CASE NUMBER: 14/2005 – ISGAR VS SABC RADIO – 5FM – PAEDOPHILIA

The Registrar of the Commission received a complaint about a remark made by a presenter on 5fm, one of the radio stations of the SABC, the public broadcaster. The Tribunal is of the view that the phrase used by Gareth Cliff is unacceptable. It is unfair and not based on facts reasonably referred to in terms of clause 35 of the Code. No metaphor or comical content can save it. Paedophilia amounts to a deviant   state of mind and, when practised, is an offence in terms of the Sexual Offences Act 1957 as amended and also in terms of common law. The reaction of the co-presenters assisted in correcting the remark was mitigating to a certain extent. However, this kind of remark, though intended as a joke, is so utterly unfair and ill-informed that it cannot be saved by the not so obvious correction by the rest of the team on air. The SABC is reprimanded for this contravention.