At 2pm today the North Gauteng high Court heard an urgent interdict agains EFF leader, Julius Malema [in case you did not know], by the CEO of Oakbay Investments, Nazeem Howa. [Oakbay is one of the main shareholders of ANN7 and the New Age].
The interdict follows Malema's comments last week whereby he made statements which incited violence against the journalists of ANN7 and the New Age, calling them the public relations department of the controversial Gupta family, ANN7 and The New Age's main shareholders. He further went on to ban them from attending EFF events in the name of ANN7 and The New Age.
The interdict is to restrain EFF members from committing acts of violence against the company’s shareholders, staff and property. "Malema lashed out at the Gupta brothers and their commercial interests with a clear and unambiguous threat of violence and xenophobia," Oakbay Investments CEO Nazeem Howa said
The interdict was granted by Judge Johan Louw, 'with amendments.' What those amendments are will be clarified at a later date.
"Our employees have the right to go to work and do their jobs without the threat of violence. We welcome today’s ruling and hope that the EFF will cease its threats and intimidation of our staff immediately,” said ANN7 editor-in-chief, Moegsien Williams,
ANN7 and its sister newspaper, The New Age, made the headlines today when EFF leader, Julius Malema, stated at a press briefing today that journalists from the two Infinity Media entities are no longer welcomed at EFF events.
Infinity Media, the holding company of ANN7 (DStv 405, ann7.com/livetv) and The New Age, is owned by the controversial Gupta family, who have resurfaced in the media these past few weeks as a result of their close relations with senior ANC officials. Malema, along with members of the EFF, are accusing the two media entities (which share the same editor, Moegsien Williams) of not conducting proper reporting, but are instead acting as a mouthpiece for the Gupta family in the same way as 'Naspers did for the Apartheid government.' Furthermore, he stated that individuals working for these orgamisations would 'not be safe' at EFF events.
[You can see Malema's full media briefing by clicking here. (eNCA)]
The move was met, expectedly, by uproar from members of the press, with the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) commenting on the story throughout the day to media houses, including having a representitive present at both ANN7 and SABC News Channel's debates around the issue. SANEF stated that it was unacceptable for any political party to intimidate journalists.
The ruling party's spokesperson, Zizi Kodwa, also condemned the comments made by Malema, going further to state that these comments incite violence and goes against the same constitution that allows Malema to be in parliament.
ANN7 and the New Age's editor-in-chief, Moegsien Williams, appeared on ANN7 throughout the day to comment on the matter. Speaking to Karabo Yibe on ANN7's Good Evening SA, Moegsien stated, "[The statements] reminds me a lot of Donald Trump in the United States who wants to ban Muslims and throw reporters out of press conferences.He is our very own Donald Trump and I worry about that kind of language when we have an election coming up."
ANN7
Ironically, ANN7 was the only tv channel broadcasting the comments made by Malema on live tv. eNCA only streamed the event in its entirety. However, once the comments were made, ANN7's assistant editor on duty decided to cut the feed to the event from the broadcast, whilst the journalists from ANN7 that attended the event remained behind.
ANN7 covered the story throughout the day. As aforementioned, editor Moegsien Williams appeared multiple times on air throughout the day to discuss the issue. The channel's ANN7 Prime debate of the day centered on the issue.
On the panel was Williams, who was joined by William Bird (Director, Media Monitoring Africa) and Moshoeshoe Monare (council member, SANEF).
Monare stated that it was unacceptable for a political party to victimise journalists based on who owns the media house they work for. He further echoed the sentiment of SANEF that Malema's remarks threaten freedom of expression.
Bird stated that if the party had issues with the media house, they should have raised the issue with management, not deal with it in the manner that they did.
Oddly, at the end of the debate, when it was time to reveal viewers' reply to the Question of the Day, "Can we allow Malema to incite hate against media organization?" more than two thirds of viewers who participated the poll voted 'yes,' which must have been very awkward for anchor Peter van Onselen to make sense of.
SABC News Channel
SABC News had an in depth discussion on the matter on their recently launched, really well done, new program, On The Record with Vuyo Mvoko. The discussion had a representitive of the EFF present, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, and a representitive from the South African national Editor's forum, Adriaan Basson, present.
