Cops armed with a search warrant swooped on the Daily Voice to obtain all records related to a published child sex story.
|||Cape Town - About seven Mitchells Plain police officers armed with a search warrant swooped on the Daily Voice newspaper on Wednesday to obtain all records related to child sex story published in the tabloid earlier this month.
But the newspaper went to the Western Cape High Court for an order to suspend the warrant, and Judge Rosheni Allie granted the order.
The order is pending a formal application to have the warrant set aside.
At around 10.30am on Wednesday, the police arrived at the Daily Voice with the warrant, signed by a magistrate, to search and seize all electronic equipment, cellphones, computers and other print media or videos containing child pornography.
In the first week of March, the Daily Voice published on Page One pixelated images of two teenagers apparently having sex at school. A number of follow-up stories were also published. An amateur video was taken of the incident, which is understood to have taken place in May last year. A copy was sent to the Daily Voice.
The warrant search said the Daily Voice had contravened sections of the Film and Publications Act and the Sexual Offences Act. Before the police could execute the warrant, the company’s lawyer, Jacques Louw, took the matter to court.
In an affidavit, Louw said the newspaper had received a tip-off about the video from a source who wanted to remain anonymous.
Daily Voice deputy editor Elliot Sylvester, the reporter, Megan Baadjies, and Independent Newspapers have been listed as the three applicants to have the warrant set aside.
An order suspending the search warrant and any arrest warrant sought by the police has been obtained.
Daily Voice editor Shane Doran said executing the warrant would effectively shut down the newspaper: “It goes entirely against the right to freedom of expression as enshrined in section 16 of the constitution. For that reason we got an application to suspend the warrant pending bringing an application to attack the warrant.”
jade.otto@inl.co.za
Cape Argus