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>The “SOS: Support Public Broadcasting” Coalition welcomes the Minister
>of Communications, Mr Roy Padayachie’s commitment to the broadcasting
>policy review announced in his Budget Vote speech made in Parliament
>yesterday. SOS believes that this is an important first step in
>stabilising the SABC and building the long term sustainability of both
>the public and community media sectors.
>
>The Minister announced that, “the process to review the current
>broadcasting policy landscape will commence with great urgency”. He
>stated that the process would be launched in the next three weeks and
>that the Department would use the opportunity to “investigate an
>appropriate funding model for the SABC to ensure that the provision of
>public service remains the SABC’s main priority”. Further, he
>announced that to fast track the process, and to broaden public
>participation in the effort, he would constitute a panel of experts to
>assist with the review. He stated that the panel would advise on:
>
>“Various policy issues, including embracing convergence and new media
>services, the creation of an enabling licensing and regulatory
>environment, the growth and development of local content industries,
>and the role of the three tier broadcasting system – public,
>commercial and community broadcasting.”
>
>Since its inception in 2008 the Coalition has been fighting for this
>policy review process. The Coalition thus warmly welcomes the
>Minister’s announcement. The Coalition believes strongly that the
>present Broadcasting White Paper, 1998 and Broadcasting Act, 1999,
>need to be reviewed in terms of the gaps and contradictions that have
>come to light as regards their implementation. Further, policy and
>legislation has no option but to be shaped by the demands of the new
>digital, multi-channel environment.
>
>The Coalition has drafted, over a number of years, a new vision for
>public and community broadcasting. As a starting point we would be
>happy to contribute this vision document to the process. Further, we
>would like to share our views on the implementation of the review
>process. For instance, one of the issues we believe strongly in is
>that the members of the review panel need to be fully versed on a wide
>range of broadcasting perspectives, including those of unions, civil
>society and creative content producers. We also believe that the
>review process requires significant meaningful public participation.
>
>The Coalition will be calling for a meeting with the Minister and his
>Department to put forward our various positions on the policy review
>process and its implementation.
>
>The SOS Coalition represents a number of trade unions including
>COSATU, COSATU affiliates CWU and CWUSA, FEDUSA, BEMAWU and MWASA;
>independent film and TV production sector organisations including the
>South African Screen Federation (SASFED); and a host of NGOs and CBOs
>including the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), Media Monitoring
>Africa (MMA), and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-SA); as
>well as a number of academics and freedom of expression activists.
>