BREAKING. SABC admits that the broadcaster's conduct of employees and head of news at the SABC was not in line with Broadcasting Act.

In the Blacklisting Case the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) wanted to bring against the SABC before the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), the SABC is now shockingly finally admitting that the South African public broadcaster's conduct of employees, former employees and a former head of news and current affairs was not in line with the SABC's own editorial policies, broke the SABC's licence conditions in respect of news and current affairs programming, and was not in line with the Broadcasting Act the SABC is supposed to adhere to.

The SABC Blacklisting hearing was suppose to start at Icasa today and last the entire week - finally bring a sense of forward movement on a long simmering issue which first burst into the open in 2006 with allegations of censorship at the SABC and allegations of journalists and commentators being placed on a Blacklist by SABC management and deliberately kept off the air.

Meanwhile the FXI and the SABC last week reached a secret settlement which meant that the start of today's Icasa hearing into SABC Blacklisting lasted all of five minutes before the hearing was ended with a request to end it due to the settlement.

In a joint press statement by the FXI and the SABC, the FXI now says it has "withdrawn the complaint against the SABC and this settles fully and finally the FXI's complaint against the SABC".

''Consequently the SABC has adopted Guidelines on the use of commentators, experts and analysts by SABC News. In these guidelines the SABC commits to monitoring and enforcing compliance with the guidelines, and reviewing them from time to time to ensure that they remain appropriate to the broadcasting environment in which it operates."

In the joint statement the FXI and the SABC say that they're "pleased that the matter has finally been resolved".