ADVERTISING - The Advertising Standard Authority on October 7 said an appeal hearing was due for the anti-rape commercial recently ruled to be gender-discriminatory. The television advertisement, featuring South African born Hollywood star Charlize Theron, was banned when a group of men complained to the ASA, saying that the ad implied that all men in South Africa were rapists. "Every effort is being made to arrange the appeal as soon as possible,"said the body's executive director, Deline Beukes. The authority received notification of an appeal from the Rape Crisis and Trauma Centre on the advertising standards committee ruling that the commercial must be changed in line with the Advertising Code of Practice. A group of 28 people complained that the commercial generalised about men and rape. Beukes said because the copy made references to SA men, complainants were upset that they are considered either as rapists or as men who do not care about rape as a special concern. The committee then ruled that the advertisement did not meet the standards of the Code of Advertising Practice that all advertising, including public service announcements, must be legal, decent, honest and truthful. It ruled that alterations be made to the commercial, an Advertising Standards Authority statement said. The appeal papers will be sent to the various parties, who are allowed a period to respond after which the authority's appeal committee, presided over by its president, Mervyn King, makes the final decision.. Beukes said: "The commercial has not been banned. It merely needs some small copy changes, which should be both simple and inexpensive to do and then the commercial will conform to the Advertising Code of Practice and thus be able to be flighted once again". FXI earlier condemned the banning of the advert saying " although the freedom of expression clause in the constitution does not extend to advocacy of hatred based on inter alia gender, this is qualified in the sense that speech of this nature must be incitement to cause harm. Therefore, advertising copy which is designed to make the audience sufficiently uncomfortable to sit-up and rethink an issue, cannot be construed as language designed to incite harm". DEFAMATION - On October 10, "City Press" reported that the Azanian People's Organisation said it will serve a R5 million defamation claim on the University of Venda for alleging it had used university funds to boost its campaign in the June 2 elections. Azapo provincial chairperson Don Nkadimeng said the action flowed from an internal campus report earlier in the year, which alleged that the local Azapo - dominated students' representative council funnelled at least R100 000 to the campaign. Nkadimeng said the report was aimed primarily at undermining Azapo on the campus. He said he would accompany the sheriff to ensure that the claim was delivered, and the university would be given at least 10 days to respond. University spokesperson Mbangiseni Masia said the report did not make accusations against Azapo, and the claim would be referred to the legal department.

LEGISLATION - "Sowetan" on October 11 reported that public hearings into the proposed unfair discrimination legislation will start soon amid widespread criticism from various media organisations and other bodies that claim the law infringes on freedom of speech and the press. The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Bill sets out to ban discrimination on grounds of among others, race, gender, age, disability sexual orientation, religion belief, culture, language, domestic and family responsibility or status, nationality and HIV-Aids status. It also attempts to prevent the media from publishing information that is perceived as violating the privacy of individuals and will give people the right to reply in publications that have impaired their dignity. According to Justice spokesperson Paul Setsetse, the Bill does not seek to regulate the behaviour of reporters, it merely wants to ensure responsible, accurate and fair reporting by journalists. Democratic Party spokesperson on Constitutional Development Dene Smuts said that there was no need for this Bill to deal with issues of freedom of speech because it was already adequately covered under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. "It is only advocacy of hatred based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion and that constitutes incitement to cause harm which is not protected by the right to freedom of expression," Smuts said. She also said the Broadcasting and the Film and Publications Acts deal with discrimination over-adequately and there was no reason to bring free speech into the ambit of the Bill. FXI and some media organisations believe the Bill would prohibit unfair discrimination in the media in any manner including the publication of propaganda, ideas or theories based on unfair racial stereotypes. However, the justice department defended the legislation saying that it was still far from complete.

MEDIA DIVERSITY - On October 4, "The Citizen" reported that Afrikaans television viewers were to get a new and fully-fledged Afrikaans television channel from November 15 on M-Net's DSTV satellite service. The Afrikaans variety channel will be known as kykNET and will be an open channel on DSTV. According to "The Citizen", it will broadcast for 10 hours a day from 2pm until midnight every day. M-Net said kykNET would cater for the needs of Afrikaans speaking viewers "who have been neglected for far too long by the electronic media". KykNET's marketing manager Alida Kotze said: "It is not about maintaining, but the rediscovery of an enjoyable, lively language being spoken by a large variety of people in our country". Kotze said that for South Africa, being a country creating brand new traditions every day, the channel would be different. It will be different in a stylish, warm-hearted and friendly manner. M-Net's head of programmes Jan du Plessis said kykNET had succeeded in drawing the best talent. The New National Party's deputy media director Johann Durand said the channel would prove that Afrikaans had sufficient commercial and business clout to stand on its own legs and speak to its viewers.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS - "Sunday World" on October 3 reported that a confidential report into the leaking of allegations of nepotism, corruption and maladministration at the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority revealed that the body has been subjected to a cheque fraud of R350 000. "Sunday World" said it was in possession of a report by the independent forensic auditing firm Gobodo Incorporated, which was commissioned by Satra to probe the leaking of privileged information to the media. The firm has now been appointed by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe Casaburi to probe all irregularities at Satra. In its report on the media leaks, Gobodo detailed how Satra officials were subjected to polygraph tests, how their offices were searched for incriminating evidence and their office phones and cellphone records were scrutinised. The investigators pointed out that "the circumstances of cheque fraud of R350 000 committed on Satra and the excessive expenditure in respect of the procurement of portraits and paintings was not leaked although in nature they are similar to the allegation leaked" to the press. Satra spokesperson Esta Gouws said with regard to the artwork, the council authorised only R60 000 for the purchase of the paintings and yet R150 000 was spent. Aside from that, the normal procurement procedure was not followed and the purchase was irregular in that sense. "The R350 000 cheque fraud as far as I know has not been solved," said Gouws. She indicated that Satra chairperson Nape Maepa gave evidence to Parliament where he gave a lot of information and pointed out that the allegations so far in the press were just the tip of the iceberg. Satra will have another meeting with the portfolio committee soon.

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