The Government of National Unity's Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) regards open debate and transparency s crucial elements of reconstruction and development. A new information policy must facilitate exchange of information among communities, and between the Government and society as a two-way process. The Government has to encourage the development of all three tiers of the media - public, community and private.
The RDP envisages programme that must include: mechanisms to make available the resources needed to set up broadcasting and printing enterprises; training, and education to ensure that communities and individuals exercise their media rights.
A new approach to censorship has become imperative. Where, in the past, community norms and standards were protected, the Constitution now places the emphasis on the rights of the individual. The result is that the Minister of Home Affairs appointed an independent task group on Publication and Film Control to investigate the constitutional validity of the present Publications Act, 1974 (Act 42 of 1974). The task group came to the conclusion that a new Act was necessary and drafted a Film and Publication Bill which was tabled in Parliament in September 1995.
In October 1994, a task group was established to oversee the process leading to the adoption of an Open Democracy Act. The purpose of the Act would be to give citizens access to meetings of government bodies and to information held by these bodies; protect personal privacy; protect officials who disclose lawbreaking, serious maladministration or corruption, and generally to empower the citizenry to participate in governmental decision-making.
The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) Act, 1993 (Act 153 of 1993) was established to ensure that all South Africans receive the fairest and best possible broadcasting services, free of undue bias and protected from government interference.
On 29 August 1995, the report of the IBA on the transformation of broadcasting in South Africa was tabled in Parliament. The report focuses on local content regulations, the nature of the public broadcaster and cross-media ownership. Major recommendations affecting the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) include the reduction of three of its television channels to two; the licensing of a private television station; the sale of seven SABC regional radio stations; the merging of former homeland radio services with existing SABC stations, and the upgrading of the SABC's nine African language radio stations.
For internal news coverage, the SABC radio news service relies on its editorial offices, a countrywide network of correspondents and news contacts, as well as on the South African Press Association (Sapa). World news is provided by international agencies, strategically located foreign correspondents, a news monitoring section and the SABC's own representation in London. In 1994, the process of opening up the airwaves began in all earnest with the issuing of temporary licenses by the IBA. The Government intends broadcasting educational programmes in all 11 official languages on 80 community radio stations countrywide.
At present, the SBC offers three television services in nine languages. TV1 is a channel that transmits in English and Afrikaans; CCV transmits in isiZulu, isiXhosa, Sesotho, Pedi, Setswana, Hindi, Tamil, English and Afrikaans. NNTV transmits informative, multicultural and non-political programmes to satisfy a wide audience. Approximately 50 percent of all programmes transmitted are produced in South Africa. M-Net, the subscription television service, represents the most extensive pay-television network in the Southern Hemisphere.
Technical and editorial handling of the print media in South Africa is considered to be of a high standard. Since November 1994, the registration of newspapers and other regular publications has become redundant. South Africa newspapers and magazines are organised into press groups. The major groups are independent Newspapers, Nasionale Media, Perskor and Times Media. Other publishers include Caxton, Thompson's Publications, Republikeinse Pers, Publico and Penrose.
The Press Council adjudicates complaints that press reports are factually incorrect; contain unfair comment; could endanger state security or law and order; are harmful to race relations; are obscene or violate an individual's privacy. The council is empowered to reprimand respondents and to direct that a correction and/or its finding be published.
The Newspaper Registration Act, 1971 (Act 63 of 1971), which severely limited Press freedom by enabling the Government to withhold registration of newspapers, was repealed with the second reading of the Imprint Amendment Bill in Parliament in October 1994. There are 33 dailies and weeklies, and about 100 provincial or country newspapers. Most country newspapers are weekly tabloid papers serving particular towns. Most are also bilingual and avoid politics.
According to the Media Yearbook of South African Rates and Data, there are about 300 consumer magazines and more than 500 trade, technical and professional publications. Circulation of magazines during 1994 showed a general growth for those concentrating on black readership. Circulation of M-Net's television guide crossed the million mark in February 1994, making it the largest circulating magazine in South Africa.
The Newspaper Press Union (NPU), with the South African Printing and allied Industries Federation and the South African Typographical Union, is the oldest industrial council in the country. Other press organisations are: the Specialist Press Association of South Africa, the Conference of Editors, the South African Association of Industrial Editors, the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the South African Union of Journalists, the Media Worker's Association of South Africa (MWASA) and the Foreign Correspondents' Association of South Africa.
Sapa, a national news agency, is a co-operative, non-profit new-gathering and distribution organisation operating in the interests of the public and its members. Sapa's foreign news is received from Reuters, Associated Press (AP) and its representatives in London. The main foreign news agencies operating in South Africa are Agence Franc Presse, Deutsche Presse Agentur, Reuters and United Press International.
The advertising industry is served by various organisations such
as the Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of
Marketers, the Advertising Standards Authority, the South African
Advertising Research Foundation and the South African Market Research
Association. In 1994, the Johannesburg advertising agency, Hunt
Lascaris TBWA, captured 4 of the 9 top Loerie advertising awards
- Africa's premier awards of advertising creativity. Some 79
entries from South Africa's top advertising agencies were also
submitted for the Cannes Advertising Film Festival in France in
1994.
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