Why are commentators bending over backwards to justify the actions of Warsaw in holding South African journalists and officials hostage?
If you've been following the saga of the South African plane carrying journalists and security officials that was grounded in Poland for 26 hours, you'll know by now that the emerging consensus is as follows.
Either:
- Poland detained the plane out of their noble sense of moral outrage regarding South Africa's cosiness with Russia; or
- Poland detained the plane because South African bureaucrats were too stupid, too naïve or too disorganised to make sure the necessary paperwork was in order, particularly given the weaponry being carried by bodyguards; or
- Some combination of both.
As a journalist who has previously travelled internationally with the Presidency, I can confirm the sense of absolute logistical chaos that swirls around these missions, seemingly regardless of context. Journalists are routinely kept in the dark until the last minute about when exactly these trips are happening. The scramble for visas at the eleventh hour is always nightmarish.
(A Dirco official once complained to me, in fact, that the outraged reporting over the Gupta family's attempts to jump South African visa queues was slightly rich given how often South African journalists do the same with other countries when an international trip looms.)
In other words,...
