SABC blacklist hearing postponed
The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) had opposed the SABC's plea for a postponement.
The CCC was to hold the hearing after the FXI lodged a complaint that the blacklisting violated the SABC's licence conditions, the Broadcasting Act and the Constitution.
FXI's advocate, Muzi Sikhakhane, said to grant a postponement to the SABC would make the process "absurd".
He said the SABC could not explain why it had not sought legal advice on the complaint until this week.
The FXI's complaint was submitted to Icasa in February this year.
Earlier, SABC advocate Azhar Bham said SABC's legal team needed a postponement because they had only been briefed on the matter this week.
Bham said they would be withdrawing their previous contention that the complaint was invalid because it came too late.
He said they were now preparing to give a substantive reply to the matter.
Sikhakhane said a postponement would not be in the public interest because it would mean an ongoing violation of the exact practices in the SABC about which they were complaining.
Bham concluded his request for a postponement by saying "there is legitimate criticism. We must take it on the chin."
Last year, SABC management set up a commission under former SABC head Zwelakhe Sisulu and advocate Gilbert Marcus SC after complaints about a ruling that certain commentators and analysts not be used because they were critical of President Thabo Mbeki.
The inquiry found that the SABC had indeed blacklisted certain commentators and analysts, albeit not officially.
They apparently included former AM Live anchor John Perlman, who has since resigned; independent political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi; the author of a book on Mbeki, William Gumede; and Business Day staff members Vukani Mde and Karima Brown.
The blacklistings came shortly after the SABC "canned" an independently made documentary about Mbeki, and was criticised for this by the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Democratic Alliance and other opposition parties.
In response to the commission's findings, the SABC board tasked SABC group executive Dali Mpofu with taking "whatever steps he deems necessary".
The commission had recommended that anyone instructed not to use a particular analyst be entitled to ask and receive written reasons.
It also suggested the development of guidelines on the use of commentators and analysts, regular audits of their use and the training of reporters on interviewing them.
It noted that they operated "under very difficult circumstances in an environment that is … always challenging the integrity of the public broadcaster for various reasons, some of them political".
The commission's report was completed in October 2006.
However, the FXI said that it issued its complaint because it had lost confidence in the SABC to fulfil the recommendations of the report.
The FXI had asked Icasa to enforce the SABC's licence conditions and underlying statutes by investigating, hearing and making a finding on the complaint
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