'Unethical' media criticised for Mandela coverage

As a close friend and former fellow inmate of Nelson Mandela, Mac Maharaj has long played a pivotal role in bringing Mandela's story to the world.

Today, as spokesman for the South African presidency, Maharaj is again the conduit for the Mandela tale - possibly its final chapter. Yet in some ways the task is as fraught as ever.

At a press briefing on Monday, Maharaj upbraided journalists for their coverage of Mandela's health. Unethical reporters were contacting doctors, violating patient confidentiality and, in some cases, getting the story flat-out wrong, he said testily.

"There's a complicated set of issues at play here," said Nic Dawes, editor of newspaper, which carried a report on disagreements within the Mandela family about where Mandela should be buried. "One is a deep ambivalence, undergirded by cultural considerations, about discussing the possibility of death. The other is an avid thirst for information."

Mandela's declining health has attracted a huge international media contingent to South Africa. A phalanx of satellite dishes, tents and vehicles crowds the narrow street outside the Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria, where he is being treated.

On June 10, a hospital security guard assaulted a photographer as Mandela's former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, entered the hospital.