News24 reports that Cosatu said on Monday that the SABC’s decision to stop broadcasting images of violent protests smacked of autocracy and was deeply patronizing.
The national broadcaster was assuming South Africans were “impressionable and imbecilic citizens” who needed protection from “barbaric visuals”, the trade union federation said in a statement. It wants the SABC’s board to reconsider the decision and tell South African stories uncensored, warts and all. Cosatu said the fight against apartheid was also against censorship and news sanitization and the SABC had to operate independently from all party political, factional and commercial interests. The SABC announced last week that it had stopped television broadcasts of violent anti-government protests in a bid to discourage others from similar acts.
- Read this report by Lizeka Tandwa in full at News24
- Read too, Cosatu: SABC protest policy assumes we’re imbeciles, at Daily Maverick
- And also, Cosatu calls on SABC to rethink censorship on protests, at Business Report
- Cosatu’s press statement can be read at Cosatu Today
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page