Discretions Overstepping the Limits of the Publications Act?

Abstract

While subscribing to many of the tenets of the article by J.C.W. van Rooyen in this edition of Ecquid Novi, the author of this rejoinder focuses mainly on those aspects of the theme of publications control and discretion in their relation to one another which had been the subject of an ongoing debate and correspondence between the author and Van Rooyen over a considerable period of time. In the interests of debate, it was decided by both authors to submit Van Rensburg's reaction for publication in the same issue of EN in which Van Rooyen's article is published. The aspects touched upon by Van Rensburg, are in the main: the question of the potentiality of phenomena like pornography, portrayed violence, etc. to influence their readership and viewership; the way the mass media is inclined to treat the scientifically established facts in this regard; the relation between norms in their objectivity and their subjective perception; the view taken by the Appeal Board of its function as “mediator” when there is a...