BROADCASTING - "Sowetan" on March 28 reported that the Broadcasting Complaints Commission said that the SA Broadcasting Corporation television was guilty of contravening the Broadcasting Code by screening an "indecent" music video during family viewing times. The commission's ruling was related to the January screening of a music video insert depicting scenes of sexual foreplay. The video was shown at 7pm and was therefore screened within the watershed, or family viewing time period.

CENSORSHIP - "City Press" on March 26 reported that leader of the Freedom Front, Constand Viljoen, had tried to have posters removed on which his face appeared on the body of a black woman with her breasts exposed. The poster promoted a play at the Karoo Arts Festival. Viljoen tried to get a court interdict against the producer. The poster for the play write Jani van der Westhuizen has the faces of Viljoen, Eugene Terre'Blanche and Louis Luyt on it. Viljoen's supporters were roaming the streets of Oudtshoornand threatened to take the law into their own hands. Viljoen tore down one of the posters and threw it away in full view of a radio station. "I find it very insulting. They didn't ask my permission to use my picture and it is an insult to be used in this way on a woman's body. In Afrikaner culture the manliness of someone is very important", said Viljoen. He said that he did not know why his name was used on a black woman's body. "Is it to undermine the position I have taken as an Afrikaner politician?" he asked. Van der Westhuizen said she would not remove the posters. She said Viljoen had shown precisely why the play should be seen, as the message was that politicians needed a sense of humour. "I think he will himself see his behaviour is childish. I also think his supporters will see the funny side of it", said van der Westhuizen.

CENSORSHIP - "The Citizen" on March reported that battle lines were drawn between the Group Executive of the SABC, the board and the management at SAFM radio after the controversial axing of the popular Sunday news analysis programme "The Editors". "The Citizen" said that highly placed sources at the corporation told the newspaper that the reason for dropping "The Editors" was regular attacks on the SABC by senior print journalists who appeared as guests. "The show is seen as giving a platform to enemies of the SABC. The programme gives their publications free publicity and they in turn snipe at the Corporation," the source said. Another reason given was that the news department at the SABC wanted to consolidate control over all current affairs broadcasting. "The Editors fell under the direct control of SAfm and not the news division. The editors has been on air since 1991. Officially the SABC said the programme was axed due to year end-budget considerations. But SAFM sources said the show, with a combined audience of 80 000 was making a profit. SAfm staffers were given strict instructions not to talk about the issue and to refer all queries to official SABC spokesperson. Host of the show Nigel Murphy was disappointed at the decision to drop the show.

CORRUPTION - "Sunday World" on March 26 reported that a developer involved in a Soweto housing project had been summoned by the Heath special investigating unit to answer charges that it accepted R4 million for services it did not deliver. According to "Sunday World", documents before the special tribunal showed that the South Africa Land Development Organisation failed to fulfil its contract with the Gauteng housing department. Investigators confirmed that the unit had issued summons to the developer in its probe of more than 200 low-cost housing projects in Gauteng. Investigator Phillip Dixon would not confirm the name of the company, but he did agree the company was a contractor that had accepted more than R4 million from the government but did not provide the services required for a housing project in Protea South, Soweto. "The company had voluntarily gone into liquidation and we will certainly make sure that the state is at the top of the list of creditors to be repaid," Dixon said.

"Star" on March 29 reported that the KwaZulu Natal Premier Lionel Mtshali announced that the KwaZulu Natal government has placed a notice in the government gazette on the establishment of a commission of inquiry into allegations that provincial Welfare ME Prince Gideon Zulu was involved in shady financial deals. Mtshali announced this during a provincial anti-corruption workshop in Durban. Mtshali said that the commission was scheduled to complete its task in three months. Among allegations levelled against Zulu was that he received about R16 000 from a private company, Cash Paymaster Services, contracted by his department to pay pension grants. Zulu denied the allegations and said that no particular tender had been favoured.

JOURNALISTS - The "Sunday Independent" on March reported that CNN African Journalist of the year awards in Johannesburg saw some surprise winners on March 24. Wanja Njuguna-Githinji of Kenya's "The Sunday Nation" was announced the co-winner of the CNN African journalist of the year. SABC producer-camera operator team, Jacques Pauw and Adil Bradlow shared the prize. Njunguna-Githinji went out to find women in abusive relationships. She emerged with Kenya's most powerful women admitting to years of abuse by their partners. The judges were touched by her move to break down the notion that it was only poor, illiterate, rural women who suffer physical, emotional and financial abuse in silence. According to "Sunday Independent" when Njunguna-Githinji took to the podium to accept the award, she realised that she had won because "I told the story of my people the way nobody has". She said: "African journalists can compete internationally, and organisations like CNN and BBC should start using our work instead of parachuting people here". Sorious Samura from Siera Leone was also recognised for telling the story of his nation at war. His documentary of the civil war in his country won the Free Press-Africa award, shared with Brian Hungwe of Zimbabwe, whose winning article was on the body bags of Zimbabwean soldiers who died in Congo. Samura challenged the quests to appreciate what Africa could offer. He called on the guests to realise that the truthfulness and the resilience of African journalists would surpass what they said was the distorted version of the truth presented by the Western media. "It is our responsibility as African journalists to tell an honest, straight and hard truth to turn Africa around", said Samura. He stayed in rebels' camps, run by children as young as eight, to capture the killings on tape. "It is my country and I have a duty to expose the atrocities against the innocent", he said.

Mozambican President Joachim Chissano at the function told journalists: "The awards were the best evidence of your commitment to excellence in reporting, objectivity in the search for truth, and to the fulfilment of your ideals for a better Africa. They are part of the African renaissance. We have wonderful journalists in Africa but we need to have them telling our story".

PUBLIC BROADCASTING - ‘Citizen" on March 30 reported that the Democratic Party and the New National Party had claimed that the SABC was biased against opposition parties. In reacting to the resignation of the SABC chief executive of news Enoch Sithole, DP spokesperson Dene Smuts said: "An hour before Sithole's resignation was announced, we received his response to a complaint we lodged about the routine exclusion of the DP from coverage of Parliament's debates and party political comment. In his response, Sithole said he was "not satisfied" about the allegations. He was discussing the matter with editor-in-chief Phil Molefe and executive editor Snuki Zikalala. "We will not easily be convinced there was no deliberate decision to exclude the DP from coverage and we have lodged a formal complaint with both the BCCSA and the IBA," said Smuts. NNP executive director Daryl Swanepoel said that the SABC's treatment of public broadcasting had raised questions about its fairness and its multiparty political coverage. He said that the public has a right to be as informed as comprehensively on the opposition's proposals for a better South Africa, as it is on government's proposals.

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