Research Catalog

Title

Fight for democracy : the ANC and the media in South Africa / Glenda Daniels.

Author

Daniels, Glenda

Publication

Johannesburg, South Africa : Wits University Press, 2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

African National Congress

Description

xiii, 250 p.; 22 cm.

Summary

Fight for Democracy is a penetrating and critical scrutiny of the ANC's treatment of the print media since the inception of democracy in 1994. In this book, Glenda Daniels does not hide behind a veil of detachment, but instead makes a passionate argument for the view that newspapers and journalists play a significant role in the deepening of democratic principles. Glenda Daniels examines the pattern of paranoia that has crept into public discourse about the media and the ANC, and their conflictual relationship. She analyses this fraught relationship through various popular media stories, such as Manto and Mondli, Zapiro and Zuma. Her argument is that there is some hysteria on the part of the ruling party and its allies, for instance the SACP, regarding the media's exposés, which partially rests on the problem of conflating party, state and 'the people'. Daniels presents her argument against the backdrop of the impending clamp down on media freedom, the twin threats of the Protection of State Information Bill (Secrecy Bill) and the media appeals tribunal, both of which, she asserts, signify closures in South Africa's democracy. The book challenges the view held by the ANC that journalists are anti-transformation and that they take instruction from the owners of the media houses; that they are 'capitalist bastards' and 'enemies of the people'.

Subject

• African National Congress
• Mass media > South Africa
• Press and politics > South Africa
• Freedom of the press > South Africa
• Journalism > Political aspects > South Africa

Bibliography (note)

• Includes index and references (pp. 237-242) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1. Introduction : the ANC and the media in post-apartheid -- 2. The relationship between the media and democracy -- 3. The media's challenges : legislation and commercial imperatives -- 4. Race and the media -- 5. Freedom of expression : the case of Zapiro -- 6. Social fantasy : the ANC's gaze and the media appeals tribunal -- 7. The Sunday Times versus the health Minister -- 8. What is developmental journalism? -- 9. Concluding reflections : where is democracy headed?.

ISBN

• 9781868145683 (pbk.)
• 1868145689 (pbk.)

OCLC

• 810327039
• SCSB-11729645

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library