Jani Allan

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Jani Allan
File:ZJani Allan with Charlton Heston.JPG Charlton Heston and Jani Allan.
Born
Janet Allan

(1953-09-11) 11 September 1953 (age 70)
United Kingdom
Occupation(s)Journalist and Radio Talk show host / Commentator
Notable creditColumnist for The Sunday Times

Radio Talk-show host on Cape Talk

Correspondent for Britain's The Spectator magazine

Regular commentator on the Jeff Rense show

Freelance writer for WorldNetDaily
SpouseGordon Schachat (divorced)

Jani Allan (born 11 September, 1953) is a former South African journalist and radio commentator, best known for an alleged affair with right-wing AWB leader Eugène Terre'Blanche. At the time, Allan was working as a columnist for the Sunday Times newspaper.

In 1992 she lost a high-profile libel case against British broadcaster Channel 4, related to their reporting of her relationship with Terre'Blanche.

Allan later returned to the South African media with a column and forum on MWeb and then as a radio-show host on Cape Talk radio. She was fired from Cape Talk radio because of her increasingly right-wing commentary.

She currently resides in the USA and has made several radio-show appearances. She works as a freelance journalist. [1]

Biography

Allan was adopted by a British-South African couple at a young age and divided her childhood between Britain and South Africa. Prior to becoming a journalist, she worked as an English teacher at Wynberg Boys' High School and Bryanston High School. She then worked as a columnist for The Sunday Times newspaper in South Africa. Allan's first marriage was to South African businessman Gordon Schachat. She later married an American, but the couple have since divorced.

Association with Eugene Terre'Blanche

In 1988, the Sunday Times published Allan's interview with the right-wing militant Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging leader, Eugène Terre'Blanche, in Allan's Face to Face column. The two met several times after the interview, and Allan accompanied the AWB to some of their rallies and reported for the Sunday Times. Allan wrote of her fascination for Terre'blanche: Right now I've got to remind myself to breathe ... I'm impaled on the blue flames of his blowtorch eyes.[2] These words led to speculation regarding an affair, particularly when they photographed together at Paardekraal Monument in Krugersdorp on December 27th 1988. a foreign television crew [citation needed]. Following the meeting, Terre'Blanche allegedly rammed his BMW through the Paardekraal Monument's gates.[2] The crash prompted police and media appearances, and Allan and Terre'Blanche were photographed together on the Paardekraal monument steps. A case of crimen injura was laid against Terre'Blanche relating to the damaged gates, with Allan subpoenaed as chief witness for the defence. Ultimately Allan was not required to testify, and Terre'Blanche was acquitted.

In July 1989, the affair allegations led Cornelius Lottering, member of break-away AWB group "Orde van die Dood", to place a bomb outside Jani Allan's Sandton apartment. There were no casualties in the blast and Lottering was convicted.[3][2]

Libel case against Channel 4

In 1992, Allan sued Channel 4, the British broadcaster, for libel, claiming that in the documentary The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife by Nick Broomfield she was presented as a "woman of easy virtue". The documentary-maker, Broomfield, who was following the AWB and its activities, claimed that Jani Allan had had an affair with Terre'Blanche.

Miss Allan was represented by the late Peter Carter-Ruck in the case and Channel 4 was represented by the late QC George Carman, and Allan herself admitted to Carman "Whatever award is given for libel, being cross-examined by you would not make it enough money." [4] She later stated that Carman puts his victims through a "bloodless abattoir", delivering them into the "bone yard of damaged reputations".[5]

The case sparked intense media interest, with the British press having 20 reporters in court and considerable coverage in South Africa, where several character witnesses were flown in from[6] . Terre'Blanche also submitted a sworn statement to the London court denying he had an affair with Allan. Allan's case was dealt a heavy blow by the statements of her former flatmate, Linda Shaw, the Sunday Times astrologer. Shaw admitted that she peeped through a keyhole and witnessed Allan in a compromising position with a man. Several previously undisclosed details of the alleged affair began to unfold, and Allan's personal diary was also instrumental in the case, which Allan eventually lost on August 5 1992. Although the judge found that Channel 4's allegations had not defamed Allan, he did not rule on whether or not there had been an affair.[7]

In 1994, during an interview with SABC, Allan accused witnesses in the case of being paid to lie and said that losing the case had served a purpose, as her disillusionment with the justice system had led her to find God and become a born-again Christian.[8]

In a 2002 BBC film Get Carman: the trials of George Carman QC concerning the legal trials of Carman, Allan's case amongst other high-profile cases was featured. Allan was played by an actress in a dramatisation of the libel case. [9]

Friendship with Mangosuthu Buthelezi

In 1997, London's The Independent ran an article on Allan and Buthelezi's friendship, in which Allan and Buthelezi remarked upon each others' qualities. Buthelezi was also supportive following Allan's libel case against Channel 4 and was, according to Allan's account, the first person to telephone Allan following her mother's death.[10]

Columns and publications

Allan began her media work at SAAN (South African Associated Newspapers) and got her break with the Sunday Times (South Africa) (where she would work for over a decade) when she was appointed gossip columnist with her Just Jani column. She frequently interviewed South Africa's celebrity elite and personalities in the entertainment world, as well as foreign celebrities such as Robert Moore. With her growing popularity and the volatile political situation in the 1980s in South Africa, Tertius Myburgh (then editor of the newspaper) appointed Allan as the columnist of The Sunday Times (then Africa's largest newspaper), with a new political column. Interviews in her political column, Face to Face ranged from guests such as Winnie Mandela to Eugene Terre'Blanche. She described Pik Botha as " A black-belt bullshitter".

