Opening the Western Cape provincial hearings on the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) draft editorial policy on Monday, premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk highlighted the power the corporation has to do good or to do harm.
”The South African Broadcasting Corporation has the potential to be the single most important instrument of positive change, nation-building, education and development in South Africa. Equally, it has unmatched potential to discriminate, misinform, indoctrinate and polarise our people. The thin dividing line between these two pictures is the quality, substance, and implementation of the SABC’s editorial policies.”
Van Schalkwyk said the ”real test” for the SABC still lay ahead, particularly with regard to the proposed ”upward referral system”. This system would allow in exceptional areas and controversial issues for any matter to be referred upwards in the organisation’s news hierarchy, right up to the chief executive for a decision.
”I would like to add my own voice to the concerns raised on this point by organisations like the Media Institute of Southern Africa and the National Editors Forum. It is not desirable for the chief executive of the SABC to exert editorial control and authority over the content of SABC news programmes,” he said.
He said that given the history and business model of the SABC, it was better to separate the position of editor-in-chief from that of chief executive. Failing to do so could damage public impressions of the corporation’s editorial independence.
Turning to other areas of broadcasting policy, Van Schalkwyk said a regional broadcasting service could better serve the people of the Western Cape and other provinces.
”We believe that there is a strong need for a regional broadcaster to deliver programmes and regional news of interest to local communities. In the Western Cape we have found that many important issues, opportunities and announcements were not reaching the people, because it was not considered to be of national importance,” he said.
Van Schalkwyk said there were a number of models to follow, including an option for provinces to cluster together for regional broadcasts and so reduce costs and increase the reach of commercial advertising. – Sapa