Catholics and the Media Bill…

The debate about a proposed media bill which would restrict journalists and so punish reporters for “irresponsible and misleading reporting” in South Africa frequently rears its head in public discourse. Last week the Mail & Guardian reported that our favourite youth leader had recently said (again) that the press in SA needed to be controlled. The “Protection of information bill” would have an effect on the information that South Africans are given about their government’s activities (or the lack thereof). The proposed bill, in as far as I understand it, would put the lid on reporting about things like service delivery protests and corruption and in so doing prevent the media from digging deeper into and reporting on the root cause of problems that plague our country.

The launch of Eyewitness News journalist Mandy Weiner’s book Killing Kebble in the last week exposes a whole underworld in SA. Crime, politicians, government agencies and big business are intricately linked and, for lack of a better phrase, “working hand-in-hand” in shady deals. It’s scary to know what’s actually going on around us. Weiner reported live, using social media like twitter, to get information out as events unfolded. She quotes newspaper reports and tweets in her book. It was good “exposure” journalism. One wonders whether such works would see the light of day under the proposed bill.  The proposed bill has left many people feeling anxious about the direction South Africa may be taking. Some, hearing of this proposed bill, have compared us to our northern neighbour.

The Church in South Africa spoke out about the proposed bill. In a press release last year the Bishop’s Conference said that it had serious concerns about the “wisdom and the constitutionality” of such a bill. The statement goes on to say that the Bishop’s have serious misgivings about the way it will be done “…since it risks fostering or even entrenching a culture of non-accountability and non-transparency among state officials at all levels”. It’s a good statement and certainly highlights the problems that such a bill creates.

Although the bill is aimed at the secular media in South Africa particularly, it does raise issues around censorship and reporting for Catholic journalists and writers. It is important that when the Church comments on issues we are willing to apply the comments to our own affairs. At times Catholic journalists and writers walk a tightrope – albeit not quite in the same category as national censorship in which a government tries to cover up corruption, lack of delivery and other misdemeanors.

Why am I thinking about media censorship now? In the last week the US Bishop’s Conference have critiqued a book written in 2007 by theologian Elizabeth Johnson entitled “Quest for God”. (One might ask why it took them so long to raise issues about the content). The Bishops have mounted critique on Johnson’s work; they have not taken any action against her. However there have been numerous other cases in which Catholic writers and journalists have been censored or silenced by Church authorities for what they have written (no bill required!). Theological censorship or silencing is different to a media bill, granted, but there is some nervousness in theological circles about saying things for fear of censorship or, at worst, silencing. It’s easy to point at the government but the church might also benefit from some self-reflection in the way we deal with differing theological opinions.

At a Conference of the Catholic Press in Rome late last year Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, President of the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications, said: “We must become a Church in dialogue with itself and the world”. It is, surely, the role of Catholic journalists and writers to facilitate that dialogue through the media and ask questions about the world and church – uncomfortable as that might be at times. The fear of being “exposed” by journalists and the media has lead the South African government to consider such a bill – the arms deal saga, amongst others,  left an uncomfortable residue which seems to be a constant protagonist for such a bill. There is, it seems, lots to be anxious about.

What are we anxious about in the Church that sometimes leads to seeming theological censorship or silencing? At the same Conference Archbishop Celli, in his closing remarks, said  “We must keep the flame of searching for truth alive, not imposing on others but together with them, in dialogue, discover the truth” – isn’t that an awesome line? Surely that’s the greatest gift we have and can offer to ourselves and others? Dialogue in which we can together discover the truth. If we agree that we are all pilgrims seeking truth wouldn’t our approach to those we don’t agree with have a different modus operandi to the secular world? We are all too painfully aware of how damaging the lack of dialogue can be – our recent history of sex abuse in the Church needs no further explanation. In a world of rapid discovery, change and development intensive dialogue seems most appropriate and sensible if we are to become more enlightened about ourselves, others, the Church and God. Should we not be listening to our own internal uncomfortable voices? Their voices might bring us more fully into the truth, and if they fail to convince us who will take heed of them anyway?

Media bills, censorship and silencing leaves us all worse off – church and state.