My former editor at the Sunday Times, the bibulous Mondli Makhanya, has frequently bragged over a long liquid lunch that his position as an opinion former puts him above the law. His theory is that a large newspaper is so mighty that nobody would dare mess with the editor. And to an extent he is right.

I have been involved in litigation with AVUSA, the owners of the Sunday Times, for over two years now and they have been thoroughly disreputable people to deal with. The case is a simple matter of wrongful dismissal and should have been settled ages ago.

Just because AVUSA post a large copy of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act by the lift on each floor of their Rosebank building you mustn’t assume that they think the Act applies to them. It’s there to mock the employees who are still waiting for their contracts and, therefore, have no legal rights. This sort of arrangement suits AVUSA because it means it can get rid of people as the mood takes it and be pretty sure they will be able to do nothing about it. A few brave souls take the bastards to the CCMA and the AVUSA record of success there is dismal. But many know that AVUSA delights in being a corporate bully and their preferred strategy is to grind the employee into the ground by spinning out a court case in the hopes of bankrupting the plaintiff. You won’t find AVUSA high on the Deloitte list of companies people would want to work for. In my 40 years in business it is, in my opinion, one of the worst run and most dishonest companies I have had the misfortune to tangle with. But don’t take my word for it….look at the share price relative to the share price of Naspers.

When a newspaper such as the Sunday Times wants to put the boot in just for the hell of it you just have to accept it as an abuse of privilege disguised as freedom of speech. Let’s face it, the Sunday Times hardly has a reputation for factual accuracy these days. The newspaper does sell (arguably) around half a million copies and claims around 4 million readers. So when they decide on a Friday night, fuelled by a few glasses of the hard stuff, to deliberately print lies about an individual or a company there’s not much the poor sods on the receiving end can do about it. The press ombudsman is a timid creation of the media so don’t expect too much joy there. That’s like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank. The public editor at The Sunday Times is an employee and a drinking member of The Grillhouse Gang, with his huge salary paid by the very people you may be asking him to investigate, so laugh that one off. Only if you are really blessed and have had a blameless previous life might you get an apology. On page 6 in tiny print. The bouffant haired talking head of journalism,Prof Anton Harber, seems to blow in whatever direction most suits his pocket book at the time and the chances of ever getting a fair hearing are minimal. You’re obviously familiar with the term “thick as thieves.”

The great thing about journalism is that the slur can be well disguised but, nonetheless, fatal. If I say that “so and so” is allegedly a fraudster I am home and dry. I can preface the name of a company with “troubled” and if they weren’t yesterday they will be tomorrow. All I have to do as a malicious journalist is to repeat the slur, knowing full well that my readers will never bother to delve deeper into the story. “Disgraced” is another great ruse for a bit of recreational character assassination and if you put something in quotation marks you are home and dry. As in …..Bullard sacked for “racist” article. The obvious implication being that Bullard is a racist. Done and dusted….no court room or tedious legal process of proof needed. Damage done.

So is it any wonder that the ANC are calling for a media tribunal and are keen to punish journalists who deliberately go out of their way to print untruths? And is it any wonder that the gutless media are running around saying that this is a sinister encroachment on their rights to freedom of speech? Bollocks. As someone who has been on the receiving end of vicious and completely fabricated stories I think a media tribunal is a fine idea. Why should the wronged party have to spend years and a fortune seeking justice against a smug media company spinning a legal case out for as long as possible with shareholder’s money? That’s a disgusting miscarriage of justice.

So while I may not be on exactly the same page as Gwede Mantashe when it comes to the finer detail I can say that, in principle, we are probably closer than we have ever been on anything. Except that I would suggest the death sentence as opposed to prison for serious transgressions.