Independent Media responds to attack on its chairman

ONCE again, without provocation, Ed Herbst continues to beat the same drum in trying to rubbish the reputation of Dr Iqbal Survé, chairman of Independent Media and the Sekunjalo Group, in his latest Biznews article.

This blatant propaganda is fake news at its best, which cannot be taken seriously by any reasonable person. Herbst uses tired, old and new propaganda in his ongoing attempt to discredit Survé.

The cosying up of BizNews, Daily Maverick, Media24, Cape Messenger and the Media Online, in their ongoing attempts to malign Survé, Sekunjalo and Independent Media, is a smack in the face of the facts.

Once again BizNews, run by Alec Hogg who lives in London, is running a piece with flagrant disregard for the facts. Author of the piece, Herbst, should be ashamed of himself for flogging a dead horse, using it to punt the Daily Maverick’s upcoming event, and gleefully asking if Survé has the guts to be a participant.

For the record, Daily Maverick was advised soon after approaching Survé to participate that he would be unable to do so, due to another commitment.

The fact that Daily Maverick has not corrected this in their marketing material is no fault of Survé’s, and they have been asked to correct it.

Herbst clearly needs something else to fixate upon. This obsession with Survé and his business interests is causing him to lose the plot.

Why would anyone continually search for evidence on his relationship with Tata Mandela, which he uses as the focus of his piece, and tries to connect with the DM event? Hogg, his team of resentful former Independent reporters and Herbst surely have better things to write about, instead of writing propaganda against a media house owned by a black person intent on driving transformation in the media industry.