Pretoria - In yet another legal blow within a week for the SABC, the public broadcaster threw in the towel on Wednesday, deciding to concede to an interim interdict by the Helen Suzman Foundation not to exercise self censorship when it comes to the coverage of protests.
On Wednesday the SABC even agreed to broadcast images of violent protests during its news bulletins.
Until Wednesday, the SABC point blank refused to give in when it came to the broadcasting of violent protests where public property was being destroyed.
But at the start of the proceedings SABC’s advocate Bantubonke Tokota told Judge John Murphy that they conceded to the interdict applied for by the HSF.
He, however, made it clear that this did not infringe on the public broadcaster’s editorial decisions.
In terms of the agreement reached between the parties, the SABC will not enforce its censorship decision and it will cover all news events, including violent protests.
This victory was even bigger for the HSF as the SABC agreed to pay the foundation’s legal costs, on a punitive scale.
Head of the HSF, Francis Antonie, said this was a victory. He said they will closely watch the SABC to ensure that it did adhere to the interdict.
While this is only an interim order, Antonie said they will monitor the events which is expected to unfold later this month in the Constitutional Court and which will deal with similar issues.
Antonie was also confident that Wednesday’s agreement between the parties would pave the way for a positive outcome for the axed journalists. “ I am confident that they will soon be able to return to work.”
Anton van der Bijl, the lawyer acting for four of the journalists at Thursday’s labour court hearing, said Wednesday’s developments should definitely count in favour of his clients.
Spokesman for the SABC Kaizer Kganyago would not respond on whether the SABC will from now on cover all violent protests. He said they will have their lawyer interpret the order to them and will then decide on how it should be implemented.
Kganyago added that the issue of the axed journalists had nothing to do with Wednesday’s case.