Joel Netshitenzhe
Launch of SADC Media Awards
20 November 2003
I should thank
Mrs Mampane for giving us this opportunity to share ideas on the
launch of the South African Chapter of the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) Media Awards. The launch concludes a process that
started long ago, after a decision of the SADC Council of Ministers
in 1996.
We know that
the wheels of government grind slowly. Put more than ten governments
together, and the problem gets multiplied manifold; things may even
grind to a halt. But the fact that we are having this event today
shows that we are getting there.
As we all know,
since SADC got transformed from a co-ordinating conference into
a development community, it has been looking at ways of strengthening
its institutional mechanisms so that it can implement the new mandate
to focus on development and integration in Southern Africa.
One of the things
that arose was how to ensure a link - coordination and synchronisation
- between formal structures of government and civil society, including
the media, academia, labour and so on. And at its meeting in 1996
the Council of Ministers approved the establishment of the sector
that deals with matters that relate to our profession: culture,
information and sport. It made the recommendation that the SADC
Media Awards competition should be set up.
It decided,
firstly, that the awards would recognise excellent journalism, in
the areas of print, photo, television as well as radio journalism.
Going through the recent discussions within the regional committee,
I saw that Ms Mampane made a proposal at the last meeting in August,
that we should include online journalism and the idea is in principle
accepted.
Secondly, the
main aim of this award is to promote values that are universal in
their character, and which have profound currency in our own situation
in South Africa and Southern Africa:
- freedom of expression
- media freedom
- freedom of thought
- tolerance of divergent views and opinions
- media diversity and development
- support for the development integration programmes of SADC
- democracy, accountability and transparency.
These ideas,
we can say with confidence, are enshrined in our Constitution; they
find expression in the praxis of the South African polity.
Further, it
was felt that it would be necessary, in order to root the awards
in the countries of the region, that the adjudication committee
at regional level should be constituted by the chairpersons of National
Adjudicating Committees .
Government Communication
and Information System (GCIS) is meant to be the media and information
contact point for South Africa; and we were asked by the SADC Secretariat
to facilitate the establishment of our own National Adjudication
Committee (NAC). The rules stipulate that this committee should
consist of members of civil society, businesspersons, intellectuals
and other outstanding personalities of renowned competence and qualities.
I can vouch that we have them aplenty in this meeting today as well
as in the committee itself
We had as GCIS
to convene the broad stakeholder task team that helped to set up
the NAC, itself finally established in June 2003. The rules of the
awards competition also stipulate that the responsibility of this
NAC is that of adjudicating the awards competition in the particular
country for submission to the Regional Adjudicating Committee through
the SADC Secretariat.
We should say
that at GCIS we are greatly encouraged by the response from our
own civil society and their enthusiasm to participate in this process.
But there are many, many awards and GCIS had to prepare itself when
we arranged the first meeting for a reply to the question: why yet
another media award? Would it be correct to say that there is award
fatigue in the media; concern that we might end up like the boxing
fraternity: if you are a boxer and cannot become a champion the
best thing to do is bring a few promoters together and set up an
organisation (WBC, IBF, IBO and so on); and you can easily end being
champion.
But the uniqueness
of the SADC Media Awards is that it helps integrate South Africa
in the sub-continent. It helps to ensure that South Africa thinks
not only about itself, but casts its net wider in defining itself
as it conducts the profession of journalism. It helps ensure that
South Africans come to realise that in all respects, they are also
part of the broader community of Southern Africa, in other words
for South Africans to realise that they are themselves "makwerekwere"!
What is it that
we would gain as SA from this kind of media award?
To answer that
question we need to go back to the basics, and the major reference
point, for us is the document that was recently published by government,
"Toward a Ten-Year Review".
Amongst the
observations that it makes is that one of the major challenges in
the coming ten years building up to 2014, is to ensure that South
Africa expends as much energy and resources as possible to ensure
stabilisation, growth and development in Southern Africa. It makes
the point that this is not only on account some African patriotism,
not only for the love of the people of Southern Africa and the rest
of Africa, but because it is in the profound interest of South Africa
itself to ensure that there is growth and development in our sub-continent.
The point is
made that if we were to succeed for instance in stabilising Zimbabwe,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as well as Angola and
ensure their rapid growth in the coming decade, that will help resolve
some of the problems that we have in South Africa. An analysis of
foreign direct investment in our country demonstrates that since
1994 there has been some improvement, quite significant, but the
reality is that it is not at the kind of level that we had envisaged.
