Editors urge SABC to lift suspensions of journalists opposed to picket blackout
The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) said on Friday that it was shocked by the suspension of three senior South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) journalists. Economics editor Thandeka Gqubule‚ Radio Sonder Grense executive producer Foeta Krige and senior journalist Suna Venter have been suspended for disagreeing with an instruction during a diary conference meeting‚ not to cover the Right2Know (R2K) campaign’s protest against censorship at the public broadcaster. R2K led protests on Monday against SABC management in Durban‚ Cape Town and Johannesburg‚ petitioning the ban on protest coverage and new editorial policies that give the broadcaster’s COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng the final say on editorial decisions.The Democratic Alliance held a similar picket on Friday outside the offices of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa‚ which was hearing a complaint laid by the Media Monitoring Africa‚ the SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition and the Freedom of Expression Institute against the SABC’s decision to not air footage of violent protests. “Sanef urges the SABC to immediately lift the suspensions of these journalists. Journalists in a constitutional democracy have a right to express themselves freely‚” the organisation said in a statement.“Sanef will write to the SABC to insist that it must respect the rights to freedom of thought and expression of journalists.”..
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