{"id":9688,"date":"2019-09-13T05:25:40","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T05:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/?post_type=stories&#038;p=9688"},"modified":"2024-09-20T18:53:49","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T18:53:49","slug":"statement-why-malema-should-not-get-away-with-banning-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/statement-why-malema-should-not-get-away-with-banning-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement: Why Malema should not get away with banning us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AmaBhungane notes EFF leader Julius Malema\u2019s remarks declaring amaBhungane \u201can enemy of the revolution\u201d during the party\u2019s Robert Mugabe memorial yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/680418173&amp;color=%2300aabb&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=true&amp;show_comments=false&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><span class=\"aglet_caption\">Listen: Julius Malema declares amaBhungane \u201can enemy of the revolution\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Malema claimed that amaBhungane, the Daily Maverick and the latter\u2019s Scorpio investigative unit were part of a stratcom campaign waged by Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan against EFF leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AmaBhungane is a fiercely independent investigative non-profit which publishes via&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amabhungane.org\">amaBhungane.org<\/a>&nbsp;and partners such as the Daily Maverick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Malema said: \u201cWe are in a war here\u2026 If you think we are playing, you must stand aside.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His remarks about us included: \u201cAmaBhungane and Daily Maverick and Scorpio \u2026 they are not a media house, they are a gangster formed to pursue the interests of Pravin Gordhan, and as a result in this memorial service of Gabriel Robert Mugabe we declare them as an enemy of the revolution and they shall never participate in our events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c[We] shall never answer any question from amaBhungane, from Daily Maverick, from Scorpio. Let them write any nonsense they want to write about us. We know who writes their question, it\u2019s Pravin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AmaBhungane last week sent the EFF a request for comment regarding alleged tender corruption in Johannesburg and Tshwane, both cities where the party wields significant power. We have received no reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our request related in part to new evidence in a story we wrote last November,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/stories\/firm-that-won-r1bn-joburg-fleet-contract-paid-malema-eff-slush-fund\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Firm that won R1bn Jo\u2019burg fleet contract paid Malema-EFF \u2018slush-fund<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AmaBhungane is committed to doing stories that are accurate and fair, expose wrongdoing and empower people to hold power to account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We serve no-one\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We regret Malema\u2019s remarks, which seem intended to inoculate his followers against the exposure he fears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They show reckless disregard for the potential to incite violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They will fan the loudening online&nbsp;<span class=\"s1\">\u2014&nbsp;<\/span>and we fear offline&nbsp;<span class=\"s1\">\u2014&nbsp;<\/span>hate campaigns experienced by journalists.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Screen-Shot-2019-09-13-at-06.31.18.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They will fuel perceptions of media as factional tools, widening existing divisions and creating new ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They take a leaf right from Donald Trump\u2019s book, who only last week tweeted that two Washington Post reporters \u201cshouldn\u2019t even be allowed on the grounds of the White House because their reporting is so DISGUSTING &amp; FAKE\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is not only the media that suffers when parties ban some journalists and speak only with those they favour or brow-beat into critical silence. It is the parties too, for the more they try to shield their followers from critical reporting, the more they cut themselves off from the rest of the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the end, we\u2019ll all be talking past each other. Democratic discourse will give way to intimidation and fear, the slippery slope to the war Malema proclaims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Investigative journalism takes time and money. Help us do more. <a href=\"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/be-an-amab-supporter\/\">Be an amaB supporter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The EFF\u2019s ban of amaB and DM threatens not only the media, but democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,123,125],"class_list":["post-9688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-amabhungane","tag-eff","tag-julius-malema"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30302,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9688\/revisions\/30302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}