Following security risks, Allan was advised to leave South Africa [citation needed] and she relocated to London. She returned to South Africa in 1996, having established a radio show in Cape Town, she was contracted by Mweb to launch a website with a weekly column, letters page and live chatline. [11] Between 2004-05 she contributed a number of columns to Christian and conservative, right wing publications and sites such as the Jeff Rense website, AfricanCrisis, WorldNetDaily and she also published a number of columns on her personal blog. [12]

Sections of the Just Jani columns published in The Sunday Times have been compiled into the wit/humour genre book Face Value by Jani Allan. [13]

Radio

In 1997 she took up a position as a host on Cape Talk Radio, a Cape Town-based radio show and launched her show Jani's world, which aired on Friday evenings between 9pm and midnight. The show became one of the station's most popular, but became controversial in September 1999 when Allan interviewed American right-winger Keith Johnson of the Militia of Montana. Johnson made remarks about rabbinical teachings, Israel, Hitler and the Holocaust. As well as outlining global conspiracy theory, he denounced homosexuality, race mixing and former South African President Nelson Mandela. Although Allan distanced herself from these views, she offended a number of listeners in that she did not acknowledge it was a mistake to broadcast the interview [14]. The interview [15] gained a considerable negative reaction from listeners and she was instructed to issue an apology two days later. Her contract was terminated in October 2000 because of the right-wing nature of the show and some of the continued negative feedback from listeners.[16]

Since arriving in the Unites States, Allan has appeared on a number of radio shows. On 17th June 2004, Jani Allan appeared as the guest on the conspiracy theorist Jeff Rense's show. During the show, which had a listenership of 17 million, Allan accused the South African government of a genocidal campaign against white Afrikaners and she encouraged Americans to sponsor white Afrikaner "refugees" [17]. Jani Allan later became the regular Friday-night weekly guest-commentator. The interview with Rense was later repeated[citation needed]. In January 2005, Allan appeared on the Flipside with Robby Noel, broadcast on Republican radio. She later became a regular weekly commentator on the Friday show. Jani Allan has also appeared on the Larry Pratt show, discussing gun laws in place in South Africa. Later that year, she was also a guest on the information corner radio in 2005.

Other

Following her unsuccessful court case in London, Allan began to work with former SABC journalist Cliff Saunders, who had a press agency in London. Yet Allan was, according to her own account, unknowingly and allegedly working as a spy for her boss. She said she was unknowingly employed to gather information on the IFP and its actvities as well as its members. Allegedly, Saunders was a previous apartheid spy and was now working for the new ANC government and the IFP's activities were supposedly of much interest to the ANC.[18]


References

  1. ^ "Jani Allan (South African model and journalist". Adoption.com. 2002.
  2. ^ a b c "Rumblings on the Right". New York Times. 07-10-1990. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION". South African government. 1998-03-23.
  4. ^ "George Carman, Libel suit Whiz, dies". New York Times. 2000-01-08.
  5. ^ "The gloves come off". The Guardian. 2000-09-23.
  6. ^ Dreyer, Nadine. A Century of Sundays: 100 Years of Breaking News in the Sunday Times, 1906-2006. Zebra.
  7. ^ "Century of Sundays". Carte Blanche. 2006-05-03.
  8. ^ "JANI ALLAN - BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN". Sapa. 1995-01-02.
  9. ^ "Judgement day". New Statesman. 2002-04-08.
  10. ^ "HOW WE MET -Jani Allan and Mangosuthu Buthelezi". The Independent. 1997-08-06.
  11. ^ "Jani Allan on Mweb". 1/1/1998. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ "Previous columns". 2004–2005.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  13. ^ Allan, Jani. Face Value. Longman.
  14. ^ Lawrence Grossman, David Singer, (2000). American Jewish Year Book 2000. Amber Jewish Committee.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ "Station to apologise for Jani's gaffe". IOL. 1999-11-03. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |[http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id= ignored (help)
  16. ^ "Radio station fires Jani Allan". News 24. 2000-10-24.
  17. ^ "Whites are facing genocide, says Jani Allan". IOL. 2004-06-20.
  18. ^ "Allan claims she was an 'unwitting' spy". IOL. 2000-02-27.

External links

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