paulry

What part of this ad incites violence?

http://mg.co.za/article/2014-04-11-s...mit-amended-ad

http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politic...tail&pid=71616

MartynK

"Is the SABC the mouthpiece of the ANC?"

Pretty much, yes, just as it used to be the propaganda arm of the Nats.

paulry

That's true. Maybe the question should be: Will the SABC ever be politically impartial? Saying that, even in the UK and Australia the state-owned broadcasters are politically biased - though not always consistent with the governments that are in power.

paulry

Well, whatever we might have to say about the SABC, at least South Africans have independent regulators to turn to for consideration of their complaints.

http://news.iafrica.com/sa/919099.html

Now the country needs its own ICAC

MartynK

Not in this lifetime. Most governments tend towards authoritarianism, and having tame, state controlled, media gives them a lot of leverage. Internet access dilutes this - hence China and other countries trying to restrict it - but it's still in its infancy in SA, so the SABC continues to play an important role. I agree with you about the BBC (I don't know anything about Australian state broadcasting). It's grown into an arrogant monster, believing that it has a mandate to use public money and licence fees to promote its own agenda.

Yip, although I suspect that the SABC decided not to fight this very vigorously because it wasn't really all that important. I wouldn't be surprised to see the legislation amended after the election, to prevent this sort of thing happening again though.