Disappointingly, today’s Media Show on Radio 4 didn’t mention the latest cog that’s turning in the very big machine that is the struggle for freedom of expression in Africa, which is already a major issue for places like Zimbabwe and other sub-saharan countries.

Right now in South Africa, journalists are petitioning against the ANC’s plans to create a media tribunal to regulate their work. New laws would make it illegal – and punishable by up to 25 years in jail – to leak or publish information considered classified by the government. Jacob Zuma says members of the media are not elected so “need to be governed themselves because at times they go overboard on the rights.”

(No doubt recent media attention to his own private life has helped fuel this condemnation of journalists who are surely just doing their job – i.e. researching and reporting the truth).

The President of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) criticises the proposed Protection of Information Bill as “deplorable and a travesty to freedom of the press, freedom of expression and the right of the people to access government information.”

Burundi, a hotbed of press censorship, is an example of just how oppressive these kinds of laws can become. Dozens of independent journalists have been detained or threatened over their work in recent years.

The editor of Burundi’s Netpress news agency, Jean-Claude Kavumbagu, has been repeatedly arrested and even tried and acquitted of criminal “defamation” – read Richard Wilson’s article.

According to one website Burundian authorities are using a law that’s only applicable in wartime to prosecute Kavumbagu. Again the IFJ, the Federation of African Journalists, and the Eastern Africa Journalists Association are all calling on the Burundian Government to drop the charges and release him immediately.

The IFJ is also calling for “immediate and unconditional release of Thierry Ndayishimiye,” another journalist in Burundu who’s recently been arrested and charged with “defamation” over an article alleging corruption within the state energy authority.

Surely such a high level anxiety to keep specific information out of the reach of journalists  – and potentially the eyes of the public – simply reflects a fear of people finding out the truth. Yes, governments might argue it’s not “in the public interest” for the media to have access to some of it and obviously there are times when that’s appropriate.

But places like S.A just can’t afford to return to these attitudes that hark back to the Apartheid years. That was when referring in print to those figures who fought for independence like Nelson Mandela and Zuma himself was seen as a threat to national security. How very ironic.

As you may have heard, the main aim is to start increasing access to anti-retrovirals (ARVs). When the last conference was held in 2008, around 42% of the 9.5 million people in low- and middle-income countries who needed treatment had access to ARVs. But 10 million people still didn’t.

The World Health Organization’s latest figures show “5.2 million people in low and middle-income countries were receiving life-saving HIV treatment at the end of 2009.” So – in spite of those still lacking treatment – the stats seem to be going in the right direction.

But there are still issues around access to ARVs -  societal ones. The Director of the Instititute of Human Virology in Nigeria, Dr. Patrick Dakum, told the BBC World Service the way ARVs are distributed often eliminates the “marginalsied population” like homosexuals and prostitutes who really need them. He says it’s time to “differentiate between science and morality…irrespective of practices we might not agree with.”

The Aids 2010 Objectives plans to tackle this problem: “It is now absolutely clear that stigma, discrimination and rights violations…as well as punitive or misguided policies towards key populations most affected by HIV, are major obstacles to an effective response to HIV.”

The conference will also have to address the 2010 deadline for universal access set by world leaders at the G8 summit at Gleneagles in 2008. A committment was made to ‘develop and implement a package for HIV  prevention, treatment and care, with the aim of as close as possible to universal access to treatment for all those who need it by 2010′

People like Evelyn Similoi – a single mother who was raped after finding out she was HIV Positive – need this deadline to be met. She told the BBC there needs to be more transparency from the organisations providing ARVs. Evelyn doesn’t and can’t take ARVs herself because she reacts badly but says she and her son “survive by god’s grace.”

Narrowing the gap between equality and discrimination will take more than goal-setting at the conference, regardless of its status as a crucial fixture in the global problem-solving calendar. Ideologies need challenging and mindsets need changing.

As Dr. Brigitte Schmied, President of the Austrian AIDS Society and AIDS 2010 Local Co-Chair, said in her opening speech last night, this can only be helped by “repealing laws that criminalize homosexuality and addiction, and empowering and educating young women and girls.”

