Cosatu rejects SABC "censorship"
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has come out strongly against the SABC's decision to stop showing visuals of destruction of property.
The SABC said the decision was to ensure those destructing public property do not get the media attention they seek.
Cosatu said in a statement it was not the public broadcaster's mandate to mask the challenges the country was facing.
"This decision smacks of autocracy and its deeply patronising because it assumes that South Africans are impressionable and imbecilic citizens, who need to be protected from some barbaric visuals lest they copy and repeat them," the federation said.
Cosatu said South Africa was not a nanny state.
"What we have seen and learned is that, once censorship starts it never stops because those who are empowered to censor and impose blackouts start to develop bottomless sensitivities and discover more activities that they feel should not be flighted on television."