Weekly Report

Focus of the Week

Government must involve community in the formation of the MDDA

Media houses and media activists who made presentations to parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communication on the formation of the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) generally expressed support for such an initiative.

However, concerns were expressed around participation of stakeholders, structure and nature of funding and the powers of government over the MDDA.

According to Bill on the MDDA, the body will draw funds from private and public sector and then use it to provide funding for community media projects, small commercial media projects and research projects. The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) and the National Community radio Forum (NCRF) call for a more bias towards marginalized communities. The organizations also call for the MDDA to have powers to review legislation and government policy with the aim of encouraging media diversity.

The FXI and the NCRF noted with concern the fact that the government got into negotiations with the commercial media with regards to the funding contribution that the commercial media would make to the MDDA. The negotiations were done without inviting community media that is supposed to the most important part of the MDDA. The negotiations between government and commercial media have left the community media at a disadvantage in giving their position on the MDDA. Community media would like to be a significant part of the MDDA and negotiations between state and commercial media that exclude them keep them out of the picture.

Media diversity in South Africa should not mean simply multiplication of owners of publications or radio stations and production houses, but rather allowing of various views and debates to be brought into the public arena. This mandate can never be fulfilled by media organizations that operate in search of financial gains. It calls as the NCRF rightfully noted involvement of community media, whose mandate is no driven by profit motivates.

Community radio in South Africa have already pioneered the idea of media diversity, with 92 community radio station that allow marginalized communities to participate in national debates. The creation MDDA should improve the efforts made by community radio by providing necessary infrastructure and responding to the needs of community radio. Community media in general and community radio station in particular are operating under difficulty condition, as a result of limited resources and if the MDDA intervenes in this regard it will have achieved great success. It will be a big mistake for the MDDA to ignore the efforts already made by community radio, especially those that serve marginalized communities.

Regarding the issue of independence most of the organizations that made presentations to the Portfolio Committee on Communications on the MDDA emphases the need of its independence. The suggestion that the minister in the president’s office will be involved in deciding which projects get funding was heavily criticized. The organizations also suggested that the board of the MDDA should rather report to the Portfolio Committee instead of reporting to the minister in the president’s office. The FXI and the NCRF in particular demanded the organization’s independence from any vested interested.

The independence of the MDDA is essential for its funding. Donors or funding organizations will not be willing to put their money into an organization that runs as a government propaganda instrument. The independence of the organization and its bias towards marginalized communities are the defining features for its success. The MDDA should neither be an avenue for government to spread its propaganda neither should it be used as an avenue for government elite to enrich themselves. If the MDDA is tasked with expanding the horizon of South African media to those communities that the South African media is not adequately servicing at the moment then the involvement of those communities or organizations that have experience in those communities is essential.

Diary

Zimbabwean elections coverage

Although the Zimbabwean government barred several South African media houses from covering the election those who were allowed into the country covered the election substantially says the Media Monitoring Programme in Zimbabwe. However, as one Sowetan journalists note, mots of the media was on the side of the Movement for Democratic Change. According to the Sowetan the media selected their reports in a way that cleared the MDC of any wrongdoing while portraying Zanu PF in bad light. While fairness and balancing reporting should always define the work of a journalist, the conditions in which journalists were operating in Zimbabwe made their work difficult. The attempt by the Mugabe regime to erode fundamental human rights deserves to be attacked with contempt.

Witch-Hunt

The Auditor General this week instituted a witch-hunt for employee who are suspected of leaking information on arms deal to the press. The Mail and Guardian newspaper reported on Friday that the Auditor General’s offices was to question government employees on the leakage. The witch-hunt is another government’s attempt to interfere with free flow of information on the arms purchasing.

Child Porn

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Charles Nqakula, told parliament’s task team on the sexual abuse of children and babies that there is a direct link between child pornography and the rape of babies. According reports in the Star newspaper the Deputy Minister was making a submission to government departments’ programme to deal with the raping of Children. Nqakula argues that there is an agent need to amend the Film and Publications Act to deal adequately with child pornography.

ANC MPs slams BBC documentary on child rape

African National Congress (ANC) MPs has condemned the BBC documentary on child rape saying it will trigger the fall of the rand. The Mail and Guardian newspaper reported that the documentary is set to come under close scrutiny, after parliamentarians expressed angry objections to the “parading of South African babies” during the public hearing on child sexual abuse in Parliament last week.

Exhibition censorship

The NSA Gallery was last week requested by the Consulate General of China and the Education and Culture Ministry of KwaZulu Natal to stop or close the exhibition “The Truth About Tibet” organized by the Tibet Society of South Africa.

Storm Janse van Rensburg curator of the NSA Gallery says, NSA was feeling that there was already alarming situation towards censoring an exhibition hosted by the NSA Gallery.

Doctor sacked for advocating use of anti-retroviral

As debate on the effectiveness of the anti-retroviral dominates national debates in the country. Mpumalanga MEC for Health has sacked Dr Thys von Mollendorff who lost his job as superintendent of the Rob Ferreira hospital in Nelspruit for allowing a group that provides anti-retroviral drugs to rape victims to work in the hospital.