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MG challenges SABC interdict
14/10/2006 18:35 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The Mail & Guardian went to court on Saturday to challenge an urgent interdict forcing it to remove from its website an SABC report into the blacklisting of certain analysts and commentators.
The newspaper published the full, 78-page report on its website claiming the SABC had "violated" the recommendations of a commission into the charges by releasing only a "sanitised summary" of its findings in a seven-page statement on Thursday.
Mail & Guardian editor Ferial Haffajee said she arrived at work on Saturday to find the urgent interdict ordering the newspaper to remove the report from its website.
Its publication accompanied that of a newspaper article by Haffajee, entitled Inside the SABC blacklist report.
In it Zwelakhe Sisulu, who chaired the commission, and Gilbert Marcus, who assisted him, were quoted as saying it would be "abhorrent, and at gross variance with the SABC's mandate and policies, if practices of the old order were being repeated in the new, with the effect of again disqualifying South Africans from democratic discourse and debate.
Should be released
"For this reason, we are firmly of the view that this report should be released to the public after consideration by the board."
"When the commission was started, the SABC Board chairman (Eddie Funde) said they will come back to the public with the information and there will be maximum transparency," Haffajee said on Saturday.
The commission was set up to probe complaints about a ruling, allegedly by news head Snuki Zikalala, that certain commentators and analysts not be used because they were critical of President Thabo Mbeki.
They apparently included independent political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi; the author of a book on Mbeki, William Gumede; and Business Day staff members Vukani Mde and Karima Brown.
The move, in June, came shortly after the SABC "canned" an independently made documentary about Mbeki, and was criticised for this by the Congress of SA Trade Unions, and the Democratic Alliance and other opposition parties.
Mpofu has now been tasked by the SABC Board with taking "whatever steps he deems necessary".
In his statement on Thursday, he said the Board had decided not to release the full report to the public as it was based on untested evidence obtained in an internal process.
Anonymous witnesses
"It is important to emphasise that the commission was not a legal inquiry and did not have powers to subpoena witnesses, did not take evidence under oath and did not allow for cross-examination of witnesses," he said.
Also taken into account was the use of evidence of anonymous witnesses and the need to address grievances and policy in a way that did not raise public concern over the SABC's credibility.
"Due to these and other weaknesses, the SABC has decided not to release the report in its present form but rather to release the key findings and recommendations."
The decisions also took into account "the fine balance between the need for public accountability and transparency, the views of the commissioners, the constitutional rights of the witnesses and the implicated SABC employees as well as the fact that this was an independent but internal enquiry in the first place.
"The matter is, however, of sufficient public interest for the SABC to announce the key findings and recommendations immediately," Mpofu said.
According to his statement, the commission found that the SABC blacklisted certain commentators and analysts, albeit not officially.
It determined that AM Live anchor John Perlman was right when he stated that blacklisting of commentators and analysts was happening in practice "by instruction".
No motive
Where instructions were given not to use particular analysts on specific topics, "these instructions were not always (objectively) justifiable."
The commission could not find any political motive or pattern behind the exclusions and could not conclude that there was an undue pro-government leaning by Zikalala.
It recommended that the Board "take close cognisance" of concerns about Zikalala's management style, particularly regarding problems of communication and the "inappropriately narrow" interpretation of the SABC's mandate.
It nonetheless expressed confidence in Zikalala and his staff.
It noted that they operated "under very difficult circumstances in an environment that is... always challenging the integrity of the public broadcaster for various reasons, some of them political".
- SAPA
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