The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has painted a picture of a biased Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), which acted against Constitutional Court guidelines when its Complaints and Compliance Committee ruled in an ‘irrational and unreasonable’ manner against a DA election advertisement scheduled to be aired on the SABC during the 2014 elections campaign.

In a damning judgment, notes Legalbrief, Judge RE Monama found the committee and its chairperson ‘in essence censored the advertisement and ... infringed the applicant’s freedom of expression and curtailed illegally its political rights’ when it ordered the party to excise a part of the advert. At issue in the ad, which denigrated the ANC, was the phrase ‘We’ve seen a police force killing our people.’

The police objected on the grounds that the ad was 'likely to promote unlawful, illegal or criminal acts as contemplated in Regulation 6(9)(b) and provoke violence as contemplated in Section 9(1)(a) of the Electrical Code'. It asked Icasa to intervene. Monama said of Icasa: ‘It has to be independent as the name correctly suggests. It has to be insulated from political or economic capture. It must perform its mandate without fear and favour. There is nothing in this advertisement that can remotely be construed as an invitation to obstruct the police in the execution of their work. The respondent must be reminded that there is a rule of law in this country.’

Judgment