SABC politically manipulated news - judge

The Mercury reports that Judge CJ (Neels) Claassen lashed the Complaints and Compliance Committee of Icasa for 'flawed reasoning' in deciding that it had no jurisdiction to decide on a complaint laid by the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI). Claassen said: 'If correct, it would mean that the SABC may with impunity manipulate and distort the preparation of its news and current affairs coverage and publicly lie about it when they are caught out having done so'. The judgment sets aside the Icasa committee's 2009 decision to dismiss the FXI's complaint, laid in the wake of the scandal over blacklisted commentators that erupted in June 2006. Former SABC boss Dali Mpofu appointed a commission of inquiry to investigate, but the SABC tried to keep its report secret and the original has never been released. According to the report, Claassen found the then SABC board guilty of dereliction of duty in failing to take action 'when the manipulation and dishonest cover-up was exposed by its own commission of inquiry'. He ordered Icasa and the SABC to pay the FXI's legal costs. Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)

Zikalala allowed government interference in the broadcaster's news coverage, the High Court noted in its judgment, according to a report in The Mercury. This included an ANC rally in KwaMashu on Youth Day in 2005 addressed by then KZN Premier S'bu Ndebele. The court found Zikalala's actions violated the SABC's duty to provide fair and unbiased coverage, independent from government interference. It accepted the account of then head of radio news, Pippa Green, who said she had received a call from Zikalala instructing her to institute disciplinary proceedings against a radio reporter who had covered the event accurately. According to Green, the SABC violated its editorial code because the reporter was intimidated not only by the Premier's bodyguards but by the MD of News himself for reporting the truth. Claassen said that in his view 'this uncontroverted evidence established that Dr Zikalala also interfered with the news coverage of this incident'. Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)

The judge referred the matter back to the Icasa committee 'to determine the complaints afresh'. In its complaint, the FXI claimed Zikalala had violated the Broadcasting Act's requirement for its public services to provide independent and unbiased news and current affairs programming, notes a report on the News24 site. Icasa dismissed the application and also ruled that the evidence contained in the record, which the SABC considered an internal document, was inadmissible in future proceedings at Icasa. Full report on the News24 site

Icasa said yesterday that it had not decided whether it would appeal against the judgment, notes a Business Day report. And Former FXI director Ayesha Kajee said: 'We felt this was within Icasa's mandate and if they did not take responsibility as the independent regulator that no one else would. It was necessary therefore to take both the SABC and Icasa to court.' Steven Friedman, director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, said for the judgment to have any real effect on Icasa, it would probably need to go to the SCA or the Constitutional Court. 'Any ruling that alters the role of Icasa needs to be decided, not by one judgment, but a bench of judges,' Friedman said. Full Business Day report