Opinion - This article was motivated by many calls I received about comments circulating on social media about a post, allegedly made by Lotus FM presenter Pauline Sangham, not on the air, but on her social media page, which were derogatory of Islam, the Prophets Muhammad and Jesus (peace be upon them) and other issues related to Islam.
Sangham has since reportedly claimed that her page was hacked by someone who posted the comments, which I guess is the terrain of IT experts to now prove or disprove.
First some disclaimers. I am not writing this because I am Muslim and the issue here is about Islam, but because I believe, as I did when defending diverse cases of religious offence at the BCCSA (Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa) for many years, that there should never be any denigratory remarks about any religion.
I am also not a lawyer.
I spent the last decade and a half of my 35-year career at the SABC, before my retirement two years ago, as head of the broadcast compliance department.
In that role, I spent many years running workshops at regions of the SABC in all provinces.
At the risk of being accused of immodesty, I can therefore safely say that I can write this with a fair amount of experience.
With the rise of social media and its rapid uptake as a tool for publicity and promotion of oneself, many presenters too started sharing their opinions on social media, such as Facebook.
From the outset, I would advise the hundreds of on-air staff at the SABC’s 20-odd Radio and TV services about the risks that this posed to their jobs, especially if they made remarks which brought the SABC, as their employer, into disrepute.
This applies whether you are a full-time employee or a part-time one on contract. In the first case, you will face a formal disciplinary hearing and in the second your contract might be terminated with immediate effect.
I clearly recall a lengthy debate with then top 5FM deejay Gareth Cliff, who was a contract employee of the station.
Gareth vehemently argued, when I challenged offensive remarks he had made, that they were on his personal Facebook page, with his personal comments made in his own time away from the station and that it therefore had nothing to do with his job.
What Gareth, and subsequently several others like him, failed to realise is that any radio or TV star is a public figure by virtue of the very celebrity and “brand” status that they acquire through their shows.
Otherwise, I argue, they would probably be nobody important enough to garner thousands of followers.
They therefore have to be mindful that any of their social activities in public, whether getting into a brawl at a pub in his own time (there was in fact an instance of an announcer being dismissed in such circumstances) or making remarks on social media.
Contrary to their view, such situations have everything to do with your employer precisely because you have acquired a public stature through your work with them.
There have even been many cases internationally of disciplinary action and even dismissal in such situations.
Wherever you are employed, there is likely to be a clause in the company's policies about not bringing it into disrepute.
If you act in a way that is contrary to the policies and objectives of your employer in public, even in your personal time, you are liable to face such disciplinary action, so you have to be very careful about what you do or post in publicly accessible platforms in particular.
Most of the calls I got after Sangham’s alleged post were from people who had known about my work with the BCCSA, seeking advice on how they could lodge a complaint against her at the regulatory body.
I can tell you confidently that, since these remarks were not made on air, the BCCSA will have no authority to consider the matter.
Neither will it take up any arguments about any action that Lotus FM might or might not take against Sangham, as that is an internal matter over which it has no jurisdiction.
If the comments had been made on air, the BCCSA would certainly have considered it under its clause regarding Hate Speech, although I would not speculate on the outcome if this was the case.
Of course, some might consider the options of the Human Rights Commission and the Equality Court in circumstances like this, but that would be their prerogative to prove a case.
My advice to radio and TV presenters, and perhaps to anyone else in the public eye, is to refrain from making any comments or being party to any public actions that could bring your organisation into disrepute.
In the case of Lotus FM, this is especially critical when it comes to religion, what with the delicate balance that has to be struck in catering for three major religious groupings and five linguistic groups.
I can proudly say that in the decade that I spent at the then Radio Lotus, there was not a single complaint about religious offence against any of the presenters, from all religious groups that we had then.
In fact, every one of us participated in activities of all religious groups, while never feeling pressured by anyone to compromise on our individual beliefs.
But then we also had no social media in those years!