MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

DA seeks to force public broadcaster to cover PE federal congress

By

The Democratic Alliance on Friday filed papers in the South Gauteng High Court against the SABC over its coverage of the party’s federal congress in Port Elizabeth this weekend.

“The DA alleged that the SABC withdrawal of its live coverage on public television is both contrary to the public interest and contrary to the SABC’s own editorial policy,” the party said in a statement.

The party’s spokesperson, Phumzile van Damme, told News24 that the SABC and the DA agreed that the congress’s opening would be shown on free-to-air SABC 2.

“It is manifestly in the public interest that a national elective congress of the official opposition in South Africa, representing over 4 million voters, receives coverage by the national public broadcaster.

‘Irrational, unreasonable’

“The SABC has, without fail, covered the ANC’s major national events, including extensive live broadcasts of elective and policy conferences, birthday celebrations and lectures.

“The SABC’s decision to withdraw live coverage of the DA’s Federal Congress, in contrast, is irrational and unreasonable.

But the public broadcaster denied reneging on an agreement with the DA, with their spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago saying the opposition party wants “to dictate” to the SABC.

“We never promised to show [the congress] on SABC 2.

“They must show us where we promised that,” said Kganyago, adding that the SABC would cover the event on its 24-hour DStv news channel.

Earlier today the SABC denied accusations from the Democratic Alliance that it is not covering the party’s federal congress this weekend.

This after the opposition party said the public broadcaster had gone back on a decision to give live terrestrial coverage to the congress in Nelson Mandela Bay this weekend.

“At this stage, the SABC is unwavering in their decision against agreements for live coverage,” said DA federal council chairperson James Selfe.

Public interest

“It is manifestly in the public interest that a national elective congress of the official opposition in South Africa, representing 4 million votes, receives coverage on the national broadcaster.

“Both the public interest, and the SABC’s own editorial policy, demand that this congress be broadcast to all South Africans, on the national broadcaster.”

But SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the federal congress would be given live coverage on its 24 hour DStv channel. Kganyago said the DA wanted to “dictate where they want to sit” and accused the party of “changing the agreement”.

He said the party was demanding live coverage on SABC 2 but this was never promised.

According to Selfe, the SABC initially agreed to broadcast live for two hours on Saturday morning, covering the opening ceremony and Zille’s speech.

‘Unwavering’

Selfe said he had a telephone conversation on Thursday afternoon with the SABC’s head of news, Jimi Matthews but that “the SABC is unwavering in their decision against agreements for live coverage”.

“I’ve spoken to Hlaudi Motsoeneng [the SABC’s chief operating officer] and he said he would get back to me on Friday,” said Selfe.

“Should the SABC not reconsider this about-turn on live coverage for this DA federal congress, the DA will take steps against the SABC which may include approaching the High Court to review their decision,” said Selfe.

A day before the African National Congress’s (ANC) last national elective conference in 2012 in Mangaung, the SABC boldly announced big plans, detailing extensive coverage and live crossings to the four-day event as well as extended Morning Live segments on SABC2.

The broadcaster also gave uninterrupted coverage to the ANC’s birthday celebration on January 8 in Cape Town.

News24

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy LinkedIn profileMy Flickr profileMy Pinterest profile

Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.