She also said: “we have shown the skeptics that universal access is achievable; that it is a goal we can – and must – reach.” With 5 and a half months to go before we reach 2011, the next few days at Aids 2010 will determine whether she’s right.

So the World Cup’s over – viva Espagne and all that. South Africa were out of it after 10 days, Ghana went out in the quarter finals so the most famous global sports event didn’t quite turn out as the ‘Africa World Cup’ it was hyped up to be.

The question now is not ‘will the World Cup change Africa’ but how has the tournament helped – or hindered – our perception of it? And what will we remember? The fanfare of complaints about vuvuzelas, broadcasting blunders like “that goal” and dodgy ticket dealings spring to mind. (And in fairness we will probably try to forget England’s less than impressive performance).

But has it really done anything positive for the host nation? There’s certainly been more media attention to it – the BBC’s sports reporters and Africa correspondents have been keeping busy with various updates on both the tournament and the mood of the nation.

In theory, this is a good thing. In reality, some of the reports have been mixed – at worst, distorted and ridiculous. Like the one that glorified the centre of Johannesburg as being super safe and cosmopolitan enough to be able to sit outside drinking coffee, New York style. Or take a tour through one of its roughest townships like Soweto.

This is not “news.” The World Cup hasn’t triggered those features – they’ve been happening for years. It’s just that they’ve been shoved into the spotlight because football mania means broadcasters have had a reason to report them.

Why aren’t we hearing more of the real news about South Africa and its Sub-Saharan neighbours? Like tourism: The Kruger Parks’ animal numbers are improving. Or crime fighting: Kenya is registering all mobile phones.

Today’s Sunday Times gave a good example of the reality of the situation, not dancing around pretending trumpets and colourful shirts will plaster over its political tensions. Zimbabweans who’ve fled to S.A are now being told to leave “or die” because unemployment is set to rocket again now that the World Cup – that generated so many jobs – has ended. Quite how we should then respond to Jacob Zuma’s vow that “We cannot go back. We must maintain this momentum, and build on our successes” I don’t know.

And what did African people make of the World Cup? UjenziBora, a regular Tweeter of news and goings-on, told me: “it brought pple closer(obvious), it was more fun here on Twitter ~ #wc.” (And you can see why, given tonight’s long, drawn out Final…)

Obviously the World Cup has given S.A lots of reasons to jump and shout – quite literally. It’s the distorted, rose-tinted view of how much it’s “put South Africa on the map” that gets me. Let’s just hope the door opened by the world cup doesn’t get forgotten by its media.

It was only after arriving on Wednesday (along with about 90,000 other people) that I could appreciate the scale of the whole set-up. By Friday, a total of 177,500 had descended on the tiny village of Pilton, making it the third largest ‘city’ in the South West. A make-shift city if you like with food from all over the globe, a very efficient water system and of course toilets and showers (thanks to Greenpeace). Extraordinary really.

And to make it even more extraordinary, there was only one word to describe this year’s weather: ‘scorchio.’ Yes massive cliche but that was the forecast bandied around all weekend. (Add large amounts of dust and lack of shade and you can imagine just how many people had sun burn after just a day…)

And such a range of people! Tweeny boppers celebrating the end of GCSEs, young professionals enjoying a week off work, families with children in push chairs and older couples who might even (dare I suggest) have been at the first ever Glasto all those years ago where entry was £1 and Micheal Eavis gave out free milk. Such an eclectic mix of people meant just walking round the site was entertainment in itself.

Speaking of the site, there was so much to do and see it’s easy to see why some Glasto-goers don’t get round to the music. The colour and variety and sense of a mini adventure made the transition from the jibber jabber world of iPhones and emails to GMT (Glastonbury Meandering Time) easy.

We spent Thursday exploring the Healing Fields – the festival’s home of hippy living – and definitely one of many highlights. Massages and reflexology were all on offer in exchange for a suggested donation, not to mention tarot readings, palm readings, yoga and meditation if you wanted it.

