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Manto: SABC within rights
24/10/2007 13:05 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The SABC was within its rights not to run a story of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, but media diversity was important in ensuring that other outlets could run it if they chose to, ANC politician and businessman Saki Macozoma said on Tuesday.
"If they make an editorial decision that you or I do not agree with, it is within their rights. There is somebody out there who will tell us and that person will not be stopped."
He said that was why media diversity was important.
"Unless people can express themselves in different media forms, we are not going to have diversity."
He said people should not be overly concerned about the robustness of the debate. He was concerned about the current "us and them" mood between the ANC and the media.
The media must accept that the ANC existed to propagate certain ideas and views.
"We must be able to tell someone 'your idea is lunatic', but we must not succumb to the situation where we say this kind of news must not be expressed. This kind of view must be expressed."
Not recommendations
He said an ANC discussion document on self-regulatory mechanisms in the media, remedial measures to safeguard rights and the need for a media tribunal were merely up for discussion at the December conference, and were not recommendations.
He said within the ANC he had not heard talk that the SABC should become an ANC mouthpiece.
Media researcher Kate Skinner said that because of the commercial funding models of South African media, fewer marginalised views were coming through.
She called for a commission to examine the extent of the diversity of views in the media.
- SAPA
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