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Ace Magashule on the election campaign in Soweto. Image: Rosetta Msimango
- Media Monitoring Africa and the Support Public Broadcasting Coalition have filed complaints against SABC.
- This follows a controversial interview with ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule.
- According to the organizations, the interview was one-sided.
Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and the SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition (SOS) have filed complaints about a SABC interview with ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule, describing it as “one-sided” and “selfish”.
The two non-profit organizations have filed the complaints with the South African Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCCSA), the South African Press Council and SABC itself.
The interview was conducted by two SABC journalists on November 18 and initially aired on The Full View.
In letters to each of the three bodies, SOS National Coordinator Duduetsang Makuse and MMA Director William Bird said the journalists violated BCCSA’s codes of conduct, the Press Code, and SABC’s editorial policies. .
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In the letter to the Press Council, Makuse and Bird affirm that the public broadcaster violated, among others, the following clauses:
- Clause 1.1 of the Press Code, which requires the media to report the news truthfully, precisely and fairly;
- Clause 1.2, which requires that the news be presented in context and in a balanced manner without any intentional or negligent deviation of the facts, whether due to distortion, exaggeration or misrepresentation, material omissions or summary.
Writing to the SABC general manager of policy and regulatory affairs, SOS and MMA claim that journalists also went against clause 5.3.2 “which requires the SABC not to allow … political, state … and personal considerations to influence the editorial decisions of the SABC “.
In the interview about the layoffs at SABC, Magashule said he did not know why some of the board members were so “intransigent.”
“I think they show some arrogance,” he said.
“I don’t know why they are arrogant, because it is clear that what they want to do is market [and] privatize the SABC, which is against the position of the ANC. “
The organization said that, in its opinion, the interview published online violated each and every previous clause of the code, as it was conducted in a way that made it clear that journalists were not complying with the code’s requirements. .
The groups added that “the one-sided and selfish interview style and inflammatory language used by interviewers” undermine the Press Code, BCCSA codes of conduct, and SABC editorial policies.
“We think that although it can be argued that the transmission constituted a ‘comment’ which is, in our opinion, doubtful, given that it is an in-depth interview with the secretary general of the ruling party on what was breaking news. subject, the comment was not made on facts truly stated or justly indicated and referred to as required in terms of the code. “
News24 contacted the SABC for comment for two days. The station has not yet responded. The comment will be added once received.
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