S. Africa Expels Times Reporter : Acts Amid Reports of New Curbs on Press

The government said Tuesday that it has refused to renew the work permit of Michael Parks, correspondent of the Los Angeles Times, and told him to leave South Africa by Dec. 31.

Parks is the fifth foreign journalist ordered out of this country since a nationwide state of emergency was imposed June 12 in the face of widespread protests and violence against apartheid, South Africa’s system of racial discrimination and minority white rule.

The Department of Home Affairs gave no reason for Parks’ expulsion, but diplomatic sources said that the Pretoria government, under international pressure because of apartheid, was angered in part by Los Angeles Times editorials criticizing its conduct. One South African official also indicated that the government was displeased by some of Parks’ reports.

The press, both domestic and foreign, has operated under severe restrictions in reporting on racial unrest since the emergency was declared, and Parks’ expulsion, which is being appealed, came as the government was reported to be planning new strictures on the media.

“Some action is intended,” Information Minister Stoffel van der Merwe conceded.

Parks, 43, has been in South Africa since mid-1984. He said he had sought renewal of his work permit since it expired in September. He declined to make any further comment, saying, “Since I came to South Africa 2 1/2 years ago, I have enjoyed a good working relationship with the Bureau for Information, the Department of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If any problems have arisen, I will discuss them with those departments directly.”

Bureau for 15 Years

Los Angeles Times Editor William F. Thomas said: “The Times has maintained a bureau in South Africa for 15 years, and we very much regret the government’s decision. We are in the process of appealing, and we hope that the South African government in the end will renew Michael Parks’ work permit.”

Foreign Editor Alvin Shuster said the newspaper is seeking an extension of the Dec. 31 deadline “to discuss the matter.”

State Department Protest

In Washington, the State Department summoned South African Ambassador Herbert Beukes and handed him an official protest over the action against Parks.

‘We regret this action,” a U.S. Embassy spokesman said in Pretoria. “Michael Parks is a highly regarded journalist, and we staunchly oppose any action which would interfere with freedom of the press, freedom of speech or the free flow of information, concepts which the United States is historically committed to.”

Before joining The Times as Peking bureau chief in 1980, Parks worked for 12 years with the Baltimore Sun, including foreign stints in Moscow, Saigon, Cairo, Hong Kong and Peking.

Four foreign reporters were ordered out of the country within three weeks of the June emergency declaration--Newsweek magazine correspondent Richard Manning, CBS News cameraman Wim de Vos, West German television reporter Heinrich Buettgen and Dan Sagir, who reported for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Israel army radio. CBS News kept the rest of its staff in South Africa, and Newsweek later was allowed to send a new correspondent here.

Meeting on Press Controls

In a related development, representatives of South African newspaper publishers met with a Cabinet committee Tuesday about government plans for tighter press controls.

The meeting resulted from President Pieter W. Botha’s announcement last week that the media system of self-policing needs “pepping up.”

He said the National Press Union, which includes executives of the four main newspaper groups, agreed that South Africa faces “a many-pronged but well-coordinated revolutionary onslaught.”

Home Minister Stoffel Botha announced after Tuesday’s meeting that the Press Union wants time to review the media code of conduct and a second meeting has been set for Feb. 13.

Editorials Express Alarm

Newspaper editorials in the last few days have expressed alarm over the government attitude, suggesting that Botha hopes to pressure publishers into greater self-censorship. It is widely believed that new mandatory restrictions will be issued if the newspapers balk.

The Cabinet committee was led by Chris Heunis, minister of constitutional development and planning, and included the ministers of justice, law and order, education and home affairs.

One anti-apartheid group, the Black Sash, urged the publishers not to become “a party to fascism.” It said it sent a telegram to the National Press Union urging publishers to oppose new restrictions or broader self-censorship.

The June emergency regulations empower the government to close newspapers. They impose several restrictions on the press, including bans on publishing “subversive” statements, on reporting security force actions without permission, or personally observing security force actions to deal with unrest.