Banning journalists allows corruption to thrive

Many ministers in our country - and their spokespeople - would love the media to leave them alone. Many of our politicians – and the civil servants around them – don’t have much time for Donald Trump… but some of them will no doubt have been nodding their heads in approval at his ban on certain journalists covering the White House. Many ministers in our country – and their spokespeople – would love the media to leave them alone. Trump is being challenged by the news organisations on the ban, because it allegedly infringes the US Constitution’s guarantees of freedom of speech – which include the freedom to report on the executive. In SA, the principle is the same: anyone in government is employed by us, the citizens. And we have the right to know what they are doing, and spending, in our name. Instead, we are increasingly seeing government spokespeople believing they are, if not above the law, then certainly above answering legitimate questions from those who inform the citizenry. That distasteful trait seems to be creeping in among the ranks of state-owned enterprises, whose spokespeople believe they are private businesses which are beyond media scrutiny. It is in this state of induced darkness and ignorance that evil and corruption thrive.