Three more SABC journalists suspended
Three more senior SABC employees have been suspended after they sent a letter to Hlaudi Motsoeneng expressing concern about recent policy choices.
|||Johannesburg - Three more senior SABC employees have been suspended after they sent a letter to chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng in which they expressed concern about the public broadcaster’s recent policy choices.
The SABC corporate HR delivered notices of suspension to Special Assignment executive producer Busisiwe Ntuli, SAfm Current Affairs executive producer Krivani Pillay and senior investigative reporter Jacques Steenkamp on Thursday.
In their letter sent to Motsoeneng earlier this week the three wrote: “Our newsroom has become a source of derision, despair and criticism from the people who we are fundamentally accountable to, the public at large.
“ln addition, we are of the view that the recent decisions to remove the newspaper slots and The Editors on SAfm’s AM Live amounts to what we consider censorship, unless reasonable and professional explanations can be advanced within the framework of our editorial policy and our obligation to serve the public.”
It goes on to say: “Furthermore, we wish to register our deep concern for our colleagues who have been suspended for expressing their right to freedom of expression by simply debating and assessing the newsworthiness of events, as expected, during editorial meetings.
“As such, we view the suspensions of Thandeka Gqubule, Foeta Krige and Suna Venter as acts of victimisation,” the trio said.
Economics editor Thandeka Gqubule, RSG executive producer Foeta Krige and senior journalist Suna Venter were suspended last week after questioning a decision not to cover a protest led by the Right2Know campaign against SABC management in Durban, Cape Town and Joburg, condemning the ban on protest coverage and editorial policies implemented last month
According to sources, charges were brought against Krige and Venter on Thursday while Gqubule has been called in to face a disciplinary.
* This story will be updated shortly.