by Thinus Ferreira
The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) says the media organisation is deeply concerned over the shocking developments at eMedia Investments' eNCA (DStv 403) that is carried on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service, where Xoli Mngambi and Jane Dutton have been removed from their seats behind the anchor desks without any explanation following their equally-shocking in-bulletin commentary.
The latest eNCA scandal - once again inflicting image and news credibility damage on the embattled eNCA brand - started on Monday when news anchors Xoli Mngambi and Jane Dutton started the 7:00 bulletin off with a FOX News-like commentary and slammed the South African president Cyril Ramaphosa who was called "publicly emasculated" and minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma over their smoking ban during South Africa's Covid-19 national lockdown period.
The anchors said the president and minister have "duped" the public" and that South Africa was becoming "a police state under the renegade ministers".
The eNCA on-air comments came without warning or being qualifying as editorial for viewers.
Jane Dutton on eNCA started the broadcast hour on Monday morning, saying: ""A reminder of who's controlling South Africa's narrative right now - not the president but minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. How? She used her power and considerable influence to ensure the ban on cigarettes would continue".
"Why did she do that? Is it because the president is popular right now? Or is it a reminder that the party politics at Luthuli House, the rivalry there, is still very much at play?" editorialised Xoli Mngambi.
Jane Dutton suggested that "While Cyril Ramaphosa has been publicly emasculated, we the public have been duped. How can you discard what the president said just because 2 000 people were against it? And how many more people wanted the sales ban lifted?
In her on-air commentary Jane Dutton said "It's the same warped throught-process behind the limited exercise-regime".
Xoli Mngambi opined that "There are fears we are becoming a police state under the control of the renegate ministers and our security forces - bullying at the top and bullying at the bottom. The president now needs to take back that power."
"Can he?" Jane Dutton wondered aloud. "This is a tipping point." She had more rhetorical questions: "If he can't deal with something like this, how will he overcome the economic challenges and lead the country out of this turbulent period?" she wondered.
On Tuesday eNCA forced Xoli Mngambi and Jane Dutton to make an on-air apology after which they disappeared on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from the eNCA airwaves without explanation.
In a terse response on Wednesday night in response to a media enquiry, Norman Ndivhuho Munzhelele, eNCA managing director, told TVwithThinus that "eNCA anchors Jane Dutton and Xoli Mngambi have not been suspended".
eNCA is yet to answer or respond to other questions asked about the developing scandal, including why eNCA started doing commentary and opinion within its news reporting programming, and who implemented it.
In 2019 eNCA was found guilty of having breached the Broadcasting Code when anchor Vuyo Mvoko included commentary into a TV news bulletin and was ordered to apologise after viewers lodged complaints.
Broadcasting Code: Comment inside news a no-no
eNCA made use of unproven statements building a narrative for which there is no substantiating facts, as well as firing off rhetorical questions hanging in the air - exactly similar in style to how opinion hosts on the FOX News channel in the United States do their commentary-laced shows.
According to South Africa's Broadcasting Code of Conduct, pay-TV channels like eNCA "must report news truthfully, accurately and fairly" and news "must be presented in the correct context and in a fair manner, without intentional or negligent departure from the facts, whether by distortion, exaggeration or misrepresentation, material omissions or summarisation".
The Code states that "Comment must be an honest expression of opinion and must be presented in such manner that it appears clearly to be comment, and must be made on facts truly stated or fairly indicated and referred to".
It's still unclear as to why the eMedia Investments channel produced for MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service has started to do in-news opinion and commentary when it's not allowed to and started to emulate the FOX News-style of opinion-infused comment on news instead of just reporting the news.
As the viewership of rival TV news channels like SABC News and Newzroom Afrika - which just celebrated its first anniversary continue to grow - eNCA which retains it lead and is still the most watched TV news channel in South Africa, has lost trust and credibility after an ongoing series of behind-the-scenes newsroom management scandals and mistakes.
According to South Africa's Broadcasting Code of Conduct, pay-TV channels like eNCA "must report news truthfully, accurately and fairly" and news "must be presented in the correct context and in a fair manner, without intentional or negligent departure from the facts, whether by distortion, exaggeration or misrepresentation, material omissions or summarisation".
The Code states that "Comment must be an honest expression of opinion and must be presented in such manner that it appears clearly to be comment, and must be made on facts truly stated or fairly indicated and referred to".
It's still unclear as to why the eMedia Investments channel produced for MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service has started to do in-news opinion and commentary when it's not allowed to and started to emulate the FOX News-style of opinion-infused comment on news instead of just reporting the news.
As the viewership of rival TV news channels like SABC News and Newzroom Afrika - which just celebrated its first anniversary continue to grow - eNCA which retains it lead and is still the most watched TV news channel in South Africa, has lost trust and credibility after an ongoing series of behind-the-scenes newsroom management scandals and mistakes.
SANEF: Deeply concerned about undermining of freedom of expression at eNCA
SANEF in a statement on Friday morning said that it is "perturbed about developments at eNCA"."SANEF understands that a few months ago the eNCA management introduced a requirement for its anchors to be more opinionated and to open their shows on social and political issues. So it seems that when Xoli Mngambi and Jane Dutton aired their comments they were not violating any internal policy."
"SANEF is deeply concerned about the potential undermining of freedom of expression at eNCA," says the organisation.
"We think it important to reiterate key provisions of the BCCSA Broadcasting Code of Conduct applicable to eNCA," says SANEF.
"Section 28.1.3 of the Subscription Code clearly requires that “only that which may reasonably be true… may be presented as fact…If a report is…founded on opinion…it must be presented in such manner as to indicate clearly that such is the case."
SANEF says that "eNCA management’s strategy to include more personalised commentary in the news broadcasts has paved the way for an unfortunate mixing of news and comment in such a way that the reasonable viewer might have been left in doubt as to what was fact and what was the newsreaders’ opinion."
"SANEF respects the right of media companies to apply their own editorial guidelines, quality control measures, internal policies and directives, but this should never be at odds with the Constitution and industry codes."
"SANEF will write to eNCA acting managing director Norman Munzhelele asking for an explanation of why Xoli Mngambi and Jane Dutton's have been taken off air. We believe that news management should defend journalists and their freedom of expression."
"The incident follows incidents of political interference in the newsroom in December that led to the exit of the previous head of news. We will also be raising these issues in our meeting."
ALSO READ: Sanef welcomes firing of eNCA's politician news boss Kanthan Pillay, says eNCA must 'get to the bottom of how a politician was ever allowed to have such a senior position in their newsroom'.
