Information Act (2013) to suggest that South Africa, in the nexus of political and economic resistance to communicative freedom and digital activism, has regressed into an autocratic dystopia. At a time when South Africa's socio-political and economic sectors are being reshaped in the digital space, an unavoidable reliance on digital activism has emerged.
CHAPTER ONE Introduction
The term “communication activism group coordinators” refers to professional citizens consisting of a mix of academics and media editors in the role of coordinators and activists within communicative freedom NGOs. The questionnaires were used for this interview due to the restrictions caused by the Covid-19 crisis. - 19 pandemic (see Annex A). Complementing the questionnaire observations, the same close reading technique interrogates media reports surrounding the Right2Know campaign's call to action to protest the high cost of data in the #DataMustFall movement. Bourke defines this in terms of positionality by describing how positionality is determined by where one stands in relation to "the other" (5).
CHAPTER TWO
Literature Review and Theoretical Framework
The inspiration for this analysis came from the publication of Jane Duncan's The Rise of the Securocrats: The Case of South Africa (2014). These events speak to the purpose of this research: to reveal a tendency on the part of the South African government to disapprove of communicative freedom.
CHAPTER THREE
Freedom of Speech – A Historical Approach
Williams's definition of "culture" is important because it is seemingly interchangeable with and dominates his idea of "language." Castells' focus on the role of the network society in the formation of political power confirms an earlier finding regarding the South African context of democracy within the emerging network society.
CHAPTER FOUR
Citizenship and Speech in South Africa – 1948-1994
As part of reviewing citizenship and free speech during the apartheid era, a close reading of section 6 of the Suppression of Communism Act 1950 becomes necessary. In The Rise of the Securocrats (2014), Duncan recounts the paranoia that was pervasive in ranks of the Apartheid government recalling allegations that. Duncan vaguely describes how the Apartheid government was indeed paranoid of the growing influence of the pro-black movements of the time.
This would later be demonstrated in the revision of the Publications Act of 1963 and the amended Publications Act of 1974. Furthermore, censorship under Apartheid legislation was further entrenched. implementation of the Publications and Entertainment Act of 1963. Duncan describes the power held by the securocrats and the Publications Board in the 1970s and 1980s under the leadership of then President P.W.
CHAPTER FIVE
Legislative Challenges to Communicative Freedom Post-1994
A few of the definitions in the Government Information Protection Bill (2010) are glaringly difficult and need further inquiry. The Right2Know Campaign (R2K), in their submission to Parliament on the problems with POSIB (2010), had taken issue with some of the semantics of the legislation. Regulator Participants Those who apply the law and enforce it in the public interest.
There appear to be semantic issues in Chapter 2 of the Act on the Promotion of Access to Information (2013) which limits access to information of certain political figures (Promotion to Access of Information Acts 2013). In the table above we have a word count of the top ten words frequently used in the POAIA (2013). In the case of the POAIA (2013), this is despite the legislation proposing to promote access to information.
Duncan's 2012 observation in The Rise of the Securocrats (2014) remains relevant in the 2020 version of the bill, despite having been revised several times due to social criticism, still contains problematic clauses and remains a danger to democracy and media freedom (Duncan 5). This is particularly relevant and applicable in the case of the media in South Africa.
CHAPTER SIX
Communicative Freedom: An Activists’ Perspective: Questionnaire
The social weaknesses mentioned above already give the statement that South Africa is a functional democracy a bad name. This chapter discussed the post-1994 constitution-making and the role of communication freedoms in the development of critical citizenship and democracy in South Africa. The Promotion of Access to Information Act (2013) in South Africa highlights potential abstractions within the law that hinder rather than promote freedom of communication.
Once again, the courts and the interpretation of legislative language by judges influence South African citizens. This example shows how subjective the interpretation of the letter of the law can be. The Constitutional Court relied on the textual interpretation of the provisions and the right to freedom of expression in the Constitution.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Network Society and Economic Challenges to Communicative Freedom Post 1994
In a researched article for the media journal, Journalism Now, director of the South African Reserve Bank Center for. The #DataMustFall campaign has gained a lot of interest in recent media debates because the questioning of data costs in South Africa is one of the highest in the world. Rumney reflects how "[...] the relationship between ownership and the ideology of the news appears to be more complex than is generally accepted, disapproving of the power of news consumers".
The SABC's chief executive at the time, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, was heavily criticized for playing a role in this deal between MultiChoice and the SABC. We can expect shows to no longer be based on public interest, but on what generates revenue for MultiChoice. The relationship between the SABC and MultiChoice appears to have facilitated the secrecy and compliance of the agreement, as expressed in the above reference to the "commercial and main channel distribution agreement" (Dodds. SABC's Diabolical and Secret Deal Exposed).
