South Africa:One thing can be said for South Africa's public service broadcaster: it is not afraid of ignoring the opposition.
The country's entire commercial media might be chasing one story - the latest shenanigans of controversial health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang - and the SABC could be found leading its main evening news with a report on some government statement on the condition of the economy.
To the SABC, this is a hallmark of its independence.
But, increasingly, these days it seems like quite the reverse - with the state broadcaster facing growing scrutiny about alleged secret links to the presidency.
The case against the SABC, reputed to be Africa's biggest indigenous media outlet, has been growing for some time.
Two years ago, the broadcaster was found to have suppressed video footage of deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka being booed at a function by members of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League.
Last year, it was accused of a further act of self-censorship when it axed a documentary on South African president Thabo Mbeki that contained criticism of aspects of his leadership.
The SABC subsequently went to the courts to try to stop the film's producers from showing the programme elsewhere.
Then there was the "blacklisting" controversy - an alleged purge within the broadcaster's news department of a number of commentators who were openly critical of Mr Mbeki's stance on HIV/Aids and Zimbabwe.
One of the station's most respected journalists, John Perlman, left the company shortly after backing up the blacklisting claims live on air.
Several other employees have followed him out the door amid claims that the broadcaster has fallen under the spell of a "Mbeki-ite" management.
Things got worse earlier this month when SABC chief executive Dali Mpofu announced that he was taking the company out of the South African National Editors' Forum - in protest at recent coverage by rival media outlets of Ms Tshabalala-Msimang, a minister dubbed "Dr Beetroot" in certain quarters for her controversial views on HIV.
In an extraordinarily impassioned letter to the forum, Mr Mpofu said there had been an "epidemic deterioration of journalistic ethics within your ranks and disrespect for our people.
"Shame on all of you, especially those who have turned their backs on your own cultural values for 30 pieces of silver, pretending to be converted to foreign, frigid and feelingless freedoms." Since then, the SABC has courted yet more controversy by announcing a new board containing several pro-Mbeki figures. Opposition parties accuse the presidency of forcing at least two proxies onto the board - a charge that Mr Mbeki's officials deny.
However, William Bird, director of the South African Media and Monitoring Project, a local press freedom watchdog, said serious questions remained about the appointments.
"There is no hard evidence of presidential interference," he said. "But there has not been a clear denial of influence at the level of the ANC national executive."
Mr Bird said the appointments controversy was symptomatic of a greater malaise in the public service broadcaster. "Whether it is the blacklisting issue, or whatever, it is as though they look at how to react and say, 'What will make us look like a complete bunch of idiots? Right, let's do that!'"
Other press freedom activists believe the SABC is setting a bad example for journalistic standards on a continent where freedom of expression is far from guaranteed.
They say the broadcaster, which has invested heavily in a pan-African news channel, too readily conflates the interests of the state - or of the ruling party - with those of the public.
Mr Bird noted the SABC had been used during the apartheid era as a propaganda tool by the then ruling National Party, and this gave rise to an "institutional culture".
"That is not to say everyone in the SABC is an evil government stooge but there has certainly been a changing of perceptions," he said.
"People at the SABC are now scared of speaking out. It has become quite a bizarre, secretive place."