Adrian Lackay of the South African Beeld newspaper reports in this article titled, “Press corps: Sex lives ‘not relevant'”:
Cape Town – President Thabo Mbeki’s office and media organisations plan an urgent meeting to discuss the “crude treatment” of journalists and possible unconstitutional action by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) against those wanting to qualify for the presidemtial press corps.
The meeting follows Sunday’s reports that journalists, who applied for membership to the corps, were questioned by the NIS on their sexuality, sexual behaviour and even bank records during the interviews to ascertain whether they posed a security risk to Mbeki.
Journalists were asked by the NIS whether they were gay and married journalists were asked to comment on the state of their marriage.
“It is not these people’s sexuality or their sexual behaviour that had to be judged, but we had to determine whether they had something to hide, something they could be blackmailed with later. If you are gay, it does not mean it will count against you,” said an NIS source.
Opposition parties said the types of questions and the NIS’s intention to subject journalists to lie-detector tests bordered on unconstitutional actions.