How to suppress the truth.

[Dave A]

I think I'm reading this right. A leak has said that the head of SABC news is guilty of bias, but the CEO says the report has found no bias.

No evidence has been found of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) blacklisting some commentators and analysts because of their political views, the
public broadcaster reported on Thursday.

SABC chief executive Dali Mpofu revealed this during a morning talk show on SAfm radio.

Mpofu said a commission of inquiry had found there was no blanket ban on certain political commentators and analysts.

"There was no discernible political bias in any of the decisions that were taken," he said.

----

Business Day columnist Anton Harber wrote on Wednesday the inquiry revealed that Zikalala had broken the broadcaster's own code of conduct.

He said the report on the outcome of the probe cited at least eight incidents where Zikalala transgressed.

It concluded he did so by not using certain commentators and analysts for reasons that were not "objectively justifiable".

The inquiry also found that Zikalala made a misleading statement when denying the existence of a blacklist which banned certain analysts.

The commentators included political analyst Sipho Seepe; William Mervin Gumede, author of Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC; political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi; and Business Day political correspondents Vukani Mde and Karima Brown.

All of the commentators are considered to be outspoken and generally critical of President Thabo Mbeki.

Maybe it's just a play on words, but to my simple mind, something smells of coverup.

[Dave A]

I've just watch Dali Mpofu being interviewed on SABC 2 this morning.

Man! The guy can tap dance.

[Candy Bouwer]

how to suppress the truth cont...

Slightly off topic but related ....what concerns me is that people start to believe their own stories...some lies can be so bazaar and so finely interwoven... When you eventually smell a rat and realise you have been duped . It is unbelievable that it is a lie ...it just make me sick to see this kind of tapdancing in govenment too...
Personally I am battling to justify an action taken by some one quite close on the work front. It leaves me cold and baffles to realise the extreame one would go, to get what they want!!!... no matter who is hurt in the process.

[duncan drennan]

The M&G has some very interesting comment on this,

The SABC issued a seven-page summary and statement about the *commission.

The commission’s 78-page report, of which the Mail & Guardian has a copy, is damning

Read the full article on the M&G Online

[Dave A]

The next step would be to interdict M&G against publishing the report. How open and transparent.

The Mail & Guardian Online was on Saturday morning interdicted from publishing the South African Broadcasting Corporation's (SABC) report into whether there was a policy blacklisting some commentators because of their political views.

On Saturday night, M&G lawyers were fighting the interdict in the Johannesburg High Court. It is probably the first time that a major South African online news publisher has been interdicted.
full story from M&G here

[I Robot]

And then the interdict gets dismissed with costs. Story here.

[Dave A]

I see IOL has picked up on the story here.

Sanef said the major finding of the commission - that several commentators were blacklisted for "impermissible reasons" - reflected "unacceptable journalistic practice, all the more objectionable because their exclusion was by the public broadcaster which has a duty to encourage the widest range of comment on current affairs".

[Dave A]

Commentary on the SABC attempt to stifle release of the commission's report is pouring in. Not surprisingly, it is pretty scathing.

There is another update on M&G here. I thought the little snippet below was quite enlightening. This is a verbatim quote of evidence from Snuki Zikalala presented to the commision:

On Paula Slier: “From the movement where I come from we support PLO. But she supported what’s happening in Israel. And then I said to them Paula Slier we cannot use her on the Middle East issue because we know where she stands. We need somebody who’s impartial.”

I'm sorry if I'm bugging a few people by following this so closely. But to some extent this is a test of the health of our democracy.

[duncan drennan]

Too much time in Court E

M&G is running an article about the challenges they've had to their press freedom and the interedicts against them.

Last Saturday, we were interdicted for the third time in a year and a half.It is an irony that the interdict, brought by the South African Broadcasting Corporation to make us take down a copy of the commission report into blacklisting off our website, came just four days before press freedom day. And it is a double irony that we were hauled into court by another media organisation intent on staunching the free flow of information.

Full Story on M&G

[Dave A]

SABC says it's sorry to see Perlman go

The next chapter in the story.

Perlman tendered his resignation late on Monday afternoon. "After nine exciting and fulfilling years presenting AM Live, I have decided to move on in pursuit of new challenges," he said in the same statement.

Perlman told the Mail & Guardian Online on Tuesday morning that he would be ready to speak to the media "in two days". "I need to think," he said.

Business Day reported that Perlman's resignation followed that of Nikiwe Bikitsha, his co-presenter on SAfm's AM Live, and was related to the SABC's controversial blacklisting of certain commentators.
full story from M&G here

[Shane]

I think I'm reading this right. A leak has said that the head of SABC news is guilty of bias, but the CEO says the report has found no bias.
Maybe it's just a play on words, but to my simple mind, something smells of coverup.

I have to agree with your views Dave - Coverup.
Sounds similar to the banks years ago that had "hot list" areas where you struggled to get a bond - the banks also denied that.

[Dave A]

Well. Snuki's still there. But the dust hasn't settled.

The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) on Tuesday laid a complaint with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) about the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), related to the public broadcaster's alleged blacklisting of commentators.

The 20-page complaint argues that the SABC violated the Broadcasting Act 11 times, its licence conditions five times and the Constitution three times.

It alleges that SABC head of news Snuki Zikalala's actions in excluding certain commentators violated the Act's requirement for providing fair and unbiased news and current-affairs programming, and that the SABC violated its licence conditions by limiting the diversity of opinion offered to the public.