On Friday the music got going. And so much music! Even with the official Glastonbury Clashfinder it was heart-wrenching to realise (a) you cannot be in two places at once and (b) you can’t even try to catch two acts that overlap. Not properly.

The Gorillaz were a bit disappointing and a little too experimental for the Pyramid Stage in my humble opinion. Mumford & Sons are firmly back on my must-listen play list after seeing them live. But the highlight of the weekend has to be Muse, a band renowned for their live shows at the best of times but they made their headline appearance for Glasto’s 40th birthday super special.

Faithless on Sunday were also really impressive and reminded me just how much they’ve done in the last 10 years or so. A great pre-cursor to Stevie Wonder who was entertaining and another legend you can’t argue with. Seeing Michael Eavis on stage for a rendition of Happy Birthday was nothing other than a perfect end to the weekend.

So the question of yesterday on returning home: would I go again? Of course. There’s just so much to do and everyone is so friendly. Obviously it’s not without its grim bits – the notoriously disgusting toilets live up to their name and it can get quite pricey buying food and drinks and whatnot. And the Glastonbury Graveyard of unwanted tents, gazebos and sleeping bags rather contradicts the ethos of the whole thing, not to mention the Festival’s Please Take It Home campaign.

But those were the semi-predictable downsides and the unpredictable upsides make up for them, no question. Anyway, apparently it’s my duty to return as a newly recruited ‘Glastonburian’ to experience what a real Glastonbury Festival is all about: MUD and music. With no previous experience, it was easy to forget that having no rain was “unprecedented,” as one of my many Glasto veteran friends lovingly pointed out.

With no Glasto in 2012 and rumours for Glasto 2011 already afoot, a few days off in June next year might just be required.

All sorts of dramas are being played out in the papers, much of it hyped up to the max. Sunday’s stampede after the friendly warm-up match between North Korea and Nigeria was obviously unfortunate, just as any over-crowded event where people end up dead.

But it should not by any means be a catalyst to assume chaos once the World Cup kicks off on Friday, which Monday’s MediaGuardian makes clear. Obviously papers like the Daily Mail reckon the stampede was a bad omen and will worry FIFA “which has resisted claims that South Africa does not have the infrastructure and organisation to stage the tournament.”

But then hype and drama about SA is never all that surprising. One of my friend’s first reactions to the news that I was moving to Johannesburg was sheer horror: we would have to drive cars with flame throwers (which we never did because we never needed them and they are actually illegal there!)

A comment posted in January on the BBC News Have Your Say site said “We Africans are the main cause of our bad press.” Or is actually the Western media that perpetuates the negative perception of Africa?

Either way, the World Cup coverage – and tone of the reports focused on SA as a country – will clearly have a lasting impression on the fans watching and reading about it from this end. Whatever England’s result!

In January, the NSPCC has found out that 21,618 children under 18 here were victims of sex crimes like rape and incest in 2008/9. The charity wants the government to start publishing the stats of child rape to raise awareness and develop “a national sex abuse prevention strategy.”

If only the same aim could be adopted in South Africa, dubbed the world’s worst country for rape crimes. In spite of its grim and stomach-churning subject matter, it’s exciting to see more media interest being taken in the spiders web of unexplored issues in places like SA and Zimbabwe.

Channel 4′s latest Dispatches programme following 4 victims from Port Elizabeth is a brutal reminder that child rape is even more prevalent but even less reported there. The Lost Girls of South Africa is packed with shocking facts and figures:

-a child is raped every 3 minutes in SA (probably as long as it will take you to scan this blog post)

-80% of these attacks happen to girls under 13  (their rapists are often uncles, brothers or fathers, if not someone else they know and/or see every day in the villages or townships where they live).

-less than 1% of reported rapes end in a successful trial

-9/10 cases aren’t even reported since victims are threatened with being killed if they tell anyone.

The programme tells of how the police will tell victims to go to the Rape Crisis centre, slowing down the process of ever catching the perpetrators. Much of the practical and psychological support available to victims brave enough to seek help is provided by charities and NGOs. Social workers are slow to respond because of their case loads.

