"Dr Joseph Goebbels, minister of public enlightenment and propaganda… was now systematically dismantling what remained of a free press in Germany. (H)e had assembled three hundred Berlin journalists to instruct them on the provision of the Nazis' new National Press Law. First and foremost, he had announced, to practice journalism in Germany one would henceforth have to do so as a licensed member of his press organization, the Reichsverband der Deutschen Presse, and no one would be licensed who had, or was married to someone who had, so much as one Jewish grandparent. As for editorial content, no one was to publish anything that was not consecrated by the party. Specifically, nothing was to be published that was 'calculated to weaken the power of the Reich at home or abroad, the community will of the German people, its military spirit, or its culture and economy.'
'I don't know why this should be a problem,' Goebbels stated, 'it is possible that the Government may sometimes be mistaken as to individual measures, but it is absurd to suggest that anything superior to the Government might take its place. What is the use of editorial scepticism? It can only make people uneasy.' Later that week the Nazis enacted a separate measure imposing the death penalty on those who published 'treasonable articles'."
Taken from Daniel James Brown's "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" page 20
This quote is set in 1933. Now let's come back to the present.
On Thursday, acting SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng proposed that journalists have a licence to practice like those in the medical and law professions. He said journalists who acted unprofessionally should be stripped of their licences. "You know when you are a journalist, you are a professional journalist. If you don't have ethics and principles and you mislead on your reporting, like lawyers... if you commit any mistake they take your licence," he was quoted as saying by the SABC. "We should do the same thing with journalists, that is what we need to do if we want to build South Africa." He was speaking at the annual Joburg Radio Days at Wits University in Johannesburg.
The similarities between Goebbels and Hlaudi are alarming. The Nats weren't that different and the ANC has learned from the Nats. Brown describes Goebbels as "just over five feet tall with a deformed and shortened right leg, a club foot, and an oddly shaped head that seemed too large for his small body". I've not seen Hlaudi in real life so I can't draw any physical comparisons. You could argue that Hlaudi doesn't have a matric and that he doesn't fully understand the implication of his words. But as we've learned with Zoomer who has a lot less than a matric, an ill-educated man is very dangerous indeed.
Now – would I need a licence as a blogger? Probably.
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