The Young Communist League (YCL) has urged South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) chief executive Dali Mpofu to make public a report on the SABC’s ”censorship of political journalist[s]”.
The public had a right to know the findings of the report so they could make up their own minds on its merits and demerits, a statement said on Thursday.
As a public broadcaster, the SABC had an obligation ”to cascade this information to the public”.
”The report has to be made public given the credibility crisis that the SABC news has in the eyes of a majority of South Africans.
”It is our view that the SABC news has been bias[ed] in its reporting to favour certain factions in the ANC, and the censoring of certain journalists and analysts is part and parcel of the broader agenda in the usage of the SABC to further political battles within the liberation movement,” the YCL said.
A commission of inquiry — chaired by Zwelakhe Sisulu and advocate Gilbert Marcus SC — was appointed recently to probe allegations of political bias in the public broadcaster.
Its report was handed to Mpofu on Monday.
Earlier this year, the SABC came under fire for allegedly blacklisting political analysts too critical of President Thabo Mbeki. — Sapa