Following a complaint that the 18h30 SABC3 TV English news bulletin did not include excerpts of that
day’s reply by the leader of the Parliamentary Opposition in regard to the State of the Nation address of the President, the Tribunal held as follows:
- The SABC decides on the contents of its own news bulletins. That accords with the Broadcasting Act 1999, which guarantees editorial independence to the SABC. It is not the task of the BCCSA to interfere at that level. If, however, the Broadcasting Code has been breached by a particular broadcast, this does concern the BCCSA.
- Although it would have been preferable for SABC3 to have included the excerpts during the 18:30 English news on that day, they were indeed part of the 06:00 English SABC3 news bulletin the next morning.
- While not strictly relevant, it is a fact that the excerpts were also included in the 19:00 Afrikaans SABC2 news bulletin, as well as in the news on subscription Channel 404 on DSTV directly after the 18:30 English bulletin, the latter being the case which was before the BCCSA. This was indicative of the bona fides of the SABC.
- Although an error had been made by stating that the News would get back to the story of the reaction to the Sate of the Nation Address and it was argued that this was a material omission, there were insufficient grounds in terms of the Broadcasting Code for the BCCSA to make a finding against the SABC as a result of this error.
The Complaint was, accordingly, not upheld.
[2015] JOL 33176 (BCCSA)