4 - Sunday, March 16, 1986 - ‘North Shore News Bob Hunter ® strictly personal.e BY THE time this is published, I will have had the ex- pericnce —not new— of having to push my way through a crowd of people trying to stop me from making a statement in public. Several months ago, you see, | was invited by the Centre for In- vestigative Journalism (C13). a worthy body in my view — if vastly underemployed — to join a panel at the Pan Pacific Hotel to discuss Media and the En- vironment, a subject on which I } can wax emphatic at the drop of a hat. And often do. The set-up seemed enough. I was informed: ‘‘The audience will be 90 per cent working jour- nalists and student journalists. In giving your critique of media ; coverage of environmental issues, any advice, resources or tech- niques you can offer reporters will be greatly appreciated. I think you'll find a pretty recep- tive audience that’s interested in learning how to do a better job.”’ Virtually a technical meeting. It was only a few days ago that I learned that on another panel entirely, a representative of the white minority South African regime had been invited to debate some journalists and political scholars. The next thing J read, the en- tire ClJ convention was about to be ringed by maybe as many as 500 anti-apartheid activists who claim the CIJ is giving the white supremists in South Africa “legitimacy’’ by providing a forum. { Pause. What to do? innocent Well, first of all, I instinctively f find it uncomfortable that a panel which is about both con- servation and media — and therefore mainly about press cen- sorship — should face the threat of being censored. Or intimi- { dated. By anybody. if the government tries to stop anyone in this country from ispeaking, 1 am, as a journalist, bound to shout on his or her behalf, for the simple reason that if HE can be silenced, I can be silenced too. So why should I be enthusiastic about any OTHER group — nongovernmental or not — if that group tries to muzzle anyone. no matter who it is, but especially if it is me? That’s vigiiantism. If it smothers free expression, it HAS ito be bad news. Attention Boaters Spruce Up For Spring ! also find it disturbing to be facing censorship enforced by a minority, however well-inten- tioned they might be, or, for that matter, how righteous, noble and utterly correct their cause. The thought of being Jumped together with people who ap- prove of apartheid fills me with dread. I am a complete believer in the equality of all human be- ings and am about as free from racist hang-ups as | think it is possible to be and still be a male honky pig dog. Yet, if I allow myself to be frightened away from a_ public forum, for fear of being labelled an apartheid supporter (or anything else), I basically have to give up the street to whoever can organize 500 shouting people. I mean, if someone wants to demonstrate, right on! I’ve orga- nized many a demo myself. If you keep them clean, they’re lots of fun all around. But the truth is, there is another form of vastly more brutal apartheid, and it is the wanton destruction of animals and nature by a creature usually called ‘‘Man,"’ whose color re- mains to be decided. I could see a hard nugget of unsavory truth coming out at the CiJ convention during the A COMPLETE BUILT-IN VACUUM SYSTEM IMPOSSIBLY PRICED FROM $3900 (installations not included) YOU DON’T NEED T media/environment debate. It was that the conservation record of black African countries is ap- palling. Since independence, Zim- babwe, for instance, has allowed its elephant herds to be cut in half. Keny. has the best record, but even their poachers number in the thousands in cach of the big state parks. . Can anybody who calls themselves an ‘‘investigative’’ journalist back away from a stery like this? There is politics, racial pride and issues of political tryanny — in many and various forns — involved. From a humanitarian point of view, there are a lot of horrifying regimes in the world, South Africa’s certainly being right up there. But torture and even mass murder are common in many countries whose spokesmen we routinely permit to speak in this country. ‘Yes? No? Forgive me if, at moments, the political power struggles between the various races on the African continent today — whether it is white against black or black against black against brown against yellow or whatever number of shades in between — seem like mere inter-tribal dominance disputes. Anyways, to silence debate is facism. That’s whal they do in South Africa, isn’t it? Not here. peers “S O BUY A NEW HOME TO HAVE A BUILT-IN VACUUM. BEAM CAN INSTALL A SYSTEM INTO ANY EXISTING HOME. WORLD'S LEADING BUILT-IN VACUUM BUILT-IN VACUUM SYSTEMS 984-3555 734 MARINE DRIVE, NORTH VAN. 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