Undue Restriction: Laws Impacting on Media Freedom in the SADC
SummaryText
From the publication:
"In 1774 Edmund Burke gestured to reporters in the House of Commons in England and said, 'There are three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sits a Fourth Estate more important far than they all.' He was acknowledging the importance of the contribution the press made in that society, even though it was not as free as it is today. Now the role of the press and the other media that have emerged since has come to be recognised worldwide as vital in modern democratic societies.
Testimony to the recognition by governments of the power of that Fourth Estate role has come from the plethora of laws and regulations they have enacted in attempts to curb the media in its stimulation of ideas and values of freedom and in the publication of information about their conduct.
As part of that process this handbook is published to provide a catalogue of laws in nine of the member states of the Southern Africa Development Community [SADC] that militate against freedom for the media. The book also looks at laws that protect media freedom in each SADC state and gives an overview of international laws protecting media freedom worldwide."
i. An examination of the constitutional protection of media freedom to determine its compatibility with international law;
ii. A determination of the status of the international human rights instruments; and
iii. A catalogue of the laws that unduly restrict media freedom.
"In 1774 Edmund Burke gestured to reporters in the House of Commons in England and said, 'There are three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sits a Fourth Estate more important far than they all.' He was acknowledging the importance of the contribution the press made in that society, even though it was not as free as it is today. Now the role of the press and the other media that have emerged since has come to be recognised worldwide as vital in modern democratic societies.
Testimony to the recognition by governments of the power of that Fourth Estate role has come from the plethora of laws and regulations they have enacted in attempts to curb the media in its stimulation of ideas and values of freedom and in the publication of information about their conduct.
As part of that process this handbook is published to provide a catalogue of laws in nine of the member states of the Southern Africa Development Community [SADC] that militate against freedom for the media. The book also looks at laws that protect media freedom in each SADC state and gives an overview of international laws protecting media freedom worldwide."
i. An examination of the constitutional protection of media freedom to determine its compatibility with international law;
ii. A determination of the status of the international human rights instruments; and
iii. A catalogue of the laws that unduly restrict media freedom.
Number of Pages
65
Source
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