The Western Cape High Court has ordered that Parliament's communications portfolio committee may not proceed with Tuesday's closed meeting on the SABC board.

The ruling was handed down as an interim order shortly before noon by Acting Judge Sven Olivier.

It followed an urgent application by the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef).

The committee was due to sit from 10am on Tuesday for a briefing on the functioning of the troubled SABC board and its turnaround strategy.

Lawyers for Sanef and Parliament will now discuss a date for a hearing at which the matter can be fully argued.

In papers filed for the application, Sanef secretary-general Gaye Davis said that there was a clear public interest in the meeting.

"The SABC is resourced with public funds, and the public has a clear interest in its functioning and a right to information concerning the affairs of the SABC," she said.

"As a corollary, the media has a right and indeed an obligation to report on the functioning and affairs of the SABC."

"I submit that a dangerous a precedent will be set if this meeting is held behind closed doors as it could become a frequent resort by chairpersons of committees confronted with difficult issues that are potentially embarrassing for persons occupying public office," she said.

Olivier ordered that the committee not proceed with any sitting from which the public, including the media, were excluded, at which it would receive presentations from the SABC board on the turnaround strategy, the filling of the post of group executive, and on the functioning of the board.

This order would be valid until "the final determination of this matter".