Barry Streek A report on media diversity published by the government indicates that about 7,8-million South Africans, 18,6% of the population, still do not have access to standard radio broadcasts, the Grade B FM radio reception available on portable radios. KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Northern Province and the Eastern Cape each have more than one million people with no access to any FM radio service, and these provinces are also reported to have the poorest newspaper circulation. This stark lack of access to information among the poorest of the poor in South Africa has been spelled out in the government’s position paper on the proposed media development and diversity agency (MDDA). The government intends to establish the MDDA to promote media diversity through funding, training and infrastructure support in areas with little access to information. The proposed MDDA would support projects that promote democratic and socio-economic rights through their operations and/or content so that the public and communities are empowered to actively participate in development. “This would include, for example, pro- moting race and gender equality, education, health care, improved basic services, job creation and environmental awareness.” According to the report, the government is committed to ensuring media development and diversity as well as promoting development communication. The report calls for a multi-pronged approach to promote media diversity, which includes an independent regulator for the broadcasting industry, legislation facilitating access to information and the setting up of multi-purpose community centres. “The MDDA would address the legacy of exclusion from access to the media and promote media pluralism in South Africa,” the report said. The report tracks the historical background of media ownership at length, as well as the market share of individual media. It found that 33% of the readership of newspapers in South Africa is in publications that are under foreign control, despite the significant changes that have taken place in media ownership, control and staffing over the past few years. “The industry experienced unbundling, black empowerment and foreign acquisitions, public broadcaster sales and new entrants in print, radio and television. The board of directors of some media organisations indicate that racial and gender profiles have changed, along with significant changes in newsrooms.
“Many journalists and editors from the alternative press occupy leading positions in the mainstream media.” However, the report notes that the media is still too narrowly focused for a country as diverse as South Africa. It also calls for diversity of content and views, and says inroads made in media diversity, such as the emergence of the alternative press during apartheid days, have rolled back. “Significant schools of thought, including that of the democratic movement, remain marginalised. Innovative ways to distribute newspapers to disadvantaged communities have yet to emerge.” According to the report, the Independent Newspaper Group commands more than 40% of the spending of newspaper advertisers. The SABC radio and TV stations, on the other hand, command three times more listeners and viewers, about 48,6-million, than all other broadcasters combined, about 13,4-million. Whereas the introduction of the community radio sector is commendable, the report notes that the more than 80 radio stations in operation use English as the main broadcasting language. The proposed agency will complement, but not duplicate, the work of other statutory and institutional initiatives to assist in ensuring that the freedom of expression and access to information clauses in the Constitution are realised. “It [the agency] is an integral part of freedom of expression and of creating a country based on democratic rights, social equality and respect for human dignity.” The MDDA would implement or support projects that would do this, including media research, “capacity development, including journalistic, management, strategic, business and financial skills”, networking at local, national, regional and international levels, and literacy projects that encourage reading and media financing, the report says.