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SABC fails to gag M&G
15/10/2006 08:02 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Johannesburg High Court Judge Zukiswa Tshiqi on Sunday morning dismissed with costs the SABC's application to have the Mail & Guardian (M&G) remove from its website a report on the blacklisting of certain analysts and commentators by the broadcaster.
"I don't believe that it is okay to suppress information or to hide information written in the report," she told the court.
Tshiqi stated that the content of the report was of extreme importance to the public as the SABC was a public broadcaster.
She said she was not handing down judgment but merely expressing her thoughts on the case.
Arguments by the SABC's lawyers that the report could cause harm to employees were not persuasive, she added. They had argued that if the report was not removed from the M&G's website, the broadcaster would suffer irrevocable harm as employees would resign, and they would lose good talent.
SABC chief legal officer Sihlali Mafika was made aware of the M&G's publication of the report early on Saturday. The newspaper was served with a court interdict at 14:00.
The case was dismissed around 01:00 on Sunday.
M&G editor Ferial Haffajje said after the ruling: "We are all elated that you have a judge and two commissioners who say the report is of fundamental public interest and that it should be released."
The M&G had been correct to show the full 78-page report and would keep it on its website, she said.
The newspaper earlier claimed the SABC had "violated" the recommendations of a commission into the blacklisting charges by releasing only a "sanitised summary" of its findings in a seven-page statement on Thursday.
The commission - chaired by former SABC head Zwelakhe Sisulu and advocate Gilbert Marcus, who assisted him - 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 Cosatu, the DA and other opposition parties.
Mail & Guardian website
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