Court told of 'editorial interference' at SABC

Negotiations between the SABC and senior political anchor Vuyo Mvoko for his return to work broke down yesterday after he refused to retract his public criticism of the lack of editorial independence at the public broadcaster, says legal writer Franny Rabkin in a BDlive report. Mvoko was one of eight people who lost their jobs for objecting to the ban on the broadcast of footage of violent protests where public property is burnt. After court action, the other seven were reinstated on Wednesday and returned to work yesterday. Legalbrief notes that Mvoko’s is the latest in a series of cases the SABC has had to defend, with the final test still to come in the Constitutional Court should it grant the journalists' request for an hearing on the censorship issue. The BDlive report says Mvoko – employed in terms of an independent contractor agreement – was informed that he would no longer be ‘scheduled’ by the SABC because he had brought the public broadcaster into disrepute following publication of an article, My Hell at SABC, in The Star newspaper. In it, Mvoko described his personal experience of editorial interference and emphasised the importance of free debate in editorial meetings. He was scathing about chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng and former heads of news Jimi Matthews and Snuki Zikalala, says the report.

Meanwhile, Communications Minister Faith Muthambi has dismissed claims of censorship at the SABC. She said the SABC informed and educated people compared to mainstream media which was ‘feeding propaganda’ to the public, notes another BDlive report. She brushed off comments that she had been quiet in the wake of the controversy at the public broadcaster, saying: ‘I don’t know what you mean by censorship.’ She accused mainstream media of writing negatively about the government, describing this as ‘the propaganda we (are) feeding our people’. She added: ‘We cannot allow a situation where the public is misled.’