Media24 balks as support for the corporation’s gagging of community journalist waivers.

Media24 appear to have balked at the idea of gagging me, and their threat of a defamation suit is precisely that, a threat with no legal consequence. Unfortunately, the lawyer’s brief remains, and the corporation has contemplated censorship as a course of action leaving some cause for concern. By my reckoning they have instructed attorney’s in Cape Town to embark on a path that could conceivably lead to the absurdity of gagging fellow members of the Alternative Media Forum and our coalition partners in the Anti-War Movement.

How dare we speak out about racism, sexism, anti-semitism, intolerance, prejudice, discrimination, islamophobia and of course, war? Since the corporation seems oblivious to criticism and incapable of taking the hint, we are embarking on a path that could lead to corporate sanctions against the company in New York and Amsterdam. Naspers MIH is listed on the NYSE as well as in the Netherlands.

The civil rights movement in the USA is being informed of recent events and the Alternative Media Forum, in the absence of financial and legal assistance, will do what it needs to survive. Whither the apartheid media monopoly and its racist undertones…

Meanwhile, bloggers, hacktivists and culture jammers may be pleased to know that FXi has started a law clinic in Johannesburg for precisely this very reason, to give sustanence to those dispossessed by the actions of the media giant — but unfortunately down here in the racist Cape, we will probably have to wait for a change of government before anything is done to restore our civil liberties.

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