The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) believes that developments at the Bophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) this week makes a mockery of the Government of National Unity's professed commitment to the independence of the broadcast media and presents a major reversal of democratic media policies and practices established over the last two years.

The government of the North-West region announced on Thursday that it had appointed a new Director-General of the BBC.

Direct government appointments of managerial persons in public broadcasters is an utterly discredited practice characteristic of totalitarian regimes.

The North West government said in a statement on Thursday it had taken over administrative control of the BBC by virtue of a proclamation approved by President Mandela and his Cabinet and that it appointed the Director-General in terms of the Bop Broadcasting Act.

The FXI was an affiliate of the Campaign for Independent Broadcasting (CIB), which fought hard for the recognition of the principle that broadcasters should be free of government control. To this end we successfully campaigned for the new Board of the SABC to be independent from the Government by a selection process involving public hearings. This ensured that the Board's mandate was derived from the public and not from the government. We also successfully campaigned for the establishment of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) to regulate the broadcasting industry independently of the Government.

It would appear in this instance that these procedures and principles, including those of openness and transparency, have been utterly disregarded.

We understand that neither the staff of the BBC or its Interim Management Committee were aware that the regional government was considering the appointment of a new Director-General. They were expecting a process whereby a Board for the BBC would be established first in a manner similar to that of the SABC Board, and that this Board would appoint a Director-General in the normal way. This would include advertising the position of the Director-General publicly in the media.

The BBC has been without a Board for and a permanent Director-General since the civil uprising which led to the downfall of the Bophuthatswana government and the reincorporation of the territory into South Africa.