The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) has expressed concern at Zwelakhe Sisulu’s involvement in a commission of enquiry set up to probe whether the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) sought to gag commentators critical of President Thabo Mbeki.
”There have been concerns raised about Dr Sisulu’s involvement in the commission, on the basis that his involvement may constitute a conflict of interest,” the FXI said in a statement on Monday.
At the weekend current SABC boss Dali Mpofu appointed Sisulu, a former SABC chief executive officer, to chair the commission.
The commission would be probe, among other things, if any of the broadcaster’s staff issued instructions not to use commentators critical of Mbeki.
This follows media reports indicating that four commentators had been banned from the state broadcaster. They include two Business Day staff — political editor Karima Brown and Vukani Mde — and Aubrey Matshiqi and William Gumede, who has written a book about President Thabo Mbeki’s presidency.
In his weekend statement, Mpofu said Sisulu would be helped by Gilbert Marcus SC. Their findings and recommendations would be tabled to the SABC when the report was completed.
The SABC was finalising the enquiry’s terms of reference. The FXI said it was outraged by the manner in which freedom of expression and access to diversity of news was being ”flagrantly abused” by the SABC.
It was referring to the controversial canning of a documentary on Mbeki, former president PW Botha’s interview and a live studio interview with former deputy president Jacob Zuma.
On June 24, the SABC defended its withdrawal of the ”unauthorised” documentary on Mbeki in a full-page newspaper advertisement.
”At no stage was any pressure, political or otherwise, exerted on our editorial or legal staff,” read the public broadcaster’s advert, which ran in the Saturday Star and was signed by Mpofu.
The SABC had tried to ”renegotiate and reschedule” the documentary, which was to have been screened on May 17 but was pulled the same day.
It was part of a series of ”unauthorised” documentaries on prominent people.
”Since then, the producers of the documentary, an outside production company called Broad Daylight Films, have initiated a campaign whose main thrust is to mobilise public opinion around the notion that the SABC’s abovementioned decision was motivated by political considerations, more specifically, politically motivated pressure by external political forces and/or internally by senior management of the SABC.” – Sapa