Picketers support suspended SABC journos
THEY came in their hundreds, clad in black, to stand in solidarity with their suspended colleagues on a dark day for media freedom: Black Friday. And their message seems to have been heard.
Hlaudi Motsoeneng, the controversial chief operating officer, signalled he would review the facts around the suspension of journalists and censorship concerns raised by media and trade union representatives, when he meets them on Monday.
This was after their meeting yesterday with Motsoeneng, who at first reportedly said he was not available to address protesters because he was flying to the Durban July. This came after the delegation, which included the New Trade Union federation, the Media Workers Association of SA, the SOS Coalition, representatives of Primedia and the Independent Group and the Right2Know Campaign, demanded he review the suspension and intimidation of journalists at the SABC.
They also called on the SABC to withdraw the revised and adopted 2016 editorial policies, which included a blanket ban on protests.
Outside headquarters in Auckland Park, Joahannesburg, protesters taped their mouths shut.
Former Cosatu boss Zwelinzima Vavi, removed the tape from his mouth to label the crisis a “tragedy”. He described Motsoeneng as a tsar, who was “terrorising professionals” in the organisation and making them “look the other way when the truth confronted them”.
Vavi criticised the leadership of the ANC for endorsing censorship. “It’s a shame,” he remarked.
Last week, Thandeka Gqubule, Radio Sonder Grense executive editor Foeta Krige, and senior journalist Suna Venter were suspended after defying Motsoeneng’s orders not to cover a recent anti-censorship protest outside its headquarters.
Three of their colleagues, special assignment executive producer Busisiwe Ntuli, SAfm current affairs executive producer Krivani Pillay and senior investigative journalist Jacques Steenkamp were slapped with a charge after publicly raising concerns about censorship.
It emerged Mwasa members were held hostage inside the locked building. Karima Brown, Independent Media group executive editor, told the protesters the SABC should not be used as a pawn of the governing party. Brown told the picketers she had received messages from employees inside the building who were forbidden from joining the picket.
A disciplinary hearing for Ntuli, Pillay and Steenkamp, was postponed to next week, which Dirk du Plessis, of Solidarity, whose legal teams are representing the six journalists, termed a “victory”.
KNOWLEDGE is power, and under apartheid the SABC censored news to stop South Africans knowing the full extent of the repression and rebellion in the land. Many whites were surprised at the popularity of liberation movements after these were unbanned. They had been kept in the dark by the National Party and its hand-picked SABC executives.
Protests yesterday by journalists and civil society activists outside SABC offices around the country are to prevent us returning to those days when party loyalists decided what citizens should know about daily life in their country.
At the heart of it all is the SABC’s chief operating officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, viewed as President Zuma’s ally, who has told journalists not to cover violent protests because they lead to copycat actions. He has also canned current affairs programmes where guests were often critical of the government and the ANC.
Senior SABC staffers who spoke out against the broadcaster’s censorship face disciplinary hearings. They said the newsroom was a hub of “derision and despair”. Others were suspended for defying Motsoeneng’s order not to cover a censorship protest at the SABC’s headquarters. Acting group chief executive Jimi Matthews resigned on Monday in protest of the “corrosive atmosphere” at the broadcaster.
Instead of taking the criticisms seriously and trying to reassure the public the broadcaster would do its job of keeping the public informed on news developments, Motsoeneng accused critics of trying to destabilise the SABC. It is he and his cohorts, at Auckland Park and Luthuli House, who are doing a great job of turning the public broadcaster into a state broadcaster.
Intelligent people in the ANC must be embarrassed at how the SABC is being run, and Parliament must get to grips with this situation. Surely it is in everyone’s interests for the SABC to serve all of us and cover events without fear or favour?