The birth of South Africa’s third 24-hour news channel – Africa News Network 7 (ANN7) – was never going to be easy, especially considering that most South Africans love to hate its major backers – the controversial Gupta family.

It is the same Gupta bunch that earlier this year turned the Waterkloof Air Force Base, outside Pretoria, into their personal landing strip, and the same bunch that is closely connected to president Jacob Zuma" rel=tag>Jacob Zuma – a relationship that is perceived as a little bit too cosy, in fact.

What further raised the ire of many a South African is that – pretty much like the Gupta-owned New Age newspaper – the new news channel has, implicitly, marketed itself as little more than a platform to spew forth government propaganda. This is reaffirmed by the channel’s mandate, which states that it will focus on “constructive, nation-building stories in the interests of building a culture of unity and pride in SA”.

How about just balanced and fair reporting? Oh wait, that isn’t a concept readily embraced by our democratic government, considering the ruling party’s tremendous efforts to introduce media censorship.

Nonetheless, taking into account how many South Africans feel about the Guptas, it is no surprise that many viewers tuned into the first few days of ANN7, or Gupta TV as it has been dubbed, not so much to catch up on the latest headlines, but to satisfy an inherent morbid fascination that we all possess.

The Germans have a very apt term for this – Schadenfreude. It basically means to derive pleasure from the misfortunes of others, or in this case, to derive pleasure from the misfortune of the Guptas.

Well, those who came to witness the train wreck were certainly not disappointed, and the on-air bloopers committed by ANN7’s models-cumpresenters, aided by technical issues, were well-documented in the first few days of the channel going live.

As is common in this day and age, ANN7’s blooper reels soon found their way on YouTube and other social media networks, and Gupta TV soon became the laughing stock of the nation.

But while teething problems and even ignorant and uninformed presenters can be forgiven – should these issues be rectified with time – the Guptas’ attempts at petty censorship cannot. As soon as ANN7’s blooper clips hit the Internet, they were promptly removed under the pretext of copyright infringement.

I guess some Guptas do not have a sense of humour, but by doing this they not only invoked the Streisand effect, they have also managed to further alienate and antagonise their viewers.

The question that begs is, if Gupta TV can go on the offensive over something as petty as this, to what extent will it go to censor real news that might not fit with its agenda? The Truth Unfolds or The Truth Untold? You be the judge.

Happy reading!

Martin Czernowalow