Press council reverses hate speech ruling

A HATE speech ruling on an article in the Huffington Post South Africa earlier this year, which resulted in former editor Verashni Pillay resigning, has been overturned.

In April South African press ombudsman Johan Retief found the Huffington Post SA guilty of the serious misconduct of publication of hate speech.

Following the ruling‚ Pillay – who was then editor-in-chief – resigned and apologised for the blog after it was revealed that the blogger “Shelly Garland” was fake in May this year.

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.

“In passing‚ we note that the Ombud erred in treating 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 appeals panel on August 18.

“The ruling of the Press Ombud dated April 22 that the blog published by the Huffington Post South Africa on April 13 titled Could it be time to deny white men the franchise? violated articles 5.1 and 5.2 of the Press Council Code‚ is hereby set aside‚” the panel 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.

“HuffPost is happy that clarity on hate speech.

“We respect the Press Ombudsman’s ruling and we wish Miss Pillay all the best for her future‚” said Huff Post SA’s new editor-in-chief, Pieter du Toit.

Pillay was not immediately available for comment but tweeted on Tuesday that the appeal was successful.

“My appeal in the hate speech ruling around the #HuffPost blog matter has succeeded.

“The appeals committee has set it aside‚” she tweeted.

She thanked her lawyer Ben Winks for taking on the case pro bono. — DDC there is