Monday, June 13, 2016

EFF's Juju slams eNCA as 'racist' and claims biased election coverage reporting; eNCA says it does balanced reporting; will meet with the political party next week.


As sure as there's sunshine, there will always be another summer season on Clifton's beaches, another strike season as unions toyi-toyi during wage negotiation season, and then, of course, election season.

During this period - South Africans go to the polls on 3 August - the elections cycle is always filled with grandstanding and posturing from politicians and one weapon from their evergreen arsenal: attacks on the media.

The TV news channel eNCA (DStv 403) has come under fire from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) political party, with its leader Julius Malema that threatened the eMedia Investments channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform with mass action.

Julius Malema slammed eNCA for alleged biased election news coverage, saying on Twitter that "I think we should teach this racist eNCA a lesson by paying them a visit with the masses before elections because of their bias to the Democratic Alliance (DA)".

eNCA says its aware of Julius Malema's utterance, and says the news channel does balanced reporting.

"As an independent news service, eNCA is unequivocally committed to ensure that we treat all political parties fairly and provide our viewers with the balanced reporting they need to make informed voting decisions," says Anton Harber, eNCA's editor-in-chief.

"In addition, our election coverage is being monitored by Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), an organisation that strives to ensure fair, free, quality and ethical journalism on the continent, and we will use their reports to ensure that we meet the highest possible standards of coverage".

"eNCA's management has arranged a meeting with the EFF next week and will present detailed data around the channel's fair coverage of the party," said Anton Harber.