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Johannesburg - South African media houses will urgently seek a court order preventing security agencies from blocking communication signals to interfere with reporting as happened in Parliament this week, the SA National Editors' Forum (Sanef) said on Saturday.
"We will approach the courts to prevent any future attempts by state security agencies from unlawfully blocking communication signals aimed at interfering with journalists' constitutionally protected rights and freedoms," Sanef said after a council meeting in Cape Town.
They would also ask the courts to compel Parliament to allow broadcast media to install their own cameras in the legislature.
This follows after cellphone signals were blocked in the National Assembly ahead of President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation address on Thursday.
The editors' forum said this was an attempt by both Parliament and the executive to prevent journalists from telling the nation the full story of how the opening of Parliament descended into pandemonium as police were sent into the chamber to remove members of the Economic Freedom Fighters.
Sanef chair Mpumelelo Mkhabela said the signal blackout should therefore not be seen merely as a sign of tension between government and the media, but rather as a sad commentary on the state of democracy.
"This is a sign that the quality of our democracy could be in decline."
He said the legal relief would be sought in terms of the Constitution.
"We think it is a winnable case because the constitutional principles are very clear. The principles of openness, of transparency, of accountability are the principles that are entrenched in the Constitution and Parliament is enjoined by the Constitution to observe those principles."
