FF PLUS COMPLAINT AT THE BCCSA AGAINST E-TV AND DEBORAH PATTA TO BE HEARD ON 10TH JUNE
The Freedom Front Plus' complaint at the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) against E-TV and Deborah Patta, with regards to a clip about racism at the University of the Free State (UFS) in the actuality program, 3rd Degree, will be heard on the 10th June from 11:00 at the BCCSA's Tribunal. According to Adv. Anton Alberts, the FF Plus' Parliamentary spokesperson on Communications, the fact that the BCCSA had directly referred the case to the Tribunal, is an indication of the seriousness with which the issue is being viewed by this body. This decision is of great importance as the FF Plus will be asking the broadcasting authority to give clear guidelines with regards to the limits of investigative TV-journalism for future use.
The complaint arose after a FF Plus student leader at the UFS campus and vice-president of the Student Council, Ms. Chrisna de Kock was intimidated by the journalist, Deborah Patta and treated her in a condescending manner during an interview about racial politics on the campus. Alberts emphasized that Patta had exceeded all limits of journalistic ethics and that she, and consequently E-TV had not only made themselves guilty of the sanctioning and promotion of psychological violence, but had themselves enforced it. Further grounds for the complaint varies from prejudiced comments to the infringement of Ms. De Kock's integrity.
During the interview with Ms. De Kock, Ms. Patta came across as very aggressive and did not give Ms. De Kock a real opportunity to answer on the allegations on racism. Only after Ms. De Kock had been driven to tears, Patta became less aggressive. The information which Patta used was furthermore not correct but she nevertheless used it as a platform to place Ms. De Kock, Afrikaners and the FF Plus in a negative light.
It also appears that the E-TV team arrived at the UFS campus with premeditation to incite emotions and work polarization in hand for the sake of producing a sensational program. This was done by the distribution of two different placards amongst students with the content which read "Proud to be White" and Proud to be Black" respectively. What media team will go to a place where there is a problem with racial tension and bring along such material to show it to students before interviews are done? There is also further evidence which indicates that Ms. Patta and the 3rd Degree team had entrapped Ms. De Kock in that the pre-interview discussions between the production team and Ms. De Kock drastically differed from how the interview unfolded in reality.
The FF Plus hopes that the BCCSA will take a balanced and fair decision in this case. The accused deserve to be found guilty and punished accordingly.
"The program was broadcast on 25 May 2010 at 21:30 on E-TV's free to air channel."
Statement issued by Anton Albert, MP, FF Plus Parliamentary Spokesperson: Communication, June 9 2010
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
