Cape Town - An East Coast Radio programme that made fun of Hindu deities and said it was no use killing Hindus because they “keep coming back”, constituted hate speech, the Broadcasting Complaints Commission has found.
The commission made the ruling despite finding that the August 16 broadcast - a mock “sermon” by comedian John Vlismas - was clearly a skit.
His reference to “coming back” was a quip on the Hindu belief in reincarnation.
The ruling, released on Tuesday, followed complaints to the commission by six Hindus, two of whom were under the impression that Vlismas was a Christian cleric delivering a genuine sermon.
One of the two, U Sewsunker, told the commission the “pastor” had “no sense of the philosophical or theosophical precepts of Hinduism”.
“This ‘pastor’, with an obviously miniscule intellect, went on to launch a bitter tirade against South African Hindus by attacking us for worshipping ‘cows, elephants, and stones’ and implied that we were a ‘stupid’ race,” Sewsunker said.
Responding to the complaints, East Coast Radio denied the broadcast constituted religious hatred or incitement to cause harm.
‘Exceeded the bounds of humour’
“Pastor” Vlismas’s statement that Hindus would go to hell was merely a reiteration of Christian dogma.
However it told the commission it believed it had erred by broadcasting the material, and that it had cancelled the slot, suspended “the contributor” and apologised on air, in a press release and individually to listeners who complained.
The commission said on Tuesday’s ruling that the mock seriousness of Vlismas’s “sermon” was “clearly not understood nor appreciated by the complainants”.
However his “derogatory” reference to manifestations of the Hindu deity exceeded the bounds of humour.
“Where (humorous) remarks are made about religion, they can be so derogatory that, objectively seen, they constitute the advocacy of hatred,” the commission said.
“We find in this instance that this is indeed the case.”
The commission also found there was “incitement to cause harm”.
“The use of words like ‘kill’ and ‘bullets’ in this skit are just the kind of words that could incite listeners who are serious about their religion to suffer harm (sic),” it said.
It had taken into consideration that the station had apologised and taken other drastic steps.
“In the light of this we have decided that a reprimand would suffice and we order accordingly,” it said.
