1 April 2010

Blacklisting at the SABC

Freedom of Expression Institute - blacklisting case

One of the SOS's first campaigns was to support the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) with its "Blacklisting Complaint".

Briefly, the "SABC's Blacklisting Crisis" emerged in 2006 when the Sowetan newspaper published allegations that the SABC was "blacklisting anti-government political commentators". Initially the SABC denied these allegations. However, SAFM talkshow host, John Perlman, confirmed on air that there was a blacklist. SABC GCEO, Dali Mpofu, then instigated the Sisulu Commission of Enquiry to investigate.

The Commission made some important findings. It claimed that blacklisting was taking place and further that an authoritarian, culture of self-censorship had stated to develop in the newsroom. A list of  recommendations were made to recify these problems. Despite his promise to release the full report, Mpofu however backtracked and released a santised version. The Mail & Guardian newspaper then obtained a full copy of the report and released this on their website. Mpofu threatened to sue the newspaper.

FXI obtained a leaked copy of the report and laid a complaint with South Africa’s regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), arguing that the findings of the report showed that the SABC was contravening South Africa's Constitution, the Broadcasting Act, 1999 and its own editorial policies. However,  ICASA refused to move on this. The Authority argued that the Report had never been officially released or verified. It argued that FXI must gather its own evidence to argue its case. FXI duly did this gathering a number of affidavits. However, ICASA then argued that it lacked jurisdiction over the issues since the complaint related to internal journalistic practices. Finally, FXI took the matter to the High Court. This time it won. The Judge handed down a judgement in January 2011 stating that ICASA had to deal with the substantive matters of the case and referred the matter back to ICASA's Complaints and Compliance Committee.

The matter has now been delayed once again! Dr. Snuki Zikalala - Head of News during the blacklisting saga and number one accused - has now approached the High Court with a request to have certain clauses of the judgement deleted. He has arged that he knew nothing of the case (!) and that the judgement has prejudiced his work opportunities and damaged his reputation. FXI is opposing his application arguing that deleting these clauses will have a serious material impact on the case, potentially forcing FXI to start the case afresh.

Other cases of censorship

In the meantime other cases of censorship have emerged. SOS noted in 2010, during the controversies around the appointment of the Head of News, that the SABC had not given a full report of the story. It had reflected only Head of News, Phil Molefe's perspective.

Further, more recently another controversy has been brewing... The SABC has been accused of not giving the Mail & Guardian newspaper a right of reply when they accused M&G journalist Sam Sole of accepting bribes when he worked for the investigative magazine, Noseweek.

The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) ruled against the SABC arguing that the allegations of racism and corruption levelled by businessman Robert Gumede against Sole were unsubstantiated and that the Mail & Guardian was not given a fair right  of reply. The BCCSA ordered the SABC to air this ruling during primetime news on SABC3. Initially the SABC refused and in the process they exhausted all the BCCSA's internal appeal structures. Further, they stated that they would take the matter up with ICASA's Complaints and Compliance Committee (CCC). In this process media commentators argued that the SABC's defiant stance was beginning to undermine the broadcasting self-regulatory system as a whole. Finally, however, after intervention from the SABC Board, the SABC did broadcast the ruling. Significant SABC resources were spent fighting this case.

(See sidebar for latest articles on the controversy.)

Review of the SABC's editorial policies

The SABC has a comprehensive set of editorial policies. These policies need to be regularly reviewed. The SABC has promised that in 2011 it will embark on a major public consultation process to review these policies particularly in terms of the new digital, multi-channel environment. SOS has stated that it would like to shape the process and the final content of he policies.

(See sidebar for a copy of the SABC's editorial policies adopted in 2004.)

Click here to view the frequently asked questions on the SABC's editorial policies.