The SABC refuting the claims comes after SABC insiders and SABC trade unions said news staff were ordered not to report anything on Julius Malema. The SABC says in the statement that the SABC's news management only "appealed for more responsible and in-depth reporting on the issues".
Meanwhile the SABC's acting head of news, Jimi Matthews has expressed disappointment in his news staff for "running off" to other news outlets to say that Julius Malema has been banned from being reported on by the SABC.
The SABC's statement comes as yet another tumultuously bad week for the struggling public broadcaster is growing progressively worse.
The chairperson of the SABC board, dr Ben Ngubane told parliament that the SABC board has "degenerated into serious dysfunctionality", the SABC board wants to suspend an allegedly disruptive board member Cawe Mahlati, the SABC has suspended its acting head of procurement, has suspended its chief operating officer Gugu Duda, is facing a public protest march by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on Friday, is facing public picketing by the trade union Mwasa next Wednesday, just got slammed by Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) in a report listing the SABC's problems meeting local content quotas, and again missed its self-imposed deadline to start its own 24-hour news channel on MultiChoice's DStv which the SABC said in August would happen at the beginning of September.
The SABC statement follows after the trade union Bemawu earlier today said that SABC News staff and journalists as well as all news editors around the country at the public broadcaster have allegedly been instructed this morning not to report anything about Julius Malema until SABC top management has instructed otherwise.
Bemawu said the trade union is "extremely concerned with what appears to be the censoring of the SABC's news reports".
The SABC in a late-issued statement says "it is untrue that the SABC News department has issued any instructions banning Julius Malema. What news management has appealed for, is for more responsible and in-depth reporting on the issues."
"In a meeting on 3 September with the political news team, Jimi Matthews, the acting group executive for news, appealed to his staff for a more nuanced reporting" on Lonmin's Marikana mine massacre and related stories.
"His appeal was for context," says the SABC. "I an very disappointed with the turn of events," says Jimi Matthews in the statement. "Instead of debate, certain members of my staff ran off to other media houses claiming I had banned Malema from the airwaves. Nothing can be further from the truth. I asked for responsible journalism and intellectual engagement."
