{"id":71377,"date":"2022-09-07T20:52:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T18:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=71377"},"modified":"2022-09-07T20:52:42","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T18:52:42","slug":"sanef-slams-zumas-private-prosecution-of-news24-specialist-legal-writer-and-advocate-billy-downer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/sanef-slams-zumas-private-prosecution-of-news24-specialist-legal-writer-and-advocate-billy-downer\/","title":{"rendered":"SANEF slams Zuma\u2019s private prosecution of News24 specialist legal writer and advocate Billy Downer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"71378\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/sanef-slams-zumas-private-prosecution-of-news24-specialist-legal-writer-and-advocate-billy-downer\/bd2e74a2b040450f80cc483645109658\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/bd2e74a2b040450f80cc483645109658.jpg?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"300,200\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"bd2e74a2b040450f80cc483645109658\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/bd2e74a2b040450f80cc483645109658.jpg?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-71378\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/bd2e74a2b040450f80cc483645109658.jpg?resize=300%2C200&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>By Neelam Rahim<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The South African National Editors\u2019 Forum has slammed the serving of summons on Karyn Maughan, News24\u2019s specialist legal writer. This follows former president Jacob Zuma\u2019s decision to launch a private prosecution against Maughan and advocate Billy Downer for alleged violations of the National Prosecuting Act. News24 editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson has thrown his full support behind Maughan.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <em>Radio Islam International,<\/em> SANEF Executive Director Reggy Moalusi said SANEF is unequivocal in its support for Karyn and News24.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe view this as intimidation and a bullying tactic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zuma\u2019s legal move relates to News24\u2019s publication of details of his medical condition, which were attached to court papers &#8211; in connection with the protracted multibillion-rand arms deal court case at the KwaZulu-Natal High Court last year. Reggy stated there was no law broken in Karyn\u2019s publishing.<\/p>\n<p>According to Reggy, if documents are in our courts, it simply means they are of public record indicating anyone can access those documents.<\/p>\n<p>He said any experienced journalist could attest that journalists have been going to court, accessing available documents with relevant permission, and not stealing them.<\/p>\n<p>Reggy told <em>Radio Islam<\/em> that as a constitutional democracy which upholds media freedom, it is not wanted for journalists to start thinking twice when they have to do their job.<\/p>\n<p>SANEF will be joining the case as an amicus to News24.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to the interview on <em>Radio Islam&#8217;s<\/em> podcast below.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SANEF slams Zuma\u2019s private prosecution of News24 specialist legal writer and advocate Billy Downer by Radio Islam International\" width=\"1080\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F1339519435&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxheight=1000&#038;maxwidth=1080\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Neelam Rahim The South African National Editors\u2019 Forum has slammed the serving of summons on Karyn Maughan, News24\u2019s specialist legal writer. This follows former president Jacob Zuma\u2019s decision to launch a private prosecution against Maughan and advocate Billy Downer for alleged violations of the National Prosecuting Act. News24 editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson has thrown his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,31,4995],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news","category-podcasts","category-south-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-izf","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 09:54:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}