702's actions 'disrespectful'

2008-03-05 11:29

Johannesburg - The outcry caused by Talk Radio 702 when asked to leave a "blacks only" Forum of Black Journalists was "disruptive and disrespectful", FBJ interim chairperson Abbey Makoe said on Wednesday.

He was referring to the FBJ's off-the-record briefing with ANC president Jacob Zuma.

Addressing an SA Human Rights Commission meeting on the controversy, he said the FBJ had a right to associate with a guest of its choice and wondered if as much of a fuss would have been made if it had invited "super sangoma" Credo Mutwa.

He said the radio station's running to the SAHRC "crying racism" was "paternalistic arrogance" and undermined black journalists' rights to independent thought and actions.

Black journalists believed they had a right to submit black views on issues affecting them without being lectured by or submitting to white journalists, he said.

Changes within the profession were not limited to job description but had psychological, spiritual and cultural aspects of the reconstruction of their (black journalists') own rehumanisation, said Makoe.

Talk Radio 702 group head of news Yusuf Abramjee said that being called "a coconut" was "discriminatory, harmful, hurtful and derogatory and an attack on the dignity of (Kieno) Kammies and myself".

He said the remark had been made by columnist Jon Qwelane.

He said a journalist from the SABC - who he has not been able to identify - had commented that Indian and coloured journalists should have been excluded from the briefing.

The FBJ had caused division among journalists through its "destructive behaviour".

The hearings followed a complaint by Talk Radio 702 that the FBJ banned white reporters from an off-the-record briefing by Zuma at its relaunch in February.

The forum said its intention was to discuss issues pertinent to black journalists.

When the station's reporter Stephen Grootes was among the white journalists asked to leave the event, the complaint was laid.

- SAPA