SABC Board must continue to protect journalists from political intimidation

The ANC has embarked on outright intimidation of the SABC's political journalists and executive producers, which has included summonsing news executives to Luthuli House, over the last week. The aim is to control the public broadcaster, so that it can indoctrinate the public prior to next year's election.

There is no "portrayal of Mr Zuma" (a subject reportedly discussed at Luthuli House by Mr Gwede Mantashe with SABC management) that can possibly help a panic-stricken ANC. In our experience, every time Mr Zuma opens his mouth, he wins votes for the Democratic Alliance (DA). As for the alleged "promotion" of the Shikota/COP, Mr Mantashe will have to learn that newsworthiness dictates the news in a democracy that recognizes media freedom.

Of the two ANC interventions, it is however the direct intimidation of editorial staff through phone calls and SMSes which is new, and which is the more serious. The SABC Board is reacting in exactly the right way by making this intimidation public, and by trying to protect editorial staff by setting up a complaints office and employing an independent monitoring company to check its election coverage.

Board member Bheki Khumalo would not say on Thursday which political parties were exerting pressure on journalists and executive producers but it is perfectly obvious that a Communist driven Zuma-ANC is the offender. Mr Mantashe thinks he can bring the judiciary ideologically in line, and would obviously have similarly totalitarian ideas about the media.

The Zuma-ANC neither recognizes nor accepts that the SABC Board does not dictate programming and must not influence editorial decisions. It will no doubt recommence the attempt in Parliament this week to legislate for the political purge of the board without due process.

The attempt to make the Speaker the appointing authority alongside the President has been abandoned and amended in the NCOP after our objections. We will continue the battle this week. Three quarters of the new SABC Board were chosen by MPs from all parties, and three inserted at Luthuli House's suggestion by compliant ANC MPs.

They were inserted under instruction from, amongst others, Mr Kgalema Motlanthe, now our president, who has mocked the ANC MPs for trying to pass a Motion of No Confidence in themselves and against a new SABC Board that is trying to reverse the damage wrought by suspended CEO Dali Mpofu and the previous Board. Mr Mpofu has made a fool of himself by going to court, and has finally and completely lost his various cases.

The SABC Board has managed to sit tight throughout the period during which the ANC in Parliament has tried to intimidate it, and must now continue to protect the journalists who are being threatened.

Statement issued by Dene Smuts, MP, Democratic Alliance spokesperson on communications, November 9 2008