The South African Broadcasting (SABC) has reacted to reports that it had banned an advert for the Fish and Chip Company for being disrespectful to President Jacob Zuma, saying it was of the view that “the advert implied an endorsement of the product sold by the Fish and Chip Company”.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said the public broadcaster had noted with concern the story published today in The Star with the headline ‘SABC bans Zuma Advert’. “The headline makes no reference to the advert actually being for fish and chips,” Kganyago said.
He said the SABC reserved the right to exercise editorial control over all content, “as per our trading terms, licence conditions, and public broadcast mandate”.
And he added: “In line with SABC trading terms and conditions, material for broadcasting a television advert must be received five (5) working days before broadcast, therefore allowing the SABC an opportunity to do all the technical and quality checks and reviews as required.
“In the case of this advertisement, the SABC received the material from the agency electronically at 14:09 on Friday 23 November 2012 for flighting on Monday 26 November 2012.
“Of interest is that by 16:00 Monday afternoon, the advert had been uploaded on the internet video platform, YouTube by Fish and Chip Company, and communication with the media was already taking place. At that point, there had been no formal correspondence to Metropolitan Republic Group, regarding the SABC’s position on the advert.”
