Jocelyn Newmarch
14 January 2009
Johannesburg — AN ACCUSING finger has been pointed at Snuki Zikalala, the SABC's head of news and current affairs, for his alleged role in the blacklisting scandal at the public broadcaster.
Allegations of interference first came to light in 2006, when the Sowetan published a story claiming certain commentators were no longer allowed to appear on SABC news and current affairs programming.
A commission of inquiry was instituted after an on-air dispute between John Perlman, who hosted SAfm's Morning Live programme, and SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago.
Kganyago denied that certain commentators had been blacklisted by the SABC, as alleged in the Sowetan story, but Perlman asserted that the blacklist did exist and cited his actual experience in the newsroom.
The commission, headed by Zwelakhe Sisulu and Gilbert Marcus and assisted by journalism professor Guy Berger, found that the broadcaster had prevented certain commentators from being interviewed by its news team, and that a press release issued by the SABC stating the contrary was misleading.
This contravened the Broadcasting Act, the SABC's own editorial code and policy and SAfm's licence conditions, as well as the constitution, which provided for freedom of the media, the Freedom of Expression Institute said in its papers before the Independent Communications Authority of SA.
The evidence gathered by the Freedom of Expression Institute details a series of claimed incidents where normal editorial procedures were overridden for often arbitrary reasons.
In his affidavit, Perlman details his experience of how the SABC's news management imposed an effective ban on his programme's use of two political commentators: Business Day political editor Karima Brown and political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi.
According to his testimony, these commentators were banned by Zikalala months after their alleged transgressions -- a media article Brown had co-authored but which the newspaper had had to retract, and Matshiqi's reported remarks that the conflict between former president Thabo Mbeki and African National Congress president Jacob Zuma could lead to civil war.
Both of these articles had appeared in 2005, but the team was only informed the following year that they were not to use Brown or Matshiqi.
In her affidavit, Pippa Green, head of radio news between 2002 and 2005, describes three incidents that violated the spirit and intent of the SABC's editorial code and the Public Broadcasting Act.
These included Zikalala's response to radio reports of a 2005 Youth Day rally during which KwaZulu-Natal Premier S'bu Ndebele was booed and pelted with plastic bottles. Zikalala allegedly asserted there was no evidence that the premier had been booed , despite TV coverage confirming the incident.
Another allegation is that he refused to allow Paula Slier, the SABC's correspondent in Ramallah, to file stories after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's death, saying she was biased , but without providing any evidence of this.
Green said the SABC's obligation to provide "significant news and public affairs programming which meets the highest journalistic standards" had been undermined by Zikalala's decision.
Green also complained about Zikalala's handling of the 2005 elections in Zimbabwe.
"Zikalala threatened to 'take action' against me if any reporter reported what he considered an 'opinion' on Zimbabwe.
"He then expressly forbade the views of certain members of civil society on Zimbabwe, naming specifically Elinor Sisulu, Moeletsi Mbeki and Trevor Ncube ," Green wrote in the affidavit.
Zikalala refused to comment yesterday.
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