Johannesburg - A complaint against Carte Blanche by a company offering services to obtain visas has been dismissed, the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of SA (BCCSA) said on Sunday.
“The registrar received a complaint concerning a programme called 'Visa to Nowhere' which was televised during a Carte Blanche broadcast on 28 July 2013,” the BCCSA said in a statement.
The complainant, Liam Clifford, the director of Global Visas, said the insert, broadcast on MNet, misrepresented him and was “factually inaccurate”.
“The complainant alleged that fundamental material was not put to him, thereby implying that he/Global Visas did not have a reasonable opportunity to respond.”
Amongst his complaints, Clifford claimed certain parts of a lawyer's response were not mentioned, and that the programme implied his business was violating the Consumer Protection Act.
Clifford argued he suffered a breach of privacy and a loss of dignity as he felt that the programme suggested he was illegally posing as a director after being barred from being one in the United Kingdom in 2008.
“After viewing the programme and listening to the arguments on both sides, we have come to the conclusion that the comments by Carte Blanche were honest expressions of opinion and were made on facts truly stated or fairly indicated and referred to.”
The BCCSA found the Carte Blanche production team gave Global Visas a number of opportunities to respond, which the company did not take up.
“The conclusion that we have arrived at is that the complainant has only himself to blame that no interview was conducted.”
The hearing into the matter was held on November 27 and the judgment issued on December 31. - Sapa