The Congress of South African Trade Unions on Wednesday said while the SABC’s draft editorial policy was ”full of excellent intentions and worthy ideals,” it still was not covering enough labour issues.
But the trade union federation said it was concerned that the there was a huge gulf between what the public broadcaster was saying it should be doing and the reality of what it was doing in its day-to-day broadcasts on radio and TV.
”The submission reiterates one of Cosatu’s long-standing complaints –the paucity and poor quality of the SABC’s labour coverage,” the African National Congress ally said in a statement regarding its submission to the SABC.
Cosatu said its main complaint was that the working class hardly ever made it onto SABC news and current affairs programmes.
”Cosatu alone represents nearly 1,7-million paid-up members. Each of these workers supports an average of five dependants. This makes up a constituency of around ten million. And there are millions more unemployed and unorganised working people who want to see their lives and concerns reflected on radio and TV.
”But coverage of the organised labour movement is confined to when unions are being ‘controversial’ and there is little coverage of the daily lives of working-class people,” the federation complained.
The submission also condemned what it called biased commentary and the imposition of a particular economic ideology in news and current affairs.
”’Experts’ are most often from business, rather than the ranks of the more progressive economists. This does not give the balanced and impartial coverage the SABC should be providing,” the submission charged.
”Although the SABC is obliged to offer a range of services targeting children, women, the youth and the disabled, similar recognition is not afforded to workers — the largest organised constituency in South Africa. We believe that workers should be explicitly identified as one of the groups that the SABC should target,” Cosatu demanded. – Sapa