Jacob Zuma and media

The ANC in South Africa seems to be no different than the previous government (apparently referred to as a regime) when it comes to hyper-sensitivity towards the news media. It is known that the pre-1994 era was accentuated by the then government to control what people were thinking and the main conduit for them in manipulating the desired state of thinking of the people was the news media.

The ANC and other "freedom" groups, with the help of sympathetic international support from organizations and governments, could not protest loud and violent enough whenever the apartheid government banned or restricted a news medium. At the same time it was also obvious that the SABC was the goverment's little lap dog.

What have we today in the new South Africa, in terms of the relationship between the government (read ANC) and the news media? Maybe it was best summed up by Jacob Zuma, after he was recently elected the new president of the ANC, when he declared that the media are politically and ideologically out of synch with the society in which it operates. (As reported in News24.com). Then he gives a lot of "reasons" (like the previous government did) why some form or other stricter control would be necessary to make the news media more acceptable.

Mr Zuma, you and your ANC cronies are barking up the wrong tree. There are enough laws and regulations to make sure the news media toe the line like they should in a true democracy (wasn't a true democracy what you were fighting for?). So, don't let the ANC enter the debate around this very important aspect of our new country as bullies and uninformed loud mouths.