DA slams SABC election coverage

2006-02-05 14:41

Johannesburg - The DA on Sunday slammed the South African Broadcasting Corporation over what it called minimized coverage of its election campaign.

DA spokesperson Gareth van Onselen said despite the SABC's legislated duty to provide fair and equitable coverage of the election, it continued to "cut out, sideline and minimize" coverage of its election campaign.

"Until February 2, the DA has held 15 election events. Of these events, SABC TV has refused to cover events across all three stations.

"The SABC has given no coverage to 9 out of 15 DA election events," Van Onselen said.

He said the SABC's treatment of the DA on its flagship news bulletin at 19:00 on SABC 3 was appalling.

It was the DA's understanding, he said, that Snuki Zikalala was now in charge of all political editorial decisions for SABC TV news for the remainder of the election.

- SAPA