Ndlozi continued to echo the sentiment among EFF members today that The New Age and ANN7 are not media, but instead are 'the communications department of the Gupta family masqerading as independent journalism.' He further stated that these news outlets serve only to normalise and legitimise the Guptas in South Africa today. He also stated that the EFF is conscious of the fact that this action puts the journalists that work at ANN7 and The New Age in the crossfire. Ndlozi did say these journalists are welcomed to EFF events in their personal capacity, but may not come in the name of the news outlets owned by the Gupta family.
Basson stated that SANEF are disappointed by the actions of the EFF and have previously perceived them to be welcoming to members of the press. He stated the organisation thought the actions were wrong and against the freedom of media freedom.
eNCA
South Africa's most watched news channel, eNCA, only covered the story as one element of the bigger story regarding the EFF's planned march against Zuma and the Guptas. In the report which included these comments from Malema, eNCA only ever mentioned 'media organisations owned by the Guptas,' not once referring to ANN7 or The New Age by name. A channel that stands up for press freedom in other countries barely gave airtime for press freedom here. [They really displayed a total lack of support to a fellow news organisation, even though that news organisation is a distant third to them when it comes to viewership, so they should not have feared losing many viewers by merely saying the word 'ANN7' on air ]
Recently, ANN7 added another magazine show to the channel, I Am South African which highlights the positive change made by everyday South Africans in the country. The feel good show, now broadcast daily at 5pm for an hour is being billed as a "first of its kind by any broadcaster" by ANN7. It allows viewers the opportunity to get to know South Africans that are making a positive change in the world around them. Moegsien Williams, ANN7 editor-in-chief, said at a launch event on June 19th that the show will highlight the unsung heroes in our country.
"At the same time I wanted to pay tribute, but at the same time I wanted to create a talk show property. Both those elements are important." These are the words of Executive Producer, Dale Herbst, who described this 76 part show. The show is said to also focus more on what inspires young people of the country.
Hulisani Ravele is the host of ANN7's daily I Am South African, which airs daily at 5pm as part of the channels build up to the inaugural South African of the Year Awards being held by the channel on September 6th
Host, Hulisani Ravele, says she is so proud to be a part of this show. Hulisani, known to many South Africans simply as CC, is a former child star who was a Yotv presenter for over 12 years and also a former Yebo Millionaires presenter, both at SABC 1. She returns to television after a few years of being a part of the corporate world.
All of this is part of the buildup to the inaugural South African of the Year Awards that will be hosted by the channel on September 6th at the Johannesburg Convention Centre in an evening that is said to have a star studded lineup along with over 1 000 specially invited guests for the awards. Following the trend of other awards shows in the country (I am looking at you, Mtv African Music Awards), the channel is still working on securing the services of a well known international personality for the evening. The awards are set to recognise the efforts made by inspirational citizens who had made an impactful change in the country in the last calender year. The event forms part of the channel's first anniversary celebrations. The channel celebrates a year on air on August 21st.
Viewer participation is also vital, as they will vote on the nominees in the different categories of the awards. Viewers will choose from a selection of nominees chosen by, as editor Moegsien Williams describes it, "a super jury of editors," who are well known editors from around the country who will each work with their own small teams to find the nominees.
As the May 7th Election draws nearer, South Africa's three news channels are all running special coverage building up to the event.
(c) eNCA
eNCA, the most watched news channel in the country, has a special series of election debates running Wednesday evenings, the last of which was solely on the province of Gauteng, the first of which included the likes of Helen Zille.
They also running special election coverage in their standard news bulletins, along with an increasing amount of interviews with analysts approaching the elections from different perspectives, tending to focus on mining.
They also have short inserts where political heavyweights answer questions set by the youth in a set time frame.
The other news channels seem to be going all out as well.
You could argue that the channel with the most election coverage thus far is ANN7.
Here, Moegsien Williams, Editor in Chief of ANN7 is seen along with the team of their daily two hour show, SA Decides. Coutesy: ann7.com
They have dedicated hours upon hours of their schedule to the elections and, when one looks at the substance of their coverage, you could argue that they have invested a great deal of resources into this election, I would argue more than any channel.
They have their daily election program, SA Decides from 5pm to 7pm where they catch up with fifty journalists spread around the country covering the elections solely.
Courtesy: ann7.com
In addition to this, they conducted a never before seen in South African history poll on election trends. Every Thursday at 8pm they catch up with the latest trends in their Election Tracker program, that is repeated several times over the weekend, along with new editions being broadcast on Saturday and Sunday. The Thursday edition is anchored by chief anchor Chantel Rutter Dros, along with editor in chief, Moegsien Williams and a really exceptional panel, seen above.
