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| Title: | The Media Inquiry Reports of the South African Human Rights Commission: A Critique |
| Author: | Glaser, Daryl |
| Year: | 2000 |
| Periodical: | African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society |
| Volume: | 99 |
| Issue: | 396 |
| Period: | July |
| Pages: | 373-393 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | South Africa |
| Subjects: | race relations freedom of the press Politics and Government Ethnic and Race Relations Literature, Mass Media and the Press Law, Human Rights and Violence |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/723947 |
| Abstract: | This article critically assesses the intellectual basis of the South African Human Rights Commission's (SAHRC) inquiry into racism in the media. During February 2000 more than 30 media organizations were issued with subpoenas requiring that they explain their handling of race issues at hearings organized by the SAHRC. Several reports issued by the Commission formed the backdrop to this controversial inquiry. The article demonstrates that these reports are methodologically flawed in various ways that undermine confidence in their pronouncements on subliminal racism. The author develops two broad arguments. The first is that intellectual activities which in certain contexts perform a critical, antirepressive and democratizing function can, in other contexts, be harnessed to a repressive policing role by powerful groups. The second argument is that the authors of the SAHRC reports in question proceed from a remarkably impoverished understanding of freedom of expression. They also fail to show an understanding of the role which freedom of expression plays in relation to other human rights, such as the right to freedom from racism or the right to economic security. The controversy around the media inquiry reveals the dangers that arise when intellectuals place themselves in the employ of the powerful. Ref., sum. |
