advertisement
Zenimax awarded half a billion dollars in Oculus lawsuit
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Reddit

Court: SABC must suspend protest footage ban

The SABC must lift its ban on violent public protest footage until a court rules on lawfulness.

This was decided today in the North Gauteng High Court after the Suzman Foundation launched an interdict against the public broadcaster over the revised editorial policy, which saw it ban footage of the destruction of public property during protests.

The Suzman Foundation first wrote to the SABC in June regarding to protest footage ban, asking it to provide it with a written response that it would desist from implementing policy, or it would be taken to court.

An interdict was then launched on 1st July, against the public broadcaster, its Board of Directors, the Chief Operating Officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, and the Minister of Communications, Faith Muthambi.

“The HSF seeks the relief to operate on an interim basis, pending the final determination either of the review proceedings launched by the HSF (reviewing and setting aside the SABC’s editorial policies as described above), or the final determination of the proceedings against the SABC and Motsoeneng initially heard by ICASA (the public broadcaster’s regulator and an institution under chapter 9 of the Constitution),” the Suzman Foundation said last week.

Shortly after the hearing began the SABC’s legal representative, Bantubonke Tokota, told the court that the public broadcaster conceded on all but one aspects of the interdict.

Both sides had to reach a settlement after meeting with each other during the case to discuss the aspect, which the SABC wouldn’t concede on as it believed was an infringement on their editorial independence.

This aspect was subsequently changed to uphold the public broadcaster’s editorial independence.

The Suzman Foundation tweeted about its victory shortly after the hearing ended.

The public broadcaster’s spokesperson, Kaizer Kganyago couldn’t be reach for comment at the time of publishing this article.

[UPDATE as at 3:40pm: Reports have emerged that the SABC has finally bowed and will abide by Icasa’s ruling]

 

advertisement

About Author

advertisement

Related News

advertisement