SABC capitulates and finally agrees to air DA election adverts
03 June 2016
The DA is pleased that the SABC has finally agreed to flight the DA’s election adverts, having used every trick in the book to delay their airing for more than 5 days. This is an important victory, which we hope will dissuade the public broadcaster from attempting to censor opposition political parties again.
Given that the SABC has agreed to air the DA’s election adverts, we have placed our complaint with ICASA on hold. This does not mean the complaint has been dropped completely, and should the SABC use any other means to delay the airing of the advert, we will revive the complaint immediately.
The DA argued from the start that we had every right to air our adverts as soon as the election was proclaimed. This is in terms of ICASA regulations. This was confirmed in the media by ICASA on several occasions.
The SABC’s excuses were shown up for what they always were: poor attempts to delay the adverts. Excuses ranging from their search for political party slots (not required for paid advertisements), to determining bizarrely if we were in fact a political party at all, demonstrated their desperation to block us at every turn.