Quinton Mtyala
A DEBATE over the SABC decision to ban the broadcasting of violent protest visuals has seen one of its leading broadcasters being castigated on-air by chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng “for not talking like an SABC employee”.
Responding on SAfm’s AMLive to Cope MP Dennis Bloem’s criticism of the SABC’s decision to ban visuals of violent protests on its TV news bulletins and the canning of The Editors radio show on Sundays, Motsoeneng said: “We are not dealing with politics here, we are dealing with reality.”
Asked whether in the past the SABC was contravening its editorial policy by showing violent visuals, Motsoeneng rebuked the show’s host, Sakina Kamwendo, saying she “must speak” like an employee of the SABC who has read the editorial policy of the broadcaster.
Bloem had earlier criticised Motsoeneng as a dictator, arguing that despite claims that the presence of media encouraged violent protesters, the 23 schools destroyed in Vuwani, Limpopo, over a demarcation dispute were torched at night.
“We must tell him… this thing of gagging, intimidating his staff. We know staff are very much unhappy there, this thing of intimidating, suppressing the workers there at SABC, it will end,” said Bloem.
Motsoeneng defended the policy change, citing the Broadcasting Act and the Independent Communications Authority of SA.
“SABC can’t show visuals that will harm the community. We are building the nation here, we are not just politicking. By the (Broadcasting) Act, he (Bloem) should not try to influence the organisation (SABC),” argued Motsoeneng.
Most of the callers criticised the SABC’s stance.
Media Monitoring Africa’s (MMA) director, William Bird, who was supposedly banned from giving comment on the SABC, said the MMA had taken its complaint over the ban of violent protest visuals to Icasa. He said while Motsoeneng boasted about the editorial policy, most staff members have not even seen it.
SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago insisted that the broadcaster’s editorial policy was a public document and “there for everybody”.