First leg of press regulation hearings begin

The Press Freedom Commission (PFC) will hold public hearings on the regulation of print media in Cape Town on Thursday.

The commission will hold a series of public hearings around the country in January.

Hearings in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg would be chaired by former Constitutional Court chief justice Pius Langa.

The commission was established last year in an initiative by the South African National Editors’ Forum and Print Media South Africa to investigate different models of press regulation.

The various types of regulatory systems included independent regulation, co-regulation, self-regulation, and statutory regulation.

Definitions of the four models can be found on the PFC website homepage Pressfreedomcomm.org, by clicking on the “regulatory research” tab.

Last year, members of the public and readers of newspapers, online publications, and magazines were invited to submit written views about media regulation.

The PFC was launched on July 7 2011, and is an independent body of nine commissioners from diverse sectors of society created to investigate the best possible print regulatory system suitable for South Africa, and which is in conformity with the Constitution.—Sapa