The issue of exclusive organisations is to be debated following the uproar over white journalists being excluded from a meeting organised by the Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ) attended by ANC President Jacob Zuma (see report below), writes E-Brief News.

And in the latest developments in the stand-off, the Primedia Broadcasting group head of news and talk programming Yusuf Abramjee and Talk Radio 702/567 host Kieno Kammies have laid a formal complaint of discrimination with the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) over the inaugural meeting of the Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ). According to a Mail & Guardian Online report, in a letter to SAHRC chairperson Jody Kollapan, Abramjee and Kammies said they attended the FBJ meeting on Friday, and raised their objections to the fact that the meeting excluded white journalists. They said the forum was discriminatory and went against the Constitution. ‘After we walked out in solidarity with our white colleagues who were ordered out and those who were excluded, we were referred to as ‘coconuts’ – 'black on the outside and white on the inside. We are of the view that the term ‘coconut’ is not only insulting, but discriminatory.’ Radio 702's Katopodis has laid a formal complaint with the SAHRC of racial prejudice. White journalists expressed their dismay after they were denied access to the ‘hottest news ticket in town’. Zuma, however, saw nothing wrong with white journalists being denied entry to the event.
Full Mail & Guardian Online report


The SAHRC is to hold a public forum on complaints of racial prejudice against the FBJ and the issue of exclusive organisations, says a Mail & Guardian Online report. ‘Following a complaint on the exclusion of white journalists from attending a Forum of Black Journalists' meeting ... the SA Human Rights Commission today (Monday) decided to convene a public forum in order to interrogate the issue of exclusive organisations and the complaint in question,’ the commission said. The event would take place on 5 March at the SAHRC head office in Parktown, Johannesburg, the commission said.
Full Mail & Guardian Online report
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