Gareth Cliff: I'd do it again

2007-06-29 07:56

Liesl Pretorius

Johannesburg - 5fm DJ Gareth Cliff says he'll respond in exactly the same way, following the uproar after he was amused on air by a news insert featuring a crime victim in tears.

The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) ruled in favour of the SABC station, 5fm, following a complaint about Cliff's actions.

The SABC took Cliff off the air for two days following the incident.

After the BCCSA ruling in Johannesburg, Cliff praised the commission's decision and said the SABC'S decision to suspend him was "ridiculous".

"I'm glad the Commission had the insight that the SABC did not."

In the news insert about a Bangladeshi immigrant whose shop was plundered during riots in the Free State, the man cried about the business he had built up over two years.

Commission's members also smiled

"There are no tears in my eyes, because I've already cried too much, " he says at one stage.

Cliff played the insert again after the news bulletin and remarked that the man seemed "quite hysterical".

He smiled faintly when the insert was played again during the hearing on Thursday.

Fakir Hassen, the SABC's manager of broadcast compliance and policy, said in his submission to the BCCSA that the insert was so unusual that even he thought initially that it was a send-up.

"Some of the commission's members also smiled when they heard it for the first time because it was out of context," he said.

Referring to Cliff's suspension, he said it should be borne in mind that the SABC's own editorial policy was sometimes stricter than the Broadcasting Code.

"It's quite possible that we will take steps internally, where the BCCSA would not take action."

5fm said earlier that Cliff has been suspended on May 31 and June 1 "because he had made light of the shop owner's anguish".

Hassen said the commission could not conclude that the man's dignity had suffered. He had not complained (about it) himself.

The SABC also did not think that Cliff's actions had impaired a group's dignity.

The commission conceded that the SABC was right.

Cliff said after the hearing that he had felt sorry for the shop owner. "I said 'shame' on air about three times."

He said he'd played the insert because it sounded like something dreamt up by a comedian.

After this debacle would he act any differently?

"No!" he responded.

- Beeld