CASE NO: 43/2014 -MULTICHOICE KYKNET CHANNEL 144 VS REINHARDT’S PLACE &PRETORIUS DIGNITY

Appeal against the judgment of the Tribunal of first instance which found that the broadcast by MultiChoice was in contravention of Clause 28.4 of the Subscription Broadcasting Licensees Code, since the dignity of persons suffering from Tourette’s syndrome was impaired by the comedic skit that was broadcast. A R30 000 fine was imposed on the Broadcaster. Although Clause 28.4 only refers to news and comment programmes, the First Tribunal held that Section 39(2) of the Constitution of the Republic places an obligation on every court, tribunal or forum to promote the spirit, purport and objects of the Bill of Rights when developing the common law. The section was applied in coming to the conclusion that the Subscription Code had to be widened, in terms of this section of the Constitution, to include any broadcast and not only broadcasts in which news and comment were present.  The Appeal Tribunal came to the conclusion that clause 28.4 clearly intended to only protect dignity in cases of news and comment and that it would be too drastic to widen the scope of the clause to include other categories of broadcasts. The matter should rather be considered by the Commission at a General or Special meeting.

The Appeal was upheld.