One of the stars of their election coverage, if not the biggest, has to be Hajra Omarjee. She anchors the weekly show Political Edge on Sundays at 8pm. It was initally a half an hour show, but since it tends to always run over time (one week over an hour overtime) it has since been extended to an hour. She has really developed in her abilities to act as a moderator of debate, often calling guests out on their claims and sticking to an issue until it is answered to a satisfactory level.
There have also been special editions of that show aired throughout the week.
The SABC has also had special election coverage on their SABC News channel.
They have the Democracy20 program that airs right in the middle of their flagship 6pm newscast from 6:30pm to 7pm (simulcast on free-to-air channel SABC3) that looks at how the country has developed since 1994.
They have an Election Round Up program daily at 10 pm that looks at the days to election news (this program replaces reruns of news bulletins that ran earlier in the evening on other SABC channels).
They have also had election debates that airs at 6pm on Sunday (simulcast on SABC1 during the slot held by well done news show Sunday World).
With so many options you spoilt for choice when it comes to election programming and deciding wh to vote for. I must say I am impressed by the heavyweights that have came out to appear on these programs, often multiple times and on channels that do not have high viewerships.
It is
shaping up to be a David vs Goliath battle this election season: The couragous
David, ANN7, taking on a somewhat arrogant Goliath, eNCA (arrogant in the way
how chief Patrick Conroy constantly ridicules ANN7's tiny viewership figures on
Twitter, showing a great degree of unprofessionalism).
What ANN7
lacks in overall production values is more than made up in how they covering
the elections (and their presentation overall).
Their
main political show, Political Edge with Hajra Omarjee has been extended to a
full hour on Sundays (8pm).
Another
addition to their schedule is a daily two hour show called SA Decides at 5pm,
where a total of 45 "media professionals" (I am using the term in
quotation marks as that is the term referred to by the channel and I am unable
to verify its validity at this point) has spread out to all nine provinces (5
per province) to get a feel of what the mood in the country is like ahead of
the elections and ensuring that people have their voices heard. I really admire
their efforts, but thi production comes across very much as a
travelshow/educational-show-on-SABC/community tv show type of a program and not
a professional news production. Maybe it is because the 'journalists' are not
formally attired or just the overall presentation, but for now I am going to
see how things go
"It's my first time doing this. For me it's gonna give me the exposure that I need." Statements like this by the journalist above is sure to raise skepticism on the show.
This past
week, they ran special programs in prime time from 8pm to 10pm, Election Tracker, co-anchored by
prime time anchor Chantal Rutter Dros and Editor-in-Chief, Moegsien Williams. I
hadn't heard of Mr Williams before this week as I had not seen him on the telly
before, so a quick Google search revealed that he has quite a journalistic
pedigree behind his name having previously been editor at Independent
Newspapers. The special were about a first-of-its kind in South Africa poll on
election projections and were quite well done.
“SA Decides” Election Tracker. Picture: TNA
I really
have to give it to these guys with the guests that they had on these shows (and
on ANN7 Prime in general) as all larger political parties were represented, and
some smaller ones as well took part in this debate. I really found it nice that
they openly debated the lack of tv time the smaller parties are receiving on
SABC News, as usually eNCA and SABC themselves often do not often even
acknowledge the existance of their competition (at least on air). They had so
much guests, that they could not fit everyone onto the main set and had to
instead cross over to people that were in the same newsroom as
themselves.
I also
enjoy how journalists and anchors now walk through the newsroom during
presentations, talking to statisticians, , adding a very lively dimension and a
feeling of immediacy to their presentations.
The interdict is to restrain EFF members from committing acts of violence against the company’s shareholders, staff and property. "Malema lashed out at the Gupta brothers and their commercial interests with a clear and unambiguous threat of violence and xenophobia," Oakbay Investments CEO Nazeem Howa said
Recently, ANN7 added another magazine show to the channel, I Am South African which highlights the positive change made by everyday South Africans in the country. The feel good show, now broadcast daily at 5pm for an hour is being billed as a "first of its kind by any broadcaster" by ANN7. It allows viewers the opportunity to get to know South Africans that are making a positive change in the world around them. Moegsien Williams, ANN7 editor-in-chief, said at a launch event on June 19th that the show will highlight the unsung heroes in our country.
