We study a dark energy model with non-zero anisotropic stress, either linked to the dark energy density or to the dark matter density. We compute approximate solutions that allow to characterise the behaviour of the dark energy model and to assess the stability of the perturbations. We also determine the current limits on such an anisotropic stress from the cosmic microwave background data by the Planck satellite, and derive the corresponding constraints on the modified growth parameters like the growth index, the effective Newton's constant and the gravitational slip.