SABC theathens South African documentary making

From the South African Mail & Guardian on the canning of the Mbeki documentary

I TOLD a friend to watch Unauthorised: Mbeki, the documentary that was scheduled for Wednesday June 6.

Instead we were force-fed a repeat diet of Patricia de Lille. Since then I have been trying to get to the bottom of why the doccie was canned.

After a private viewing, columnist Anton Harber commented that it was fairly innocuous and that he could not understand why this form of censorship was continuing. This form of mind control yet again “reinforces (his) view that the SABC’s problem is not that they are captives of the government or the ruling party, but that they’re crippled by a mixture of fear and confusion, borne of a fatal mixture of incompetence and uncertainty. There are ongoing battles between those who want to do more daring and provocative work, and screen a range of views on matters as complicated as the presidency; and there are those who want to move the SABC closer to the ANC (African National Congress). In the middle are a lot of confused and uncertain individuals being pulled in both directions.”

Read more here.