Concourt to rule on Krejcir media case

The Constitutional Court will deliver judgment on Friday on a challenge against an order preventing the media from attending Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir's appeal for asylum.

 

Krejcir's application for asylum was refused in October 2008. He later appealed to the Refugee Appeal Board.

 

The Mail&Guardian Media Limited and others asked the RAB to allow journalists to be present during the appeal hearing and to report on proceedings. The request was turned down.

 

The applicants launched a review application in the High Court in Pretoria to have the RAB's decision set aside.

 

They also sought to interdict the RAB from continuing with the appeal and for section 21(5) of the Refugees Act to be declared unconstitutional.

 

They argued that it prevented members of the public and the media from attending and reporting on asylum applications or appeals.

 

The court held that the section was a limitation on the freedom of the press. However, the blanket ban on access by the public was constitutionally justifiable. The application was dismissed.

 

The applicants argued in the Constitutional Court that a section of the act was a limitation on the right to freedom of expression and that information concerning Krejcir was in the public domain and therefore not confidential.

 

-Sapa