PEN South Africa Protests the Suspension of Three SABC Senior Journalists

PEN South Africa has expressed a strong protest at the suspension of three senior South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) journalists apparently for protesting at a news conference at an order prohibiting them from covering a Right2Know protest outside the SABC headquarters in Auckland Park, Johannesburg.

Some reports stated that they had been suspended for contravening an instruction by the public broadcaster not to cover the protest. Apart from confirming the suspensions the SABC has refused to give reasons or to identify the three. SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said, “It is an employer-employee issue and we are handling it as such. We do not want to engage in the public space, it is not fair to them and it is not fair to us,” he said.

News24 has reported that it was told that economics editor Thandeka Gqubule, RSG (Radio Sonder Grense or Radio Without Borders) executive producer Foeta Krige and Afrikaans news producer Suna Venter were served with the papers on Thursday stating that they were suspended indefinitely. The letters stated that the matter would be investigated.

The Right2Know protest was directed at the recent decision of Chief Operating Officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng to ban picture coverage of public violence such as the torching of public buildings, among them schools, and buses.

The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) said it was shocked by the suspension of the three journalists. It stated: “Sanef urges the SABC to immediately lift the suspensions of these journalists. Journalists in a constitutional democracy have a right to express themselves freely.”

The SABC has faced mounting criticism over Motsoeneng’s censorship order and on Friday the Complaints and Compliance Committee of ICASA (Independent Communications Authority of South Africa) heard a complaint by three NGOs, The Trustees of the Media Monitoring Project Benefit Trust, the Freedom of Expression Institute and the SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition, that the order was unlawful as it breached a number of laws and professional codes relating to the conduct of the SABC news services.

It has been pointed out that the unrest, torching of buildings and buses and looting of shops that occurred in Pretoria in the past week were not pictured on SABC TV news services. The violence began as a protest over the ANC’s selection of a mayoral candidate in the forthcoming local government elections but rapidly degenerated into crime, thuggery, looting and destruction. Motsoeneng argues that the presence of journalists and photographers taking pictures of the destruction and the showing of the footage on TV encouraged others to resort to crime and violence.

Judgment on the ICASA hearing was reserved.

PEN South Africa joins Sanef in its call for the release of the journalists who were voicing a protest at a routine discussion of the news coverage of the broadcaster, one of a number of robust discussions over news coverage that take place daily at broadcasting studios. PEN South Africa also calls on the SABC to drop the ban on protest picture coverage which constitutes strict censorship which is unacceptable conduct by a public broadcaster supported by taxpayers’ funds.

PEN South Africa will send a copy of this protest statement to the Minister of Communications, Faith Muthambi, with a request that she call on Motsoeneng to lift the unacceptable censorship of violence reporting and to restore the SABC to a professional public broadcaster.

Update: News24 has reported that acting CEO Jimi Matthews has resigned from the SABC stating that what is happening at the SABC is wrong and that he can no longer be a part of it.