Huffington hate speech ruling reversed
Appeal vindicates former editor Pillay
The hate speech ruling on an article by the Huffington Post South Africa earlier this year, which resulted in former editor Verashni Pillay resigning‚ has been overturned.
In April‚ the Press Ombudsman of South Africa’s Johan Retief found the HuffPost SA guilty of serious misconduct for the publication of hate speech.
Following the ruling‚ Pillay – who was then editor-in-chief – resigned and apologised for the blog titled “Could it be time to deny white men the franchise?” after it was revealed that the blogger, “Shelly Garland”, was fake in May.
Pillay then appealed the ruling and the appeals panel of the Press Council yesterday released its ruling that the blog did not amount to hate speech.
The ombud originally found HuffPost in breach of section 5.2 of the Press Council Code and said because the blog was “inflammatory‚ discriminatory and targeting a specific group of people” the text can be described as hate speech.
“In passing‚ we note that the ombud erred in dealing with articles 5.1 and 5.2 as a compendium and not drawing a clear distinction between the two: discriminatory speech is not necessarily hate speech‚” ruled the press ombud on August 18.
“The ruling of the press ombud dated 22 April 2017 that the blog... violated articles 5.1 and 5.2 of the Press Council Code‚ is hereby set aside‚” the press ombud further stated.
The author of the blog argued that white men had been the architects of much that had gone wrong with the world in recent times and that white men’s voting rights should be taken away.
Pillay said: “The decision by the appeals panel to set aside the ruling... is a win not just for me but for freedom of speech and debate in South Africa.”