AN APPEAL tribunal of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission has rejected a complaint about a graphic e.tv Third Degree documentary on the 2003 Sizzlers massacre, according to a report on iol.co.za.
The complaint was lodged by Marlene Visser, mother of 22-year-old Warren Visser, one of nine men who died in the incident.
Screened in March this year, the documentary included a re-enactment of the 2003 killings which Visser said constituted gratuitous violence.
The tribunal said in a majority ruling released on Wednesday that the public had a right to be reminded about the killings, which took place in a gay massage parlour in Cape Town.
'… Tantamount to withholding information from the public'
The re-enactment, accompanied by police file photos of the dead bodies, had included an element of sensationalism.
However, this did not exceed the limits of "what might legitimately be defined as documentary".
"To have excluded the re-enactment and the police material — however shocking these were — would have been tantamount to withholding information from the public," the tribunal said.
Click here to read the full report, posted on iol.co.za.
