|
Mpofu blasts media 'hostility'
13/07/2006 16:20 - (SA)
Johannesburg - SABC chief executive Dali Mpofu on Thursday lashed out at newspapers and other media organisations for printing "half truths" about a Thabo Mbeki documentary and for not supporting the SABC when it won the rights to air the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
"The documentary on the president was not aired because we did not get what we wanted, and not because of the perception that some bully from Pretoria told us not to (air it)," said Mpofu.
He was addressing the Johannesburg Press Club at the SABC in Auckland Park.
"We had to remain true to our principles, if we had to bend them to appear independent from the ruling party then it would catch up with us eventually.
We pulled the documentary because we did not get what we asked (the producers) for," said Mpofu.
"That happens at the SABC every day. The editors pull stories they don't think should be aired."
Mpofu said when he explained the content of the documentary to other editors, they told him they would have made the same decision.
Winning the rights of 2010
He added that he was not happy with the way in which newspapers treated the public broadcaster.
"There is this hostility that I don't understand. The SABC either gets no coverage, hostility or cartoons. Why, I don't understand."
Mpofu said: "The SABC winning the rights of 2010 is big for the country. I only saw a small article about it in one newspaper.
If you don't want to write about it from the SABC press release, then what about the Fifa press release?"
He added that the refusal of other media to acknowledge the SABC for the good the organisation did concerned him.
It was something he wanted to talk about, as well as to discover why the public broadcaster received such hostile treatment.
- SAPA
|
News
