Government has moved to clip the Independent Broadcasting Authority’s (IBA) wings. Its views are contained in a discussion paper released last week, which many believe is a sneak preview of a White Paper for the sector.
The document, written by a task team appointed by Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Jay Naidoo, also recommends a far greater role for government in the control of the SABC’s finances and greater foreign ownership of local media.
The Department of Communications recommends that the IBA’s special dispensation to pay its councillors and staff more than other public servants be scrapped. It also recommends policy changes by amending the IBA Act.
According to the document, “the perception that the IBA is not accountable to any one in its activities [of] implementing public policy is widespread and a source of concern.” The state wants a far clearer distinction between policy-making and regulation of the airwaves. It says that the three crucial areas of policy formulation, regulation and service operation should be kept separate. Currently the IBA is responsible for two of these areas.
Government is worried that “national policy formulation” is treated as a sub-task of the IBA’s regulatory functions. For some time now there have been governmental rumblings of discontent about the way in which the IBA operates. In the discussion document these burst into the open. Government complains: “The legitimate interaction between the IBA and the government of the day has not been provided for in the IBA Act.” The IBA, a statutory body, is left free to decide on some fundamental policy issues without being required to consult with government.”
The discussion document reflects fundamental fine-tuning since the passage of the Green Paper, where government thinkers have taken note of recommendations from the private sector and from civil society.
At a recent meeting, in which all key players in broadcasting met to wrestle with the wordy document, delegates gave a thumbs-up to plans to convert the SABC into a public company and place it on the path to partial privatisation. But Parliament has asked the IBA and the SABC to present their views to the parliamentary committee on broadcasting. Government has also indicated that work on a draft charter to enshrine the independence of the broadcaster will soon be drafted.
It also envisages that the SABC will be divided into two divisions: public service and commercial, where one television channel (likely to be entertainment-based) will be used to subsidise a channel with greater public-service programming. Profits from the SABC will be paid into the fiscus and then re-allocated by government.
The proposal for a full educational channel has been met with optimism by government, while the six television bid companies that will lose in next week’s decision on a private television channel can take heart. Government is committed to granting more television licences in the next five years in which foreign partners are likely to be able to take higher stakes. The discussion paper recommends that the level of ownership of private radio and television stations permitted for foreigners is currently 20% and may be increased to 33.33%.
The government has also recommended that existing limitations on cross-media ownership be retained, a move likely to be hotly contested by the newspaper industry, which wants to break into electronic broadcasting.