Gretchen, one young victim has finally been moved to a children’s home and says she never wants to see her father – and abuser – ever again. The father of another girl is awaiting a murder trial after beating up his daughter’s attackers who then died in hospital.

Watching the The Lost Girls of South Africa makes you realise something absolutely must be done to stop such horrific thefts of childhood. Realistically there’s very little practical action we in the West can take, except find out more about groups like Childwelfare SA and join the production company’s facebook group

Shilpa Shah and Celina Stockill recently ran workshops teaching people how to laugh at the Harare International Festival of the Arts. They now want to set a network of clubs around Zim. So is this something to be laughed at or appreciated?

Using laughter as an emotional, physical and mental boost seems unlikely in a country which has one of the world’s worst economies. Inflation reached 231,000,000% in July 2008 and the use of the American dollar was legalised in January last year, leading one research institute to conclude “the non-cash Zimbabwe dollar is dead.”

But “You don’t have to have a reason to laugh; you don’t have to be happy to laugh,” argues Ms Shah. The pair claim people become conditioned to laugh only in or at specific situations so the workshops aim to provide a “safe space” for people to laugh in and get used to laughing more often.

Again, that’s is all very well and good but the reality is that laughing will not make their economic or professional problems go away: laughing won’t change the situation, it will only change the way they see it. Or will it?

“If you laugh – you change; and when you change – the world changes,” suggests laughter trainer Ms Shah.

Sorry but this seems rather idealistic and even a bit hippy. Then again, laughing definitely makes us feel brighter and – having lived in Africa for a number of years when I was growing up – African people are in fact generally happy people.

They do not – as we British tend to do – moan incessantly about the weather (which brings droughts and sweltering heat) and the government (which is often corrupt). In my experience they actually take quite a positive outlook on life in spite of the difficulties they face on a daily basis -  food, work and the country’s tense power-sharing government to name but a few.

No doubt there’s a good reason for wanting to run these laughter workshops and obviously the carefree idea of “hakuna matata” probably doesn’t quite describe people in Zim 24/7.

But teaching people how to laugh as a way to cope with the economy? Seems a bit of a broad brush approach and, perhaps less obviously, not a tactic to be advertised under the nose of Mugabe.

The media coverage of the death of Eugene Terre’Blanche has not just been about reporting his murder: it has reinforced the reality of “plaasmoorde” – or murder of white farmers – in South Africa. This isn’t something new: more than 3,119 have been killed since the end of apartheid in 1994 – 40,000 are left. What makes it all the more shocking is the lack of reporting on the issue.

In comparison, the world is far more aware of Mugabe’s land reform regime in Zim that’s been going on since 2000 because of its politically driven coverage. While  4,000 commercial farmers driven off their homes and out of their livelihoods (along with the black families who work on the farms) about a dozen have actually been killed.

As Dan McDougall of The Times points out, the murder of one white farmer in S.A at Christmas, Peter Cilliers, “was barely reported in the local press. It was, after all, everyday news.”

So the coverage of the murder and funeral of a high profile figure like Terre’Blanche is important shines a much-needed light on the problem. Not because he was another white farmer – he was very much not only another white farmer, his name is synonymous with disruption and unrest when it came to ending apartheid.

But the aftermath of his attack has revealed the degree of racial tension in S.A. The Guardian reported the segregation outside the court where Terreblanche’s murderers were being charged on Tuesday, some white farmers “waving the apartheid-era national flag and refusing to speak to black journalists.”

The appeal from the ANC (clearly targeted at the head of the group’s youth league Julius Malema) to stop singing the apartheid-era anthem “Shoot the Boer” - signals the government’s discomfort. Especially seeing as it was banned by the high court only last week. Malema’s latest meeting with Mugabe suggests he has no intention of heeding his own president’s subtle warning to pipe down.

Unsurprisingly, the authorities are gearing themselves up for trouble at Terre’Blanche’s funeral tomorrow: ambulances and extra police are being lined up in Ventersdorp, the town nearest his farm. “The world’s media” is also expected – reporting the funeral itself looks likely to be just one part of the job.

