An application brought by African Content Movement (ACM) against the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) over coverage of the party's election manifesto has been dismissed by the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg with costs.
Judge Willem van der Linde said the editorial policy of the SABC cannot be impugned.
The ACM, which is headed up by former SABC chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, approached the court in an effort to get the SABC to cover its manifesto launch live on SABC 2 and SABC News Channel 404 on DStv on Saturday.
Van der Linde said Icasa should have been joined in these proceedings.
Earlier the SABC's spokesperson Vuyo Mthembu said that the broadcaster had decided that the ACM’s manifesto launch will be covered by its news division as a news story. She added that the public broadcaster has not provided live coverage of manifesto launches of any of the new or existing parties that were not represented in Parliament.
“This is an editorial decision that has taken into account, amongst others, resource constraints and equitable coverage treatment of political parties contesting the elections. In addition, as per Icasa regulations, there is no obligation on the SABC to provide live coverage to any political party,” head of news at SABC, Phathiswa Magopeni stated.
Mthembu said in a statement after the ruling: "The dismissal of the application reaffirms that the SABC’S decision was the correct one".
Motsoeneng was dismissed in 2017 after he was found to have brought the public broadcaster into disrepute during a media conference he called to discuss the introduction of the infamous 90% local music quota to the broadcaster.