Committee condemns attempts to curb South African press coverage.

Committee condemns attempts to curb South African press coverage

The Special Committee against Apartheid has condemned South Africa's attempt to curb the media in the proper reporting of unrest and of the "repressive and brutal character of apartheid".

In a 7 November statement, Acting Committee Chairman Serge Elie Charles (Haiti) said the Committee had learned "with deep concern" that a 2 November measure by Pretoria prohibited the televising, photographing and recording by the press of unrest in areas affected by the emergency regulations, except with the permission of police. Penalties include confiscation of equipment, a fine of up to $50,000 or imprisonment for 10 years.

"This effort to clamp down on media coverage of the real situation in South Africa is designed to conceal from the world the reality of the resistance to apartheid, substitute it with propaganda and disinformation in certain target countries and counter the growing international move towards imposing sanctions on South Africa", the statement said.

The Committee called on journalists, academics, liberation movements, Governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and all people who were actively concerned with the situation in South Africa to "combat all attempts by the apartheid regime to curb the mass media and keep the truth from reaching the world".

Testimony heard in Lusaka

Testimony by 19 witnesses with firsthand experience of the current situation in South Africa and Namibia was given at hearings in Lusaka, Zambia (13-19 November), conducted by the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Working Group of Experts on Southern Africa, Annan A. Cato, and the Special Raporteur on Summary or Arbitrary Executions, S. Amos Wako.

The witnesses reported on alleged human rights violations in South Africa and Namibia: violations of the right to life; the effect of implementation of constitutional reforms; consolidation of the Bantustan policy; torture, victimization, harassment, destruction of property of persons or groups opposed to the apartheid policy; and detention of such persons under security laws and their ill-treatment under police custody.

The Working Group Chairman and the Special Rapporteur expressed particular concern at reports of actions by South African police taken under the state of emergency--imposed on 21 July 1985.

The Ad Hoc Working Group, whose mandate is to investigate violations of human rights in South Africa and Namibia, decided to hold the hearings as an extraordinary measure in the light of information on the serious deterioration in the human rights situation in that region. The Special Rapporteur was also gravely concerned over the escalation in the situation, particularly as reflected in the increase of deaths of civilians.

The Working Group and the Special Rapporteur, under their separate mandates, are expected to submit reports to the Commission on Human Rights at its forty-second session in 1986.

Chairman Garba visits Far East

Joseph N. Garba (Nigeria), Chairman of the Special Committee against Apartheid, visited three Far Eastern countries from 4 to 12 November--the Republic of Korea, Japan and China, meeting with high Government officials, media representatives and citizen groups.

He urged continued support for international efforts to eradicate apartheid, and generous contributions to United Nations funds to aid oppressed South Africans. He also called for support for the Special Committee's initiative for total and mandatory sanctions against South Africa.