Gareth On Being Fired By M-Net: “To be fired over this whole mess does seem unfair.”

Gareth’s controversial comments last week over freedom of speech on racist comments online got him major backlash online, with social media calling on people to boycott Idols. M-Net heeded the calls, and over the weekend announced that Gareth would no longer be part of the panel.

M-Net in the early hours of Saturday morning confirmed that Gareth Cliff would no longer be part of the ‘Idols SA’ judging panel.  Responding to questions on whether to criminalise racist posts on social media, Gareth Cliff said: “People really don’t understand free speech at all.”

Twitter lashed out at Cliff, with calls to boycott Idols. He apologised and later released a blog post asking for constructive engagement.

“To be fired over this whole mess does seem unfair. M-Net has said as much. They said I’m not a racist. You have to seek legal opinion on these things. It will be interesting to hear what my lawyers say,” he said.

“Idols was not my job. It was something I did concurrently along with everything else I did. I believe they (M-Net) made the wrong decision.”