Reasons for the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) decision not to screen an ”unauthorised” documentary on President Thabo Mbeki recently remained unclear on Tuesday, despite a ministerial reply on the issue in Parliament.
In a written reply to a question by Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Dene Smuts, Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri denied any member of the SABC’s board stopped the ”production” of the documentary, and said it had been withdrawn by management.
Smuts had asked whether a programme on Mbeki was ”planned or produced by the SABC for screening as a documentary in the series Unauthorised”.
She also asked whether ”any member of the management of the SABC, the management as a whole, or any member of the board stopped production or screening”.
In her reply, Matsepe-Casaburri said she had been advised by SABC chief executive Dali Mpofu that the corporation had commissioned such a programme from independent producers.
”On receipt of the programme the legal advice received from a lawyer and senior counsel was that some of the material will lead to legal action against [the] SABC.
”The management responsible withdrew the programme. The CEO was advised later and he confirmed the decision as he could not act against legal advice received. No member of the board stopped the production,” Matsepe-Casaburri said.
However, on May 19, SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the documentary, meant to be shown on SABC3 on May 17, was not broadcast because ”internal approval processes were not correctly followed”.
He said the documentary was part of a series of ”unauthorised” documentaries, also subject to the same internal approval processes.
”A decision was then taken to stop the broadcast of the documentary until all processes are followed.
”Once this process is complete, broadcast of the documentary will be re-scheduled and the public will duly be notified of the new broadcast date,” said Kganyago.
At the time that the documentary was pulled, the DA and the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) both felt the SABC should have explained this happened.
”Given the content of the documentary, the decision to pull the documentary at the very last minute has the look and the feel of self-censorship,” read an FXI statement at the time.
”It can hardly be coincidental that the most troubling editorial decisions the SABC has made recently relate to the controversies surrounding the president and the former and current deputy presidents.
”Any reasonable person would join the dots and infer that the SABC is acting in this manner because it is pro-Thabo Mbeki and anti-Jacob Zuma.”
The institute said this was not a conspiracy theory but a ”reasonable inference to draw under the circumstances”.
The DA challenged the SABC to persuade the public that the problems leading to the programme being postponed were professional and not political.
”Tensions in the tripartite alliance are at breaking point.
”Given the SABC’s track record of political compliance, the pulling of a programme of this nature instantly invites suspicion of political interference,” said the DA at the time.
The FXI noted that it was the second time recently that a scheduled programme had been pulled at the eleventh hour.
”The first incident involved an ‘Asikhulume’ interview.”
The institute noted that another documentary, on soccer administrator Irvin Khoza, was altered by removing the most controversial part from the film.
‘The result is a mess up like this one’
Professor Anton Harber, who directs the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand, had this to say about the documentary in his blog, The Harbinger:
”Unauthorised: Mbeki, the documentary that SABC is refusing to screen, takes a tough, unflattering look at the president, but I found it interesting and engaging. It does not look at the whole man or his presidency, but focuses on his rise to power and his personality, and in doing so it raises many of the issues around his style and attitudes.”
Harber said that he had viewed the documentary about an hour before the SABC threatened court action to stop the producers from showing it to anyone, and found it absorbing, fair and balanced.
He said that he did not find the film defamatory and could see no legal or ethical objection to it. ”The only part that raised my eyebrows was a reference to suggestions that Mbeki was implicated in the assassination of Chris Hani. However, it did this in the context of the alleged ‘plot’ to topple Mbeki and makes it clear that these were no more than rumours.”
Harber found that the SABC were at a loss as to how to handle the documentary: ”They have given inadequate and confusing reasons for not screening it. They didn’t even tell the producers that it was being pulled off the air, and failed to communicate with them for another 12 days.
”An institution like the SABC, which has to make major news and current affairs decisions every day under pressure, would normally have a clear set of values put in place by the leadership to give guidance to those who have to make these decisions. Shaken by the constant changes they have been through over the last 15 years and constantly under conflicting political and economic pressures, the SABC, I believe, has no such values in place. Different individuals can, at different times, pull it in different directions.
”The result is a mess-up like this one.” — Sapa