe, run by the communist ANC, is not as free as many had thought?
Heavens....!

The article states that guarantees of free speech are written into South Africa's constitution, and this court ruling appears to be the first major, direct affront to that through the courts.

My added title to this thread was meant partially as a tongue in cheek statement, in response to so many on the Left who heralded the arrival of the ANC as a 'new wave of freedom and equality'.  We can see how very wrong they were, as usual.

[Lancey Howard]

I appreciate your comments and I realized that your add-on was tongue-in-cheek. I suspect that the courts in South Africa are utterly corrupt and the country's "Constitution" completely meaningless. I give the place five to seven years.

[Stoat]

I give the place five to seven years.

Many years ago when the news first came out, I was floored upon learning that the latest 'hot' (pardon the pun) fashion accessory for a South African car was a flamethrower system mounted underneath the vehicle and actuated from within the car, to thwart carjackers.   I haven't heard of any other nation where such an auto accessory has even been considered.

I'm amazed that they have lasted as long as they have.

[Stoat]

BBC News Africa Firing on all cylinders

Thursday, December 10, 1998 Published at 21:53 GMT


World: Africa

Firing on all cylinders

A test driver disposes with some local difficulty

By Jeremy Vine in Johannesburg

Car drivers in South Africa are being offered a new method of preventing hijacking.

 

The BBC's Jeremy Vine witnesses a demonstration of the "blaster"

A blaster, flame-thrower operated by a foot pedal inside the car, blasts a jet of fire at a would-be hijacker.

A person confronted by an armed hijacker simply presses a pedal and the "blaster" ignites gas that shoots from the under-side of the car.

Doctors say the device is lethal - but the police have confirmed it is perfectly legal.

 

"Drivers - put up your hands and step on the gas"

Johannesburg seems to fill car drivers with fear. In the province which includes the city, there were 4,000 car hijacks between January and June this year.

People pull up at traffic lights, they stop their car and then someone comes up to the window with a gun and tells them to get out.

Charles Fourie, who invented the blaster, says drivers should put their hands up and then step on the gas.

"This is a case of opting for the lesser of two evils," Mr Fourie said.

"Either you get shot, your wife is raped, your child is murdered - against him getting burned."

No legal problems

Police say they cannot see any legal problems with the blaster - so long as the right people are blasted.

 

The blaster: Doctors are appalled

But Dr Kenneth Boffard, a surgeon who runs a trauma unit, said he is extremely concerned.

"I don't think the average person on the street has any concept of the appalling damage that burns cause," Dr Boffard said.

"The result of that is permanent, extensive and disfiguring."

"Innocent people are going to get caught.

" That's unacceptable."

[zimdog]

With respect, there's a HUGE difference between "simply saying that the crime situation has gotten dramatically worse in SA" and what you said in #17"

"I don't think that you'll be able to find many who can convincingly argue that South Africa has improved since the end of apartheid."

You seem to be saying that South Africa today is, at best, as bad as apartheid South Africa. More likely, it's worse:

"... spiralling down into a turgid cauldron of breathtakingly violent and vicious crime and my guess is that a nation that is unable to maintain even a semblance of order within it's [sic] own borders is not going to have the backbone to stand up for comparatively esoteric principles and intellectual concepts such as freedom of the press."

My point is that these same arguments are being used by the left to criticize our mission in Iraq, which under Saddam was a well-ordered nation (although certainly lacking "comparatively esoteric principles and intellectual concepts such as freedom of the press") that, after its liberation, has seen an exponential rise in "breathtakingly violent and vicious crime" -- beheadings, suicide bombings, car bombings, urban warfare and political assasination. This is just three years after liberation and the first free elections seen in Iraq in decades.

Over 40 million people were liberated with the end of apartheid in South Africa, which held its first democratic elections ever in 1994. I support a free South Africa and a free Iraq.