by Thinus Ferreira
The maligned eNCA (DStv 403) anchors Jane Dutton and Xoli Mngambi will return to the anchor desk on Monday morning after an "internal review process" that saw them disappear since Wednesday for 3 days with their absence that went unexplained by eMedia Investments.
In the week eNCA had no comment other than to say the two anchors have not been suspended.
Their promised return to the Hyde Park studios anchor desk on Monday follows after a firestorm that their in-news commentary ignited on Monday morning around Covid-19 when they referred to an "emasculated" president Cyril Ramaphosa in relation to the continued ban on cigarettes during South Africa's national lockdown period.
They then added fuel to the fire with a bizarre apology on Tuesday morning for their misdirected and misogynistic commentary the previous day.
Their in-bulletin commentary, the apology, and their unexplained disappearance managed to simultaneously ignite massive anger and shock from multiple overlapping and different audience quadrants.
In eNCA's latest self-inflicted scandal, viewers of the embattled South African TV news channel were angry and shocked over what Xoli Mngambi and Jane Dutton said, viewers were upset that they apologised, viewers then got angry about perceived censorship at eNCA, and even South Africa's media fraternity raised the alarm and expressed deep concern about eNCA's dangerous stew of news and toxic commentary and the channel's apparent censorship of its anchors.
Weirdly, other eNCA anchors who now all mostly do on-air commentary on the news like FOX News in the United States, all fell silent and didn't say anything about the on-air disappearance of their colleagues or what led to it.
e.tv and eNCA didn't respond to questions from TVwithThinus the last few days asking about clarity on eNCA's policy of commentary within news, why it's being done, when it was instituted, and by whom.
On Saturday morning eNCA made an announcement saying Xoli Mngambi and Jane Dutton would be back from Monday.
The Meropa PR company, acting on behalf of e.tv, said in a statement that The South African Morning duo would be back on Monday 11 May at 06:00.
eNCA in the Meropa-issued statement says it "appreciates how the views expressed by the news anchors on Monday 4 May about president Cyril Ramaphosa and minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma could have created general public conjecture".
"As such, an internal review process was effected in line with the company's internal policies. The review entailed gaining clarity on the opinion and subsequent apology made and whether editorial diligence had been exercised."
"Through this process our broadcast and editorial teams identified the need to reaffirm our editorial guidelines and policies."
eNCA said that it "categorically refrain from censorship" and that the TV news channel "believes in the freedom in the freedom of media as enshrined in our national constitution, however we also understand that such rights cannot exist without responsibility".
eNCA says in the statement that "Xoli Mngambi and Jane Dutton both confirmed that they had not been suspended at any stage during the review process".
Jane Dutton in a prepared statement says "We found our engagement to be fair and were able to share our views without prejudice".
Xoli Mngambi in a prepared statement says "The apology was initiated by us and not by channel management and we never felt that we were being censored in any way".
Norman Ndivhuho Munzhelele, eNCA managing director, in a prepared statement says "Regular review of policies is important to the operation and success of any organization and even more so within a news context as our environment is an ever-changing one".
"We found this engagement to be productive and successful. We are grateful to our viewers for their continued support and patience as we completed this process."
Crass commentary
The eNCA firestorm started on Monday when Xoli Mngambi and Jane Dutton launched into a vitriol-filled commentary at the top of the 7 o'clock hours, without their on-air comments preceded by a warning or qualified as editorial opinion 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 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 strongly-worded 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: eNCA walks back shocking FOX News-like on-air editorial attack by Xoli Mngambi and Jane Dutton on ‘publicly emasculated’ Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma: ‘An unfortunate judgment call’.
ALSO READ: South African National Editors' Forum deeply concerned about eNCA's removal of anchors Xoli Mngambi and Jane Dutton, says eNCA's 'unfortunate mixing of news and commentary' could leave viewers in doubt as to what's fact and newsreader opinion.
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'.
