Complaint against Carte Blanche dismissed
Carte Blanche has been cleared of infringing the dignity and privacy of an online wedding boutique owner who was the subject of an exposé.
The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of SA threw out a complaint from Lindie Jansen van Vuren, saying the M-Net show's investigation in March did nothing wrong, notes a TimesLIVE report.
It emerges from the commission finding that Jansen van Vuren is being investigated for fraud after the liquidation of Love and Lace in Vereeniging.
Carte Blanche spoke to brides and resellers who accused Jansen van Vuren of refusing to refund their money or failing to supply what they paid for.
In response to one of the programme's written attempts to obtain the 33-year-old businesswoman's side of the story, Jansen van Vuren's lawyer said the matter was ‘sub judice’ because of the criminal investigation.
The three-person BCCSA tribunal rejected her complaints after considering them in her absence.
Webber Wentzel said Carte Blanche went to ‘great lengths’ over four months to obtain Jansen van Vuren's response to the allegations.
At one point she sent written answers to the programme's questions but said they were not to be used in the broadcast.
In the absence of any other comments from the businesswoman, the show used these comments anyway because it ‘believed it had an ethical duty to do so in fairness to her’.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
