• info@freeexpression.org.za

Launch | 13 April 2023

The State of Free Expression in the South African Cultural Sector

When: Thursday, 13th April 2023
Where: Wits Art Museum (Forecourt), Corner Jorissen and, Bertha St, Johannesburg, 2001
Start time: 18:00 for 18:15
End time: 20:00


Webinar/Seminar | 23 March 2023

The Campaign for Free Expression (CFE) invites you to the launch of our research report, SILENT KILLER: When institutional obligations restrict public health workers’ moral duty to save lives.

The report exposes how the public service regulatory framework silences the voices of public health workers, limiting public disclosure and the public’s ability to hold authorities accountable for corruption and maladministration that is driving health institutions towards collapse. Those who try to speak out are faced with disciplinary action, intimidation, or death.

The report will be launched in partnership with the Progressive Health Forum (PHF) and the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

Panelists:

  • Prof Alex van den Heever, Chair, Social Security Systems Administration and Management Studies, Wits School of Governance, and affiliated to the PHF
  • Prof Ebrahim Variava, Adjunct Professor at Wits, Internal Medicine (Johannesburg Hospital), Head of Department, Internal Medicine at Klerkdorp Tshepong Hospital, North-West, and affiliated to the PHF
  • Hanifa Manda, Project Manager, Campaign for Free Expression and Young African Leaders Fellow 2021, School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute

Download the PDF
Read the full report


2022

SA Media Freedom Day: October 19. For this important day in the South African calendar, which marks the anniversary of the 1977 banning and detention of journalists and closure of newspapers, we team up with the Aggrey Klaaste Foundation.  In 2022 we took the event to a mall in Alexandra Township to reach a wider audience. For 2023’s event, watch this space.

Aggrey Klaaste event
Aggrey Klaaste event

International Media Freedom Day: May 3. We are part of the organising structures for two events on this date in 2023. We sit on an advisory board for Pretoria University’s plan for an international Media Rights and Responsibilities Conference. And we are also part of a consultative committee for the 2nd Africa Media Convention, this year to be held in Zambia. Partners on this project include the EU, Unesco, Misa and the Southern African Editors Forum (SAEF).

Carlos Cardosa Memorial Lecture. In 2022, we joined the Wits Centre for Journalism and the Committee for the Protection of Journalists to host this lecture at the African Investigative Journalism Conference at Wits. The lecture is an expression of continental solidarity on media freedom struggles. Last year it was focussed on the fight against impunity for crimes against journalists and it featured two journalists campaigning for justice for their family members: Baba Deyda Hydara spoke about his late father, editor Deyda Hadara; and Penny Sukhraj spoke about her photographer husband, Anton Hammerl. 
View on YouTube

eSwatini FoE Summit. In 2022, this event drew 100 civil society representatives from a range of different sectors. A further summit is planned for 2023. 
View report