Research points
to a number of reasons, and one of them is the assessment of long-term
prospects in South Africa because of the levels of inequality. Many
long-term investors pose the question: with this level of inequality,
can this society sustain social stability? The second question that
they pose is about the size of our markets, South Africa in particular
with a mere 44 million people.
Now if you were
able to ensure stability in Southern Africa as well as growth and
development, given the extent Angola and the DRC in particular are
endowed in terms of natural resources, we would have a situation
in which a combination of those countries and South Africa would
become a locomotive for faster growth and development in sub-Saharan
Africa and further afield on the continent.
Secondly when
that happens, it mean that more people will be employed in Southern
Africa: there will be bigger markets, a thriving middle class, development
of industry in our own country and the sharing of comparative advantages
across the region. If Angola has things that South Africa does not
have, South Africa can assist Angola to exploit those advantages,
for instance, with regard to oil. South Africa has other attributes
that Angola can help exploit. In other words, you are able to ensure
division of labour on the sub-continent with integrated as well
as synchronised growth.
That can only
happen in the context of freedom and democracy, and the media has
an important role to play in that regard: to ensure that Southern
Africa consolidates its democracy, consolidates the culture of human
rights, including media freedom.
Some people
may wonder, when we were referring to the values of this award (freedom
of expression, freedom of thought, tolerance of divergent views,
and opinion and so on), whether this does not sound like pious words,
especially in countries that may be experiencing the jackboot of
repression against the media.
The temptation,
as we were informed today, among some of the partners who we believe
should be participating in this initiative, is to adopt a holier-than-thou
approach, a purist approach, to these initiatives and argue that
before all these ideals and values are attained on the sub-continent,
they will withdraw from media awards process.
We believe that
that is a wrong approach to adopt.
It's wrong because
the fact of these values being adopted by this collective that is
SADC, is in fact a major achievement. It means you have put up a
lodestar; you have put up a frame of reference on the basis of which
you can legitimately, formally and informally, hold governments
of Southern Africa to account.
But, the other
important consideration is that by participating in these processes,
as South Africa, as this structure of civil society - in the kind
of nominations we make, in our definition of quality, in our definition
of the criteria to select particular nominees - we are involved
in a form of struggle. It is a struggle to ensure that in the whole
of Southern Africa, the SADC Media Awards values are observed, in
other words, that there should be media freedom.
So stepping
aside, boycotting activities of this nature, awaiting the dawn of
an ideal world, would in fact be to shirk our responsibility. It
is better to participate in these processes and influence developments
from within.
I suppose attached
to that kind of challenge - if we all agree that participating in
this process is a form of our contribution to the development of
democracy, human rights and media freedom in Southern Africa - is
the question whom shall we identify as the heroes and heroines?
Will that be merely on the basis of a passing sensation, or will
it be on account of the depth that individuals show in understanding
the dynamics within our own country and the region as a whole?
As a developing
region we share the challenge of ensuring that the right to receive
and impart information and ideas becomes reality for all, including
the majority whose access to the media, whether as consumers or
producers, has been inhibited by a history of neglect and underdevelopment.
We share the ideal of a media agenda for development in which the
concerns of the poor are not subordinated to the fleeting sensations
of the indiscretions of celebrities. And we are convinced that these
fleeting sensations are the real dumbing down; not a reflection
of the concerns of the poorest of the poor.
It is our view
that we also need to be resolute against any dictatorship of advertisers
and the public relations industry as far as matters of content are
concerned: so that companies, so that journalists, so that practitioners,
and so that editors are left to weigh the facts about what is objective
information; what is in the interest of the public; what is it that
they should give prominence to; and that those decisions should
not depend on the subjective interventions and analyses of those
who are in charge of marketing budgets.
We all have
a common interest in the existence of a vigilant, investigative
and independent media and we believe the vision of SADC to establish
the awards would serve the region and South Africa well. We are
convinced that the National Adjudicating Committee will take the
process further to fulfil the objective which SADC has set, the
objective towards which SADC aspires, as part of the ongoing struggle
for freedom from ignorance, freedom from fear, and freedom from
poverty.
We are convinced
that, steadily, sometimes in invisible ways, as these awards become
part South African culture, South Africa will become part of Southern
African and African culture.
Thank you.
Joel
Netshitenzhe
CEO: Government Communications (GCIS) and Head: Policy Unit (PCAS)
in The Presidency
Issued by GCIS
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