Black Journalists Forum colour fracas continues

Sanef says the exclusion undermines SA's democracy

Controversy is continuing around the exclusion of white journalists from attending the Forum for Black Journalists' inaugural meeting last month.

FBJ interim chairperson, Abbey Makoe, last week told the South African Human Rights Commission that the outcry caused by a local radio station when asked to leave the "blacks only" FBJ was "disruptive and disrespectful".

At its inaugural meeting, the forum invited ANC President Jacob Zuma to address its members, but excluded white journalists. This angered some white journalists who lodged a complaint with the Commission.

The South African National Editors’ Forum slammed the decision saying the "exclusion has no place in South Africa today and certainly not in a forum that represents journalists.”

Makoe, said the FBJ was an association of "who would politically in the South African context be defined as of African descent, coloureds and Indians". Makoe said the body's "modus operandi" was to "redress inherent past imbalances which affect journalists as they attempt to work in the public domain".

Any member of the media could join the forum, as long as they are of African descent, or coloured or Indian. Asked whether he thought it was discriminatory to exclude white journalists, Makoe said: "To be quite frank that is just when people want to take attention away from why black journalists feel the need to get together from time to time to discuss matters they feel need addressing."

He said the FBJ was no different from the Jewish Board of Deputies or the Black Lawyers' Association.