News that the ANC, Cosatu and the SACP are still toying with the idea of launching their own newspaper should be received with elation rather than trepidation.

It could be an indicator that the ruling party is weaning itself off the unseemly idea of controlling the media through a media tribunal.

It is commendable that the party considers competing with large, independent media companies instead of nationalising or silencing publications.

The fundamental human right to speak your mind is a luxury that many in Africa, the former USSR, the Middle East, China, North Korea and other repressive societies can only dream of.

The ANC alliance is perfectly entitled to launch its own paper to counter what it sees as “the pro-business, pro-private enterprise, anti-communist, anti-democracy stance of newspapers belonging to the Big Four: Media24, Independent News & Media, Avusa Media and Caxton,” as Cosatu’s Patrick Craven wrote in Monday’s Business Day.

Coincidentally, on the same day that Craven was quoted denouncing the media for being anti- labour, Sowetan carried three stories on page four that made the anti-labour claim ring hollow.

The main story was about a boss who allegedly brutally assaulted a security guard. The SA Municipal Union criticised Mogale City in another.

The third was about a Cosatu protest demanding that Sun City fire a security company because of a racist insult against Nelson Mandela.

Likewise, the anti-communist tag isn’t a universal truth. It wears thin in light of the high media profile the SACP and Young Communist League enjoy, given their size.

Having said that, there is merit in the argument that the humanist message of communism is not getting fair treatment in Western-style democracies.

Perhaps people will turn to the planned newspaper to learn about an alternative system to the rabid capitalism that has brought the world economy to its knees.

Such a newspaper would undoubtedly offer a refreshing perspective on important initiatives such as National Health Insurance, compared with the self-serving scaremongering by the private health sector against the plan to improve access to health care.

It would be interesting to see how the proposed paper works in reality. Imagine the tensions in the newsroom over whether to publish Kader Asmal’s blistering attack on the ANC leaders and the MK Veterans Association’s retort that he should go to the nearest cemetery and die.

What will the newspaper’s approach be to ads that mislead workers into buying useless miracle cures ? Will the editor be free to publish Numsa’s sabre-rattling about nationalising Tokyo Sexwale’s wealth?

They must still do a feasibility study and respect the outcome. It will make a difference to how long the newspaper lasts and, with it, the excitement and creative tension of increased competition.