Whatever happens, burying the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging leader, and with him his fascist ideology, certainly won’t mean laying any of S.A’s on-going issues to rest.

Until now the house has been owned by Zim’s government which has 2 months to cough up enough money to cover the farmers’ legal fees otherwise the house will be sold.

Ben Freeth, a white farmer who has fought endlessly against the land reform campaign (as seen in the docu-film Mugabe and the White African) describes it as “a huge symbolic step in the quest for global justice through the international courts.”

Such a gesture from South African authorities is a powerful political statement and acknowledges the injustice done to more than 4,000 farming families and the 1 million or so workers and families who’ve been driven out of their homes since 2000.

But the Zimbabwean government’s reaction to today’s decision will be interesting.

Only in January, a judge in Zim’s High Court rejected a finding by the human rights court of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which condemned Mugabe’s land grab campaign as unlawful.

He reasoned: “Apart from the political enormity of any such exercises, it would entail the eviction, upheaval and eventual relocation of many, if not most, of the beneficiaries of the land reform programme.”

This obviously came as yet another blow to Ben Freeth and his SADC Tribunal Rights watch group.

But the actions of South Africa’s government actually suggests a promising sign of change and testament to Zimbabwe Democracy Now’s slogan of persistence: “Never give in, Never give up, Freedom is close.”

]]> http://justjules2009.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/200/feed/ 1 justjules2009 http://justjules2009.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/should-south-africa-legalise-prostitution/ http://justjules2009.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/should-south-africa-legalise-prostitution/#comments Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:37:17 +0000 Jules the journo http://justjules2009.wordpress.com/?p=194 ]]> Discussion and debate around this question has been rumbling for a while now: SWEAT (Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce) has been actively campaigning in favour of it for 10 years. But the issue has received fresh media attention in the build up to the World Cup which kicks off on June 11.

Unsurprisingly, the idea is seen as controversial and seems to be a matter of weighing up which is the lesser of two evils. Legalising it has met plenty of opposition with some political parties saying it’s the wrong message to give to young people and will only perpetuate the problem of HIV and AIDS. On the other hand, South Africa’s HIV & AIDS and STI Strategic Plan (2007-2011) actually recommends decriminalising sex work and argues this will make it easier to access HIV prevention and treatment services.

A draft report due out this month from the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) will shed further light on whether the government plans to alter current legislation. It’s considering 4 options: Total criminalisation of prostitution, Partial criminalisation of prostitution, Non-criminalisation and Regulation of prostitution.

A recent Consultation on the 2010 Soccer World Cup and Sex Work involving sex worker organisations, public health workers, human rights advocates and the media discussed various issues like “Continue the pressure on South African Sex Work Law Reform.” Interestingly, it also mentions “Creating a sex worker hotline” and using social media to create a network, such as the blog run by Sweat.

The argument for legalising prostitiution is that it makes life safer for sex workers who are often threatened with violence and most at risk of contracting HIV, an issue that’s especially important in SA where it’s thought 16% of the population lives with HIV. One MP, George Lekgetho, told parliament that it would reduce the incidences of rape.

In 2003 New Zealand passed the Prostitution Reform Act and made various legislative change in 2008. According to the World Cup Consultation, decriminalising sex work there has “improved working conditions and well-being” for prostitutes. They reportedly feel safer and more able to report abuse to police.

Countries like Senegal, the Netherlands, Belgium and Australia are also looking to move away from total criminalisation of sex work. SA won’t be able to do so in time for the World Cup in June even though sexual offences legislation has been under review for almost a decade. The SALRC will “reportedly only release its recommendations on law reform and sex work in 2011.

Either way, and perhaps more worryingly, the authorities are expecting up to 40, 000 women to travel to SA to take advantage of trade during the World Cup. This not only adds to the number of women working as prostitutes there but will also inevitably put a strain on health services and police forces.

Perhaps the question now is not “should SA legalise prostitution” but “will it?”