Jocelyn Newmarch
14 January 2009
Johannesburg — MORE claims of blacklisting at the SABC have been placed before a committee of the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) in support of a complaint brought against the public broadcaster.
This will reopen debate on an issue that remains unresolved more than two years after an inquiry found certain commentators had been banned from appearing on the SABC, adding to pressure on the already beleaguered institution.
Aubrey Matshiqi, Moeletsi Mbeki, Elinor Sisulu and Business Day political editor Karima Brown had been banned from the SABC by the public broadcaster's head of news and current affairs, Snuki Zikalala.
The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) filed a complaint last year arguing that despite the findings of the Sisulu commission in 2006, which found that blacklisting did indeed occur, the SABC has failed to implement the commission's recommendations.
These included that the role of group executive for news and current affairs be restricted to general policy and strategy, and that the group CE's role as editor-in-chief be reinforced. It said the board should take note of concerns regarding Zikalala's management style.
Finally, there should be no attempt to exclude commentators, that this should be incorporated into the SABC's editorial policies, and that regular audits on the use of commentators should be conducted.
"It is our view that upon becoming aware of the commission's recommendations, the SABC board should have taken corrective action immediately, and publicly announced what these steps were to be," FXI director Jane Duncan wrote in her affidavit to Icasa.
Duncan also complained that the SABC has contradicted itself, having indicated last year to the parliamentary portfolio committee on communications that it was in the process of implementing the commission's recommendations and that Zikalala had been given a verbal warning.
But in responding to the FXI's complaint to Icasa, the SABC had denied wrongdoing on Zikalala's part, she said.
The complaint was filed in February last year with Icasa's complaints and compliance committee. But the committee ordered the FXI to provide supplementary evidence for its complaint, ruling that it could not rely on the Sisulu Commission's report.
This evidence has now been provided by respected former SABC staffers Pippa Green and John Perlman, who have filed affidavits in support of the FXI's complaint against the SABC.
A report by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and the Media Institute of Southern Africa detailing substandard coverage of the 2005 Zimbabwean parliamentary elections by the SABC English TV news team has also been handed in as evidence.
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