Help us, SABC staff ask Concourt direct
THE SABC ban on footage of violent protests and the crackdown on journalists who questioned it has resulted in a “culture of fear and silence” in the newsroom that effectively prevents the public broadcaster from reporting accurately on the situation in the country, eight journalists facing dismissal have argued in court papers.
The policy is so vague, and interpretations of it by management so contradictory, that journalists and editors are no longer sure what they are allowed to cover, resulting in a “farcical” situation where journalists fear for their jobs.
The policy has also been used to stop coverage, not only of protests involving violence or destruction of public property, but also peaceful protests, and even criticism of the policy itself, they say.
“It is clear from the implementation of the protest policy, the journalists’ response and criticism thereto, and the disciplinary actions taken against the journalists, that the SABC is engaging in a full-scale operation to capture and control the predominant source of current affairs and news information in South Africa,” SABC economics editor Thandeka Gqubule writes in an affidavit on behalf of herself and the other seven journalists, three of whom have been suspended. The rest face disciplinary charges after questioning the policy.
The affidavit forms part of an urgent application lodged in the Constitutional Court yesterday seeking direct access to the court and for the policy and suspension of and disciplinary action against the journalists to be set aside.
This comes as the SABC also faces a deadline on Tuesday to respond to an Icasa ruling that the policy must be reversed, as well as a high court application by the Helen Suzman Foundation for the policy to be reviewed and set aside.
The policy has been widely condemned as censorship – including by the ANC – but defiant SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng has vowed to fight attempts to reverse it all the way to the Constitutional Court.
Gqubule argues it will take years to reach finality on the matter, and for the public and journalists to obtain relief, should the court not grant direct access, which it usually does only in exceptional circumstances in a matter involving a constitutional issue.
Gqubule says 21 million South Africans rely on the public broadcaster for information on news and current affairs. Their constitutional rights to freedom of expression and to access information and ideas are under threat. She wants the matter heard before the election on August 3.
Sketching the “chilling” effect of the policy, Gqubule describes in the affidavit how she and Radio Sonder Grense journalists Foeta Krige and Suna Venter were suspended after noting their objection to a decision not to cover a peaceful protest by the Right2Know organisation against the SABC policy.
Three other journalists – Busisiwe Ntuli, Krivani Pillay and Jacques Steenkamp – suffered the same fate after questioning the policy and the suspension of their colleagues in a letter to management which was later published in the media. Parliamentary journalist Lukhanyo Calata and contributing editor Vuyo Mvoko were also charged after writing articles criticising the policy.
“The SABC has made debate, criticism, resistance and dissidence a trigger for disciplinary proceedings,” Gqubule says. “Journalists who adhere to their ethical and constitutional duties towards the public are now persona non grata at the SABC.”
Motsoeneng has extended the policy to include “negative” stories and criticism of the SABC and President Jacob Zuma, she says. He has vowed to “deal with” journalists who question him.
The SABC has been given until Monday to give notice if it intends to oppose the application.
HE not only looks tough but also talks tough. In fact, he’s a bully and he is the boss of SABC. But who created this thug who rules supreme at Auckland Park and plunged the SABC into a crisis? The ANC.
Hlaudi Motsoengeng does not even have matric yet he was entrusted with running the pubic broadcaster. Can we expect anything better from a man who had the backing of the SABC board which, in defiance of the Public Protector and the Western Cape High Court ruling, went ahead and appointed him after his suspension? Now he snarls menacingly and bites the hand that fed him.
Bristling with defiance, he threw down the gauntlet to the ANC at a press meeting and made it clear that “no one tells the SABC what to do”. What a nerve he has.
If that doesn’t sound like a bully, I don’t know what is. The SA National Editors’ Forum was shocked that the SABC had rejected outright the Independent Communications Authority of SA’s ruling that it was wrong to ban visuals of violent protests.
V Sewtahal hopes for urgent government intervention. (Carry on Hlaudi, we’ll crumble like Zimbabwe, IOS, July 9). But all the resistance the ANC could offer was to hold a national working committee meeting and reaffirm Icasa’s ruling. When one of your own – Communications Minister Faith Muthambi – does not turn up for the meeting, you know there are deep divisions in the ANC. Hlaudi knows this and is hedging his bets. The inability of the ANC to deal decisively with the SABC despot can be gauged by Secretarygeneral Gwede Mantashe’s response. Instead of meeting fire with fire, all he could say was someone needed to whisper in his ear that he “cannot be a bull in a china shop”.
But Hlaudi is not doing anything that is shocking. He is merely following the example of others in the public service, from the top to the bottom, abusing their positions of power and getting away with it.