EFF CONDEMNS ENCA ON AN UNFAIR AND UNBALANCED COVERAGE OF RAMAPHOSA’S BUDGET VOTE
Thursday, May 24, 2018
The EFF condemns the eNCA for deliberately cutting off Parliament feed during Ramaphosa’s budget vote debate right at the point when the CIC Julius Malema’s turn to speak started. This amounts to an unbalanced and unfair coverage of the debate. The EFF CIC Julius Malema leads the third largest political party which the South African public, regardless of who they vote for, has great interest to hear speak.
We have reliably learned that highly placed editors were not even aware of the decision to cut off the CIC Malema’s speech. This confirms that there is editorial interference from the Ramaphosa group, influencing eNCA coverage. It also means eNCA is playing the same role that ANN7 played when Zuma was President. If indeed this continues, we will be forced to treat them with the same treatment we gave ANN7 as a discredited propaganda piece for the Zupta kleptocracy.
Many have coined the eNCA news as “The Ramaphosa Administration”, because of giving him free airtime every day even on things that are not newsworthy like taking a morning walk. The eNCA can go cover a morning, useless, walk by Ramaphosa, instead of showing or covering a service delivery protest. They are in an election mode already, campaigning for their chosen candidate and will continue to give him free airtime up to elections.
The decision to cut off the coverage when the CIC Malema’s turn to speak came also means eNCA has a fascist temperament. This is because fascism is precisely eliminating or erasing the voice of those who are critical of you. It is a fact that the ideological orientation that supports eNCA is liberal and celebratory of Ramaphosa. As a result, they see CIC and EFF as the only threat to this narrative, which they work hard, against all odds, to paint to the public.
We call on eNCA to be accountable and explain to the rest of the public why this editorial decision was taken and on what grounds. It is an obligation of any credible media platform to report fairly and in a balanced manner, particularly on issues of great public interest like Parliament; our entire democracy depends precisely on that.
Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 24 May 2018
