The Freedom of Expression Institute welcomes the ruling by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa wherein it ruled that news broadcasts by SABC on 19 May on the Max du Preez issue contravened clause 2 of the BCCSA code. The ruling is as a result of a complaint brought by FXI, Friends of the Public Broadcaster, and the Committee to Re-Instate Max du Preez. As the lack of balance was the crux of FXI's complaint, FXI is pleased to note that the BCCSA ruled in our favour on this issue saying that the SABC references in the news item "negated the balance" necessary in this case. The references to insubordination, swearing and obscene signs, the BCCSA says, created a duty on the SABC news room to at least obtain a comment from Mr du Preez on the matter - something which was not done.

FXI is also pleased to note that the BCCSA recognized the need for greater care in covering matters relating to employees or ex-employees with whom it had contractual relations: "When a broadcaster is, however, in a dispute with one of its employees or ex-employees or a person with whom it had a contractual relationship, the demands for impartiality and balance are particularly strict. The arms length approach which a broadcaster should have in regard to news, is put at risk and a broadcaster should be particularly sensitive in ensuring that its impartiality and its duty for balance remain intact."

Disappointing to FXI is the Commission's ruling on editorial independence. The judgement seems to suggest that the panel misunderstood our complaint in that it ruled that editorial independence can only be placed at risk "when an external force is active in demanding changes to a news item." FXI believes that internal interference can be just as dangerous as outside interference. Editorial independence can therefore also be eroded from within the broadcaster by management interfering in the newsroom and this is particularly relevant at SABC where there appears to be an increasing tendency in news and current affairs for management and editorial functions to be blurred. The BCCSA says it could find no evidence that the matter impacted negatively on the independence of the SABC thereby, FXI believes, failing to distinguish between the different components of the SABC, i.e. administration of the organisation and the news room.

It is FXI's contention that the non-renewal of Max du Preez's contract - the subject of the contentious news item - is not unrelated to the objections he raised when a programme he had produced in his position as executive producer, was pulled at the last moment. This suggests that questions of editorial independence posed by the blurring of management and editorial functions need to be investigated, and in the light of this, it would have been interesting to have received the Commission's thoughts on line functions and editorial independence.

Issued by Laura Pollecutt (Executive Director) 4 June 1999