5fm's Cliff found guilty
2004-05-04 14:31
Cape Town - Gareth Cliff, 5fm's drive-time DJ, was found by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) to have contravened the code protecting religious freedom with an "interview" he conducted with "Jesus" on his show in March.
However, no sanction was imposed on Cliff or 5fm, because the station suspended Cliff for two days and he also apologised on air.
Commenting on the judgment, 5fm programme manager Nick Grubb said: "The ruling against 5fm is not that the interview should not have been broadcast, but rather that it should not have been broadcast at that time of day, exposing it to a wide and varied audience."
The BCCSA tribunal's judgment was in response to allegations of blasphemy and hate speech brought against the station.
As the BCCSA's code does not cover blasphemy, the judgment was on hate speech, for which the SABC was found not guilty.
John Langford, 5fm station manager, added: "5fm, both as a responsible broadcaster and an SABC station, does not endorse any material that undermines the religious beliefs of its listeners."
The "Jesus" interview was a pre-recorded sketch with Cliff interviewing himself as "Jesus" discussing Mel Gibson's controversial movie The Passion of the Christ.