The following is a proposal for a campaign around the formation of an independent, statutory Media Development Agency (MDA). Organisations have been lobbying for the establishment of such an agency since 1995 to foster media diversity in South Africa: in spite of this, the Agency has still not been established, and the extent of government commitment to the idea is unclear. This campaign should hopefully result in the establishment of this agency by the government, spurred on and assisted by a civil society campaign. 

1. Problem statements

· The broadcast media have diversified markedly since the transition to democracy in 1994 However, the host of new private commercial stations tend to be limited to a few urban areas, and the community media sector is still marked by glaring disparities, where the better-resourced, mainly white, community of interest stations tend to dominate. There is still a clear need for the establishment of stations in peri-urban and rural areas. The further diversification of broadcast media is especially important given the high rate of non-literacy in the country.

· These disparities are structural: they are based largely on patterns of wealth and poverty inherited from apartheid. Ongoing developmental initiatives are needed to address them, however no dedicated body exists for these purposes. Hence the need for the MDA.

2. Vision statement of the MDA

This section outlines in very crude terms our vision of the MDA. The campaign should help us to develop this vision, but it is important to state our understanding of what this body should do at the outset.

2.1 Structure and powers

The MDA will be founded by statute passed by the South African Parliament. The principle of government subsidies to foster media diversity is not new: it is well established in other countries such as Sweden and Holland, and the MDA will be modelled in part on these mechanisms. Apart from being a funding mechanism, the MDA should also have the powers to initiate regulatory and/ or legislative processes to ensure diversity. This body’s independence as a statutory body must be entrenched in the broadcasting legislation and it must be free from any political interference. However, this should not mean that the MDA should automatically have a number of powers vested in other statutory institutions, such as powers of search and seizure, and this would constitute undue interference in the operations of the media. Its powers of investigation of the media should be strictly defined so that there is no possibility of abuse.

This body must receive its funds from parliament and be accountable to parliament. The appointment of MDA councillors should be conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner, like the appointment of IBA councillors. It is proposed that the MDA’s councillors should not be full-time to cut costs, although provision should be made for full time staff. Departments should be set up to focus on specific media interests. These units would be responsible for the day to day operations of the MDA, while the Council would be responsible for policy. Selection of councillors should take into account their level of experience in issues concerning media diversity, and care should be taken to reflect the demographic composition of the country.

With regards to who should be the beneficiaries of the MDA, we believe that it should prioritise the following:

· Community media and independent media

· Small venture commercial media

· Community and public service broadcasting in particular

Support should be directed generally towards facilitating ownership and control by historically marginalised groups, especially women.

While the MDA’s brief should refer to issues of ownership and control of media, it should not have the powers to interfere in editorial control of the media it funds.

It is also important that the beneficiaries of this body are carefully selected and prioritised to make sure that deserving entities benefit from it. It is important that the community print media is included as one of the beneficiaries.

2.2 Areas of operation of the MDA

The MDA should be involved in the following areas:

. Grant-funder and granting of low-interest loans to encourage ownership and control of historically disadvantaged

. Infrastructure - equipment, studios, and networks for multi-purpose agencies, radio stations, news agencies and production houses

. Research into, and monitoring of, the following for the purposes of policy-making and to inform the MDA’s activities:

· Media needs in different parts of the country

· Progress in achieving universal access to media (for example, with regards to signal distribution)

· Human resource development needs

· Facilitating access to resources to develop local content on broadcasting services

· Application of competitions policy in relation to the media

· Patterns of ownership and control in the media, and diversification strategies

. Establishment of a gender desk to develop specific strategies to promote gender equality in media access, programming and ownership.

. Capacity building and outreach to foster development of media in areas underserved, or unserved, by existing media.

. Development of strategies to protect and promote all South African languages, irrespective of the degree of adspend that different language groups attract.

. Development of strategies to complement media diversity in the SADC region.

2.3 Funding

Funding sources could be as follows:

n Government grants

n Levies on commercial broadcasters and advertisers

n Grants from corporates, foreign funders and local foundations

n Subsidies in the form of tax exemptions, tariff reductions or exemptions, or in the areas of posts, telecommunications and electricity.

3. Lobbying thus far and current developments around the formation of the MDA

The call for a statutory MDA was heeded by a Task Group set up by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki to investigate the state of government communications in South Africa. Called Comtask, it appraised the media environment as part of its investigation and concluded that glaring disparities in media access frustrated the free flow of information in South African society (including government information). It recommended the speedy establishment of the MDA to redress these imbalances.

As a result of this enquiry a Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) was established under the Deputy President’s office to co-ordinate and facilitate government communications: as the custodian of the Comtask recommendations, the campaign partners are engaging with the GCIS about the establishment of the MDA.

Presently, a number of subsidy bodies exist, or are being set up. The Independent Media Diversity Trust (IMDT) is the oldest and most well-established, and there are moves to establish print and broadcasting funds (the latter through the Department of Communications). These are vitally important developments, and represent a breakthrough for community and independent media. However, these initiatives are different in the following respects from the MDA idea:

· These bodies are not statutory structures: a body founded by statute would be ensured of a more stable existence.

· Funding of needy projects would be only one of a range of activities undertaken by the MDA. There is a danger that if activities are confined purely to funding, existing disparities in the media may be reproduced rather than corrected. The reasons for this are quite complex, as the application process tends to presuppose a level of resources that many communities simply may not have. Breaking out of these resource traps may have to involve the funding agency playing a more proactive role to stimulate projects in undeserved areas, to give full effect to the principles of democracy and universal access to information.

The need for an MDA still exists, given that it should be more stable body with a more expansive brief . It is possible that the above mentioned funds could be incorporated into the MDA, which would make its establishment that much easier.