Colleagues of the eNCA reporter whose work was taken off air because she was wearing a doek have come out in full support of her.
Yesterday, senior eNCA journalist Karyn Maughan posted a picture of the doekie-wearing group, including a white male colleague, on Twitter, writing: “Love my newsroom.”
#RespectThe Doek and # Doek ForNonto and # Doek TheNewsRoom were the top three trending hashtags on Twitter in SA.
This after Nontobeko Sibisi, who reported on Africa Day recently, said her three-minute segment was canned because she was wearing a scarf for nine seconds in the video.
In a leaked email, she wrote to colleagues: “Last week, I put together a story on an African cross-border music collaboration of four musicians from Nigeria, Zimbabwe and South Africa... Now because for 9 seconds of an about three-minute piece, I appear wearing a doek - the story was taken off air without my knowledge.
“Some of us have been half naked on TV, in PJs, gowns, ballet tutus, speedos, boxing gear all fitting to a particular context - yet somehow a doek was offensive enough during a significant and celebratory day and month in our continent. I personally find this is double standards.”
eNCA’s company policy stipulates that on-air staff are expected to follow “conventional television channel policy” which includes a ban on scarves, alice bands and large earrings.
eNCA bosses said they were reviewing its anti-doek rules.