Press regulation in South Africa and its implications for press freedom

Abstract

Using the critical political economy of the media theory (CPEM), this article analyses press regulation in South Africa. The data was collected from statutory documents, which inform press regulation in the country, and was analysed using inductive thematic content analysis. Four themes emerged, namely from self-regulation to independent co-regulation, the communal approach, independent co-regulation, and citizenship. The findings indicate that press regulation in South Africa has adopted a communal approach, which implies that press regulation attempts to include the public. Although independent co-regulation is between the media and the public, and it is supposed to be independent from the government, this does not make it much different from the previous structureof self-regulation.