Proposed restrictions on the news media cause alarm in South Africa

The front pages of South Africa's newspapers are regularly splashed with articles about politicians living it up at public expense in a country blighted by poverty. Reporters recently pounced on news that a black empowerment deal meant to benefit "previously disadvantaged" South Africans under government guidelines was enriching a company led by President Jacob Zuma's 28-year-old son, Duduzane, among others, giving them a lucrative stake in the South African arm of a steel giant, ArcelorMittal. It was "the most nauseating business deal in recent memory," a columnist, Mondli Makhanya, wrote recently in The Sunday Times of Johannesburg. Normally, this kind of story would inspire rolled eyes and disgusted chuckles from readers. But the adversarial dealings of politicians and the press have taken a particularly nasty turn recently, as an infuriated governing party has sought to rein in newspapers it has come to see as determined opponents. Business executives, civic leaders and journalists have responded with increasingly dire warnings that stringent measures being advanced by the governing African National Congress would threaten press freedom, enshroud much official activity in secrecy, potentially punish offending journalists or whistle-blowers with up to 25 years in prison and undermine the fight against corruption in the continent's largest economy.