The Complaints and Compliance Committee of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) will decide in February on whether or not the South African Broadcasting Corporation failed to comply with the Broadcasting Act.

On Friday the committee heard a complaint by the SOS Coalition and the Media Monitoring Project against the SABC on its alleged failure to conduct an extensive public participation process on its editorial policies‚ as required by the Act.

The organisations learnt in May that the SABC had unlawfully revised its editorial policies without consulting the public.

This resulted in former chief operations officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng issuing unlawful policy directives‚ including a ban the broadcasting of violent protests.

Icasa ordered the SABC to withdraw its directive to ban violent protests in July this year.

In the hearing on Friday‚ the organisations wanted the revised editorial policies invalidated so that the public could be given a chance to make a contribution to the policies.

The SABC raised a preliminary point that the complaints and compliance committee did not have jurisdiction to hear the complaint.

However‚ lawyers for the organisations argued that the Icasa Act provided for the committee to deal with breaches of the Broadcasting Act before approaching courts.