10 July 1997

The Freedom of Expression Institute welcomes the undertaking by the
Chief Executive of the SABC, Mr Zwelakhe Sisulu, to consult the
Religious Broadcasting Panel (RBP) and other interested religious
groupings on issues pertaining to religious broadcasting at the
SABC.

As an organisation dedicated to freedom of expression and freedom of
the media, which includes the editorial independence of the SABC,
the FXI has noted that it has often been as a result of contentious
faith-related programmes that the danger of censorship at the public
broadcaster has manifested itself. This was illustrated in 1995 by
the "Jihad in America" debacle and more recently by the "Guru
Busters" debacle, when the SABC initially withdrew these programmes
but then screened them amid protests by some Muslim and Hindu
groupings, respectively. It was also illustrated when the SABC
dropped the film "Jesus in Montreal" amid protests from certain
Christian groupings.

Clearly there is no end to the number of programmes that religious
groupings might find offensive, and efforts by religious groupings
to interfere in the editorial decisions of the SABC will not stop.
But the ability of the SABC to withstand these pressures will not
hold if religious communities are not convinced of their access to
the public broadcaster to counter perceived threats to their faith.

Indeed, the FXI believes that it is crucial for religious
communities, who are legitimate groupings that form part of this
nation, to be assured of access to the public broadcaster and
programmes specific to them in much the same way as the various
language groupings in this country are assured of this. While
airtime for religious groupings should not necessarily rival that of
the various language groupings, decisions concerning religious
broadcasting should rightfully emanate from the legitimately
constituted body that is concerned with this aspect of public
broadcasting, viz. the RBP. By failing to consult the RBP and other
legitimate religious groupings on issues such as the cutting of time
for religious broadcasting, the FXI believes that the SABC will be
robbing legitimately constituted communities of an important public
platform for the free expression of their views. In addition, it
will increase the pressure on the public broadcaster to censor
itself with regard to controversial faith-related programmes in the
absence of alternative avenues in the public broadcaster for
religious communities to have their voices heard.
ENDS+