Johannesburg - Part of a complaint by DA leader Helen Zille against The New Age over a story relating to the Gupta family was dismissed, while a portion relating to its headline was upheld, the Press Ombudsman said.
“The complaint regarding the story is dismissed,” said Press Ombudsman Johan Retief in his finding, issued on Saturday.
“The complaint about the headlines is upheld.”
The story headlined 'Zille caught out once again' was written by Siyabonga Mkhwanazi and published on January 28.
It said that Zille had “walked into another storm” following a newspaper report in the Weekend Argus that she had solicited funding for the DA from the Gupta family, who own TNA.
Sources accused her of hypocrisy as she allegedly accepted a donation by the Gupta's but refused to attend a TNA meeting, which was mainly funded by the same family.
The article included criticism from various people, and referred to two other stories to substantiate the “caught out once again” allegation.
These stories were headlined: 'Zille's double talk' published in the TNA on January 22 with an arrow that contained the words 'Zille the hypocrite' and 'DA took money from Guptas' published on January 27 in the Weekend Argus with an arrow saying 'Zille the hypocrite'.
The New Age was directed to apologise to the DA for “unjustifiable headlines” that stated the allegation as a fact instead of an attributed opinion.
The newspaper was directed to publish comments by Zille or the party on several matters including her withdrawal from future TNA business briefings.
This was one of three findings made by the Ombudsman.
The complaints were made by Zille and related to three published front page stories in TNA. - Sapa