It is all my fault

Okay! I confess. It is my fault there is a war between the media, government and the ANC with some of its business allies.

Yesterday's court interdict stopping the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications from proceeding with its closed door meeting to discuss the fallout at the SA Broadcasting Corporation left me feeling vindicated after an incident that happened to me about two years ago.

In late 2008 this committee was conducting hearings into the formation of Broadband Infraco, government's new entry into the telecommunications space. One particularly contentious issue was Infraco's marketing agreement with Neotel.

The MPs were, rightfully, concerned this agreement may unfairly prejudice other market players and hamper Infraco's growth.

One night at around 9pm, after a long day of hearings, the committee decided to hold its session with Neotel and Infraco in camera and I was unceremoniously ejected from the proceedings.

I felt this was totally unfair. Every other presentation was made in the open and this was about taxpayer money (R467 million of it), so why the secrecy? And what were the Parliamentarians going to do with the information anyway?

Furthermore, there were representatives from other industry bodies who were allowed to stay. Was this not just restricting information so that others may use it to their advantage?

I objected and phoned several people, including my editors and lawyers I knew, but to no avail. No court interdict, no real support that could have helped report on the proceedings.

“We can't have the press telling lies. After all, that is what reporters do,” said one smug-looking government lawyer at the end of the meeting.

Yesterday was the first day that I behaved as a citizen reporter.

Paul Vecchiatto, Cape Town Correspondent

My immediate retort was: “One of the best things to have happened since 1994 is that there are now far more lawyers in jail than reporters.”

I have a sense that lawyer has had a hand in the Protection of Information Bill.

A young democracy is expected to wrestle with such issues as privacy, freedom of expression, national security and accountability. What can be said and what cannot. Just where the fine line between good taste and bad lies, and what constitutes the public interest and what doesn't.

These are perennial issues. The boundaries will be flexed as society and its values are in a continuous state of flux. But this is a sign of growth. It means we are, as a society, examining our actions in a critical, but constructive manner. If we stop doing that, then we stagnate and there will be no progress on any front.

Yesterday was the first day that I behaved as a citizen reporter. On arriving at Parliament I found the best way for me to use otherwise wasted time was to “tweet” on Twitter what I was seeing and hearing.

These were essentially one-line takes and a bit of an experiment to see what the reaction would be. My follower numbers jumped by 50% to 89 (not big), but the “retweets” or resending of my messages were quite large.

Suddenly, there were quite a few people reading what I was saying and then commenting on it. They were making up their own minds. Whether or not their comments were accurate or even valid did not make any difference, but it was similar to watching an amoeba replicate itself many times over in the space of about three hours.

It proves that clamping down on media will not keep anything secret. One cannot stop people expressing what they are experiencing.

So you who read my tweets, commented on them, sent them to others and those who read those and then commented on them and then resent them again, you are all guilty of reporting and I am afraid that it is all my fault.