Deputy Speaker, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. It is a privilege again to stand before this House to address the issues of films and publication. Since 1996 these issues have been very controversial. From the beginning when we decided to lift the ban on pornography in the name of freedom of expression we have had problems throughout.
Therefore, in 2005 a conference was convened by the Department of Home Affairs in consultation with the Film and Publication Board in Port Elizabeth to address the current challenges that the board faces with regard to the issues of distribution in particular of child pornography. That report was tabled in this Parliament and it was noted. Comrade Andries, this report was noted and not adopted. This means we still have to go back to that report at some stage.
The report addresses a number of areas that need to be looked at. Part of it addresses the issue to capacitate the Film and Publication Board. Clearly, this board could not cope with the work that it was faced with. Therefore, the board had to be capacitated. The confusion that has been created within the structuring of the board is that examiners were members of it and the people who were checking on how films are classified were themselves part of the board. Therefore, the Bill was proposing that we establish a separate body to look at the issues of governance.
When this Bill was tabled before that committee last year, we decided to go on public hearings as a normal practice that the committee does, and we visited all the provinces in the country. Members of the public were given an opportunity to make their inputs. It was clear from their inputs that the issue of pornography in newspapers and on televisions and cellphones was of great concern. If you look at the kind of gadgets that we use today, young children as young as ten can easily access pornography on their cellphones.
When you look at the television nowadays you have to sit with a remote control if you watch it with your children because time and time again pornographic material will be shown and you will have to switch off the television, or you will be embarrassed.
There are problems with the media, and in particular with what the Minister has referred to, the so-called tabloid newspapers. Here in the Western Cape we have the Daily Voice, where they deliberately distribute child pornography featuring children that are raped. Nobody condemns that and it is fine because it is in the name of freedom of the press.
The committee called that very newspaper to appear before it and to account for that, and they apologised. The same applies to the renowned newspaper called The Star. It advertised a black 12-year-old, curvaceous Brazilian girl. The committee again called the editor of The Star newspaper and he appeared before the committee and apologised.
Clearly this problem comes in the name of the freedom of the press; it comes in the name of freedom of broadcasters and cellphones. Therefore, even whatever we have tried to address in this Bill we have not as yet addressed the problem. Part of what the conference resolved was that there is a need to have a national debate on issues of pornography, because from 1996 when this whole thing started, it came in as an amendment.
Therefore, much time was not given to the issues that we have to grapple with today. You saw as Members of Parliament that even across from Parliament there was an attempt to open this kind of business. It is a very big business that involves trillions and trillions of rands and I am not surprised that when we try to address this problem the DA will object. I am not surprised that it is only the DA that objects to what we are trying to address, obviously because of the business interests. [Interjections.]
The issue of consultations between the executive and the print media came up during the public hearings that we organised in Parliament. It was very clear that between the executive and the media there was no co-ordination in the manner in which they deal with the issues pertaining to the media. The committee has really made a call that there must be wider consultations between the print media and broadcasters generally with the executive in which the Minister in the Presidency has confirmed that they are engaging with Sanef.
But the broadcasters, the print media and the cellphone service providers in fact agreed that in their self-regulation they are going to look at this matter which is quite serious. We engaged with Icasa, and it agreed with us that it is not as such the terrain of Home Affairs to deal with issues of a code of conduct because Icasa is in place to deal with issues of broadcasters. But in the new development of a code of conduct Icasa is going to take into account the issues that we have raised as Parliament to make sure that within the code of conduct they address the issues as we see them.
The watershed period which e.tv insists very much is their terrain, and therefore nobody should come in and advise them, is something that is of a concern and as we engage e.tv and other broadcasters, either we need to extend it that this kind of material can only be shown at three in the morning; or it has to be debated in the House whether the issue of pornography in free-to-air television is necessary or not.
These are things that we must engage on because if you look at the material that comes out of e.tv, not of same-sex marriages, but of e.tv, you will find that it is material that is harmful and abusive especially to women. What one finds most of the time is that it is women who are at the receiving end, in particular white women. [Interjections.] The member says she doesn't mind. I thought that is what she said. [Interjections.] Shut up!
Therefore, if you don't mind, for us it is a concern because as the ANC we have a responsibility to build a society that is free from this kind of harmful material that would expose and abuse our women and children. Therefore, the call that I want to make in the minute I still have, is that let us have a national debate on these issues, and the Minister has rightfully said that it is the majority of us trying to address this problem. Let us have a national debate and debate these issues of pornography. We need to debate whether there is a need to have pornography in the name of freedom of expression. Is there a need to have pornography in the manner in which we see it and its impact that we see in the country?
The media agrees that it is a problem that is why that within their own self-regulatory framework they will try to address this problem, but their interest is one: profit. Their interest is nothing else but profit. Therefore, as legislatures ...
... baba, kufanele ukuthi senze imithetho ezovikela izingane zethu nabantu besifazane ngoba yibo abasetshenziswayo kulezo zenzo ezinjalo. Ngokwesiko lesintu, akuvumelekanga ukuthi ubone umama ehamba nqunu laphaya emgwaqweni bese uthi, "Hhayi, kuhle lokhu futhi inkululeko yokuzenzela okuthandayo." Akusilo isikompilo lase-Afrika ukuthi umuntu osekhulile ahambe nqunu emgwaqweni noma enze lezi zinto ezenziwa komabonakude, phambi kwezingane zethu. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[... hon member, we have to make laws that will protect our children and women because they are vulnerable to such acts. In an African custom, it is unthinkable to see a woman parading naked down the street and cheer her on and say, "Well, this is good and it is freedom to do as one pleases". It is not an African custom to see an adult person walking down the street naked or doing these lewd acts that are done on TV, in the presence of our children.]
Sex is something sacred and children should not be exposed to it. This is what we now do, we cry over child rape and all the things we complain about and we forget that the people who distribute these things do that in the name of freedom of expression. The DA will stand up here today and reject this amendment because it encroaches on the freedom of expression and of the press, which is not true. Currently, the print media and broadcasters are very happy about the outcome of what we have done. I am not sure on whose behalf you are going to speak today, but they are happy that we were able to address their concern without infringing upon the rights of media and the rights of broadcasters.
I want to thank members of the committee for the wonderful contribution they are making. Let us have this debate and let us engage. Thank you very much. [Time expired.]