/ 26 July 2007

Mail & Guardian gag remains

After being pulled off shelves early on Friday last week following a temporary court interdict, the Mail & Guardian is still unable to report on an explosive final draft of an internal audit report of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

On the return date for the interdict on Thursday, Judge Justice Poswa granted the applicant, a senior SABC executive, a further postponement of the matter.

Poswa ruled that the applicant had not had sufficient time to study the transcript of last week’s proceedings, which he received on Thursday morning, or the M&G‘s papers, filed on Wednesday night.

The judge also said that because of the crowded court schedule on Thursday he had not had enough time to familiarise himself with the facts of the case.

The attorneys for the applicant, Barry Aaron and Associates, asked for permission to file replying affidavits by Wednesday next week, but Poswa objected that ”in important matters, attorneys do not sleep”. He gave the applicant until Monday 3.30pm to file.

The substance of the matter will finally be argued on Wednesday next week.

The audit report at issue alleges corruption, abuse of power and intimidation at the SABC, and last week’s late-night interdict prevented the M&G from printing its front-page lead on the report on Friday.

In that case, Judge Lettie Molopa ruled that Aaron’s client had not had enough time to respond to questions put to him last Thursday by the M&G. The judge accepted the applicant’s claim that he had not had sight of the audit report.

Counsel for the M&G argued on Thursday that Aaron’s client had, since last week, had enough time to comment on questions put to him by the M&G and that the matter should proceed, allowing the M&G to print its original report as well as a follow-up on Friday.

However, counsel for the applicant argued that the M&G would not suffer unduly from only publishing on Friday August 3.

When the parties left the Pretoria High Court building, an M&G photographer tried to take pictures of Aaron. However, he forced the photographer into the road with his briefcase and pushed her camera into her face, warning her that he would ”defend himself”.