Patel: But I think you may be missing each other because by condition precedent, you are suggesting that if conditional access is
National or international companies, especially telcos, trading in the most powerful currency of the digital age. This brings us to a necessary review of the direct response to the political and economic challenges to communicative freedom: . digital activism in the internet age. iv) Understanding Digital Activism: A Review of Castells' Digital Perspective. Essentially, Castells makes the claim that the power struggle between citizens and the political and economic elite is the struggle for the construction of meaning in the minds of citizens (Networks of Outrage and Hope 5).
It derives from the reasoning of the individual, but is not limited by individual reasoning. These sections of the Internet are approximately 500 times larger than the surface web and account for the majority of information available in the digital communication space. Because of the nature of the digital space of communication and protest, and the nature of society within a digital, horizontal democracy.
CONCLUSION
Communicative Freedom - Towards a Digital Democracy
In this policy review, the chapter explored communicative freedom as a fundamental human right in South Africa. It discussed the historical and theoretical approaches to democracy and whether South Africa could be one. The purpose of this chapter was to create a historical context in which the thesis could discuss communicative freedom in South Africa.
Like “Chapter Three,” this chapter highlighted how these tensions intersected with social inequalities after 1994, such as the lack of freedom of speech in pre-democracy South Africa. The embezzlement of POSIB (2010), POPIB (2009) and POAIA (2013) and the exercise of power with impunity demonstrated the government's resistance to freedom of speech and access to information that was in the public interest in South Africa. While these conditions have affected the legislative aspect of the rule of law and social behaviour, they have also had a negative effect on South Africa's economic sector, as can be seen in the role of telecommunications corporations in the struggle for freedom of communication.
Appendix A: Informed Consent Form and Questionnaire (Primary Data)
- Can South Africa be considered a democracy according to your experience and understanding? Please elaborate
- What form of governance do you think is emerging in the power vacuum created in the space where digital activism and political resistance to communicative freedom
- Should digital activism be considered as a legitimate form of protest in a digital democracy and covered by the same communicative rights as activism in the physical
- Who do you think are the gatekeepers of communicative rights and what role do they play in the power struggle over communicative freedom between citizens and the
You can choose to leave the study at any time and you can also request that the data collected about you not be used in the study. My aim is to demonstrate that the obfuscation of the Facilitation of Access to Information Act and the Personal Information Protection Act undermines the freedom of communication enshrined in the South African Constitution, effectively demonstrating that South Africa cannot be considered a westernized democracy, but rather regressing into an autocratic dystopia. The data collected in this study will be used to draw conclusions that will help academics in the social sciences better understand the impact of complex legislative language on the South African citizenry.
I suggest that, through the semantic misuse of broad and vague terms used in the Government Information Protection Bill, also known as the Secrecy Bill, the Protection of Personal Information Bill and the Promotion of Access to Information, political elites the constitution for financial and political gain. I agree to participate in this study which I understand will be submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town. I am aware that all records will be kept confidential in the safe possession of the researcher.
Appendix B: Notes
If there is no threat to re-election prospects, the value of elections as a means of disciplining elite behavior is eroded” (Schulz-Herzenberg 2). 9) Schulz-Herzenberg describes this when he says that: “The electoral dominance of the ANC has also led scholars to suggest that ANC voters in particular are an unquestionably loyal and enthusiastic group. Communication must be ubiquitous: that is, users must be able to access information anytime, anywhere, and in any case, depending on the choice of the user. However, such a communication system is a serious threat to securocrats, as it ensures that communication power is democratized and placed in the hands of the citizenry” (Duncan Harrop and Hague explain: […] even when elections have succeeded in the delicate task of to replace a ruling elite, remains characteristic of most new democracies, the question is not whether they will consolidate, but in what exactly they consolidate.
One of the key reasons why political murders appear to be on the rise is the relative impunity of the perpetrators: according to police researcher David Bruce, only one in ten political murders lead to a conviction [...]" (Duncan There is a real and present danger in the country so that wealthy criminals could buy off convictions, effectively placing themselves above the criminal justice system. Agliotti was also charged with the murder (or "assisted suicide") of mining magnate Brett Kebble - bringing Kebble together with Selebi, to buy political favors […] The Kebble/Selebi incident On a broader level, the fact that senior ANC leaders were found to be under the influence of a corrupt businessman certainly caused corruption to influence the direction of state policy.
