No ray of sunshine on the secrecy legislation

South Africa is entering a dangerous season from which it may not emerge unscathed.

It is a season of special danger for the media whose duty of scrutiny may be blocked by secrecy legislation and less protected by a weakened judiciary.

The debates raging across our screens, airwaves and pages attest that the media are not facing these challenges with complacency, but it is still possible that we are not addressing all the preparations we could be making for the rough weather ahead.

Plans to limit access to information are back on the frontline with the National Council of Provinces preparing to finalise its review of the Protection of State Information Bill, which has already been adopted by the National Assembly.

It is difficult to imagine how the council will interpret the overwhelmingly hostile inputs made during its national road show - and those likely to be made in the final hearings - as support for the original concept, but I imagine that the ruling party delegates will find a way.

In the climate of defensive paranoia that has President Jacob Zuma apparently considering the appointment of suspended police spy boss Richard Mdluli to head the South African Police Service, reviewing the powers of the Constitutional Court and packing every arm of government with cronies, there is little reason to hope for a ray of sunshine on the secrecy issue.

Separately, our tradition of self-regulation is on the table following the hearings mounted by the Press Ombudsman's office and with Judge Pius Langa's Press Freedom Commission about to submit its report on ways to strengthen the Press Council.

Neither is likely to satisfy those in the ANC who are committed to statutory media regulation. We should expect a year or two of hard fighting to defeat the proposals for some sort of media tribunal which, even if nominally independent, would risk being packed with ANC cadres deployed in much the same way that Zuma is trying to deploy judges to our senior courts.

Then there is the danger at our own front door - or often under it: the flood of politically motivated leaks, some real and some fabricated - from rival factions in the ANC supporting Zuma or his likely rival, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, to take control of the party at its elective conference in Mangaung in December.

The leaks present stories that need to be told, but the risk to the media is they might fail to sort fact from fiction and fall into the sort of trap that caught a newspaper from a rival group, which reported that Motlanthe had fathered a love child when he had not.

Publishing falsehoods can be harmful to victims of malicious gossip. It can ruin lives, relationships and livings, so the duty of media caught up in this important political battle must be absolute vigilance against fraud and rigorous application of the public interest test.

Newspaper sales peaked during the final years of the struggle against apartheid, when it became apparent that the end of white rule was in sight. They stayed high through the transition to democracy because everyone had a vested interest in the outcome of the negotiations and the subsequent shaping of the future state.

Newsrooms were well resourced in numbers, experience and equipment to serve that appetite. Media owners acknowledged a social responsibility, and for reporters it was a time of plenty.

There are myriad reasons, from complacency to powerlessness, that have contributed to the decline in readership since that period and to the consequent pressure on media profits.

Few newspaper owners seem motivated by that sense of responsibility to the nation any more. The country is free, the job is done and it's time to extract value from their investments.

For reporters, these are leaner times.

But the job, it seems, was not quite done and it is time again for the media to increase their vigilance and for owners to reinvest to enable them to do so.

The forces vying for political control threaten to destroy the vital infrastructure of long-term freedom in their race to build defences against defeat in the internal polls of the ANC or the public elections that will follow.

While rivals will continue to exploit the media to wound their opponents, they will try to protect themselves by controlling the media and the constitutional institutions that guard our freedoms.

The freedom of the press to tell South Africa's story may be curtailed and the will of the Constitutional Court to lift those limits may be subverted by partisan appointments and threatening reviews.

We need a strong, free and capable press that wields its influence responsibly.