R2K and SOS condemns ongoing persecution of Journalists at SABC!

The Right2Know Campaign and the SOS Coalition stands in solidarity with the eight SABC journalists who have just been fired, effectively for challenging censorship at the public broadcaster.

What followed was a process that can best be likened to a show trial, presided over by political lackeys, where due process is scoffed at and the accused are not even given the chance to adequately respond to trumped-up and nonsensical charges.

The purges stem from a policy imposed by SABC management to censor protest coverage, which ICASA has found to be unlawful and in violation of the Constitution. These eight are now being punished for exercising their freedom of expression and speaking out against the censorship.

Unfortunately, this latest turn comes as little surprise. It is the sort of thing we now expect under the tyranny of COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng. It is also telling of the complicity of higher-ups, like Minister Faith Muthambi who insist on propping up the COO, in contempt of the courts and the Public Protector. This has continued as the SABC lurches from crisis to crisis, as the climate of fear for journalists grows and even as unions, civil society, opposition parties, and even factions of the governing party condemn Motsoeneng.

We demand:

• The reinstatement of all the journalists who have been fired for being brave citizens and refusing to undermine the credibility and integrity of our SABC.
• We demand that the SABC’s illegally revised editorial policies be scrapped, and all journalists suspended under SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s edict be reinstated with immediate effect.
• We demand the immediate reversal of all downward editorial decisions premised on the unlawfully revised editorial policy.
• We demand that Motsoeneng is sacked from the SABC, in keeping with the Public Protector’s recommendations and the Western Cape High Court’s judgment which found his appointment to be “irrational” and, therefore, unlawful in the first place.
• We demand that the lame-duck and inquorate SABC Board that has enabled Motsoeneng’s reign of terror and patronage to be reconstituted on an urgent basis.
• We demand that Communications Minister Faith Muthambi is sacked for her delinquency and collusion with Motsoeneng and the SABC Board in unlawfully revising the editorial policies and enabling the continued decay of the SABC.

Note to editors:

R2K Western Cape invites you to a public meeting to discuss the SABC crisis in Khayelitsha at 5:30pm, Wed 20 July at Isivivana Centre, 1 Julius Tsolo Street, Khayelitsha.