As South Africa prepares for national elections, the question of the impartiality of public broadcasting media surfaces in another way:
The lavish coverage of Mr Mbeki and the ANC by the state South African Broadcasting Corporation has been widely criticised by opposition politicians in many newspapers. The Pretoria News questioned why the nation’s public television channels saw fit to devote two days of live coverage to Mr Mbeki launching the ANC’s election manifesto, when the opposition parties will not get even an hour of coverage when they unveil their platforms.