Heart FM cleared of racist hate speech
In its latest ruling, the Broadcasting Complaints Commission found that, although the comments by one of the show's hosts were "uncalled for and ill-considered", they were not hate speech.
The Trauma Centre, an NGO, complained to the commission after presenter Julian Naidoo questioned his co-presenter Tapfuma Makina, a Zimbabwean, on whether he had a valid work visa.
He also suggested that Makina, who he said had several radio shows and did "voice-overs", had "taken away" at least 10 jobs from South Africans. Makina responded by saying: "This is how xenophobia starts."
The Trauma Centre's Valdi van Reenen-Le Roux said the centre believed Naidoo's words incited xenophobia and amounted to a hate crime.
However, Heart FM, which has more than 500,000 weekly listeners, denied any maliciousness, but agreed the comments warranted an apology.
"Julian's comments did not have any malicious intent . We [are] thoroughly satisfied that the content did not amount to hate speech, but recognise the sensitivity of the issue.
"Julian showed poor judgment and, for this, an apology is in order," it said.
The commission found that the remarks had "come across as provocative, and smack of a personal attack, and [are] perhaps even inflammatory", but there was no advocacy for violence against Zimbabweans or other groups and thus did not violate the broadcasting code.
The commission cautioned that such remarks were ill-advised, considering the high unemployment rate and the 2008 xenophobic outbreak.
The commission said: "The presenter's comments were uncalled for and ill-considered; he acted extremely injudiciously in introducing a potentially inflammatory topic. Sensitivity and caution are required in a context where foreigners are frequently and unfairly blamed for joblessness."
Despite this, the commission said: "While the remarks might border on hate speech, there is no outright advocacy, and as such the principle of freedom of expression should be respected in a case that nevertheless sails too close to the wind."
Source: Sowetan, via I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge
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