Basically it means the SABC can say Julius Malema has burnt down his mother’s house out of protest for her not breastfeeding him long enough and they won’t have to back it up with footage or facts.
memeburn.com reports the SABC has explained its decision by a saying “the SABC acknowledges (the) fact that citizens have constitutional rights to protest and voice concerns on various issues that they are not happy with, but the SABC doesn’t believe destruction of property is best way to voice grievances – and promoting them might encourage other communities to do same”. There will be “no more footage of people burning public institutions, like schools.”
The broadcaster reiterates that it will “continue to cover news without fear or favour, but it will not cover people destroying public property.”
The SABC’s full statement reads: “The SABC has noted with concern the recent turmoil arising from violent service delivery protests in various parts of the country. As a public service broadcaster, the SABC condemns the burning of public institutions and has made a decision not to show footage of people burning public institutions, like schools, in any of its news bulletins with immediate effect. The SABC acknowledges fact that citizens have constitutional rights to protest and voice concerns on various issues that they are not happy with, but the SABC doesn’t believe destruction of property is best way to voice grievances – and promoting them might encourage other communities to do same. The SABC would like to stress that it’ll continue to cover news without fear or favour, but it will not cover people destroying public property. The SABC appeals to other broadcasters and media to stand in solidarity and not cover violent protests that are destroying public institutions.”
Independent Online reports there are not really people out there that are happy with the decision.
The site report that the Daily Maverick associate editor, Ranjeni Munusamy, tweeted: “So SABC is censoring itself and asking everyone else to follow suit. And why is Hlaudi (SABC chief operations officer‚ Hlaudi Motsoeneng) making editorial decisions?”
Sekoetlane Phamodi, national co-ordinator of the Save Our SABC Coalition, said this decision showed that the SABC was being ruled by decree.
“It is abundantly clear that the SABC is managed in a way that is not responsive to the public. The fundamental role of the SABC as a public broadcaster is to tell all South African stories, the good, the bad and the ugly, that is what brings people to dialogue.”
Phamodi said it was an indictment on the broadcaster to make such a decision in the run-up to the local government elections when such protests were fuelled by service delivery issues at a local government level.
