sunday sun’s apology provokes further

By Mongezi Mhlongo (BTM Intern)

SOUTH AFRICA – August 5, 2008: Tension is still high among gay rights groups on John Qwelane’s saga relating to an opinion piece he wrote three weeks ago despite Media24’s apology.

Deon du Plessis, Media24’s publisher and co-owner of Sunday Sun (the paper published the opinion piece), apologised in the last Sunday’s edition where the apology discomforted the gay rights groups, that could have been further fueled by du Plessis’ initial response two weeks ago seeming to be unfazed, and unapologetically stating that “let Qwelane speak… as he did last week. Let those who disagree also speak… as they do this week. Hopefully we’ll learn more about each other along the way”.

The organisations feel that the latest “forgive me for I have sinned” tone of du Plessis smacks more of the same ‘cavalier’ attitude towards constitutional values which the newspaper demonstrated when choosing to publish the offending article in the first place.

“We believe that as an independent constitutional body, the SAHRC is best placed to assess the merits of the complaint and we await its findings on the matter”, advocacy and mainstreaming manager Melanie Judge of OUT LGBT-Wellbeing said.

Concurring Glen de Swardt, the director of the Cape Town Pride, argued that the apology shows that the publisher supports the editor who felt it was acceptable to publish Qwlane’s column.

“This was not good enough. It did not address the core issue, and it suggests that they are behind the editor. I don’t feel comfortable with it”, says de Swardt.
 
With the headline saying; “We didn’t break the law, but for our sins I apologise”, du Plessis apologised for contravening the Press Code and assured that the tabloid will never publish anything of such nature in the future.
This was after South African Press Ombudsman Joe Thloloe instructed Sunday Sun to overtly apologise following his findings that the newspaper contravened the press codes by publishing denigratory references to people’s sexual orientation in Qwelane's column,  implying that homosexuals were a lower breed than heterosexuals, and by publishing an accompanying cartoon disparaging of homosexuals.

Thloloe said; “Qwelane does not advocate hate, but merely gives his opinion about homosexuality. He does not ask for gays and lesbians to be harmed. It is robust language, not hate speech.”
 
In his apology du Plessis said “I regret that the uproar clearly hurt some people’s feelings. That is not our mission. And we’ll do all in our power to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again.”
He added that “Sunday Sun supports the press code and the Ombudsman office. These institutions are better by far than government control of the press. So I’m sorry that we sinned against the code”. 

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has confirmed receipt of a formal complaint against Qwelane adding that the commission was still considering all the complaint and would decide how best to handle it.