Right2Know Campaign

Open Letter To The New SABC Interim Board

by · Published · Updated

20  April 2017

Open Letter To The New SABC Interim Board

The Right2Know Campaign congratulates you all as members of the newly-appointed SABC Interim Board. We are hopeful that you will professionally discharge your mandate and help resuscitate our public broadcaster. R2K  would like to take this opportunity to reiterate

that it is in the interests of our democracy for t the SABC to be a public broadcaster that is independent, well-resourced and capable of holding power to account, be it corporate , state or any other power. In pursuit of this, we urge you to ensure that:

  1. Governance and management structures of the SABC are independent of government at all levels, and of private sector interests. This is in line with the implementation  of the recommendations of  Parliament’s ad hoc committee and those contained in the Public Protector’s report on the SABC’s governance lapses.

  2. All people have access to the SABC and that the public broadcaster, to enable this, is well resourced from both public and other non-commercial sources. In this regard, it will be crucial  to resolve the institution’s current financial crisis and ensure that independent producers do not bear the brunt of the previous management’s corrupt practices.

  3. The practice of censorship and/or editorial interference is abolished completely. In doing so, the SABC must not lean towards politically biased coverage,  and must not actively or indirectly suppress views and content deemed to be critical of the ruling political and economic elites. Editorial policies should always be the outcome of a participatory process that engages key stakeholders.

  4. Competent executives, fully committed to the SABC’s  mandate and  including a permanent CEO, COO and CFO ,are appointed forthwith. To this effect the Interim Board must quickly but procedurally finalise the firing of Hlaudi Motsoeneng. We are concerned with the delays in disciplining him and bringing him to book.

5.  All necessary measures are taken to end the climate of harassment and intimidation of SABC‘s workers, and to raise the morale of staff. This must include a full investigation of the role and conduct of the State Security Agency in investigating employees, and removing  the problematic ‘interception’ clauses in recent SABC employments contracts which force workers to consent to the interception of their communications. Further, the board should ensure that the SABC adopts comprehensive policies on protecting workers’ communication and personal information, as well as a whistleblower charter that will protect and promote whistleblowing within the organisation.

6. A broad-based stakeholders’ consultative meeting is urgently convened  to allow for proper civil society and public  participation in the rejuvenation of the public broadcaster.

Right2Know wishes you well as you set about resuscitating our public broadcaster.

For Media Freedom and Diversity,

The Right 2 Know Campaign.

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