The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) on Wednesday denied assertions that it had blacklisted commentators on the Middle East.
This was after the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) met the broadcaster to discuss their concerns of a perceived anti-Semitic bias on the part of SABC.
The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) then criticised the broadcaster, saying its news and current affairs managing director Snuki Zikalala had agreed to ”another form of blacklisting and is skating extremely close to allowing pre-broadcast censorship by a lobby group”.
It was responding to the SAJBD’s pronouncements on the outcome of the meeting.
”At the meeting no agreement was reached regarding the use of commentators on the Middle East.
”The SAJBD proposed the use of ‘moderates from both sides’ whenever the Middle East issue was discussed and the SABC reiterated its commitment to the editorial code of the corporation with specific reference to the need for balanced reporting,” the broadcaster said.
The FXI said the SAJBD had claimed to have received a number of written undertakings from the broadcaster.
These included a recommendation from the SAJBD that ”moderates” be used when debates were taking place on the Middle East.
The SAJBD had also suggested that ”genuinely even-handed academics be used to discuss the situation”.
”We call on the SABC to clarify whether this is indeed an agreement between the SAJBD and the broadcaster. If it is, we would be extremely concerned,” the institute said in a statement.
”The SAJBD is, by its own submission, a pro-Israeli organisation and one of its objectives is the defence of Israel.”
From this perspective, the board’s view of identifying ”moderate” and ”even-handed academics” would be biased, the institute argued.
”If the SABC has indeed agreed to this, the broadcaster has instituted another blacklist — of commentators and academics that the pro-Israeli lobby does not accept as ”moderate”. – Sapa