An allegation that Zikalala showed a Special Assignment programme to the Presidency prior to broadcast is especially grave, as it opens the SABC up to editorial influence in violation of the Act and its own code of editorial practice.

The FXI further argues in its complaint that the denial of the existence of a blacklist in June last year had misled the public -- a violation of the Act, the SABC code of practice and Icasa's code of conduct for broadcasters.

The complaint also points to possible violations of the freedom-of-expression clause found in the Constitution. These include an attempt to force the Mail & Guardian Online to remove a copy of the blacklisting report, and the alleged screening of the Special Assignment show to the Presidency.

In a statement, FXI operations director Na'eem Jeenah said the organisation laid the complaint because it was "increasingly concerned" by the SABC's lack of response to the findings by a commission of inquiry into the blacklisting of certain commentators and related issues.
full story from M&G here

[Dave A]

John Perlman speaks up.

I've got to say I admire John Perlman for standing up and being counted. Here are some snippets from an IOL article here:

Speaking for the first time about his controversial resignation from SAfm, Perlman on Tuesday said his decision to challenge SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago was made after discussions among concerned SABC staff members.

"It flowed out of a process of engagement internally that had been going on for three months and it was grounded in intensive discussions with colleagues about what was the right thing to do.

Perlman said he had no regrets about revealing that the blacklisting practices - denied by Kganyago - were in fact taking place.

"It was scary," he said. "There were times when I woke up in the middle of the night with my eyes as big as gingerbread biscuits.

"Did I take on the people I work for? Yes, I suppose in some sense I did. But they are not the only people I work for…

"I measured what I did against the editorial charter of the SABC.

"It's absolutely clear, to me, on what my responsibilities were to all of our stakeholders and that includes the public … so your bosses in an institution like that are major stakeholders but they're not the only ones. That's why it's called the public broadcaster.

"You as a citizen have a right to be concerned about public broadcasting," he said.

"I think the SABC's critics should be asking questions about the role of the board in setting parameters for editorial decision-making.

"They should be asking questions about the SABC's involvement in the training and skilling of journalists … and think they should be asking questions about the role of news on the one hand and the role of debate on the other."

[Dave A]

The SABC has managed to postpone its date with destiny ICASA today. Of course, ICASA is not famous for exerting strong discipline on state connections, so I guess this could drag on for a while despite what seems to be a tacit admission by the SABC representatives that they have not as yet carried out all the recommendations of their internal investigative process. Read and weep.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has not yet introduced all the recommendations arising from a probe into its commentator blacklist, the broadcaster said on Wednesday.

"Some of the issues that need attention, we have now addressed them," said SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.

However, others took longer to put into effect, he said.

"It's a process."

Kganyago would not say which or how many of the recommendations made by a commission tasked to investigate the matter had been introduced.

Earlier in the day, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa's (Icasa) Complaints Compliance Committee (CCC) postponed its hearing on the blacklist issue at the SABC's request.

The hearing came after a complaint to Icasa by the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) about the SABC's handling of the blacklist commission's recommendations.

SABC advocate Azhar Bham asked the CCC to postpone the matter because the legal team had only been briefed about it this week.

The FXI's complaint was submitted to Icasa in February this year.

Bham said the SABC would be withdrawing its earlier contention that the complaint was invalid because it came too late.

Instead, the corporation needed time because it now wanted to file what he described as a "substantive reply".

The FXI opposed the SABC's request, saying a postponement it would make the process "absurd".

FXI advocate Muzi Sikhakhane said the SABC could not explain why it had not sought legal advice on the complaint until this week.

Kganyago said he could not comment on why the corporation had only sought legal counsel for the matter at the last minute.

This happened because of "internal issues" that could not be revealed to the media, he said.

"I don't want to go there and these are not the issues I want to deal with."
full story from M&G here

[Dave A]

Mafika Sihlali may have delayed the M&G in publishing a damning report, but the story is now out.

Two weeks ago, the Mail & Guardian newspaper was interdicted in the early hours of Friday July 20 by the head of the South African Broadcasting Corporation's (SABC) legal services, Mafika Sihlali, from publishing a story on an explosive draft internal SABC audit report.

The report, which is in the possession of the M&G, alleges corruption, abuse of power and intimidation at the SABC.

Even though other newspapers, including the Sunday Times and Business Day, had since carried reports on the matter and named Sihlali, the M&G could not report on it as the interdict was still standing. A threatened interdict against the Sunday Times on July 22 never materialised.

On Wednesday, the interdict order against the M&G was dismissed with costs in the Pretoria High Court by Judge Ferdi Preller.

Among the factors that persuaded him to dismiss the order was the fact that the SABC audit report relates to how taxpayers' money was invested, Preller said. As the public have a right to know, newspapers have a duty to disseminate news relating to allegations of corruption in public entities.

We can now publish the full original report below, as it was meant to appear in the M&G of July 20. Instead, copies of the newspaper on that day had most of the paragraphs blacked out.

AUDIT FINGERS SABC'S LEGAL CHIEF
Vicki Robinson and Lloyd Gedye

The head of the SABC's legal services, Mafika Sihlali, has defrauded the public broadcaster of up to R2-million and is linked to CEO Dali Mpofu through nine dual company directorships, alleges an explosive internal audit report leaked to the Mail & Guardian.

Despite legal opinion which accompanies the audit report recommending that the SABC suspend and lay criminal charges against Sihlali, he is still at work. Said SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago: "He is working as we speak, and we do not discuss internal disciplinary issues with the media."

Sihlali has been employed by the SABC for less than a year.
full story from M&G here