Minister
Essop Pahad
Speech:
Introducing the Media Development & Diversity Agency Bill -
2nd reading - National Assembly
15 May 2002
Madame Speaker,
Honourable Members,
When our nation adopted
the Constitution, this Parliament was set a vital task.
It is the task of providing
a framework of policy and law that can make our rights a living
reality for all South Africans, rich and poor, young and old, male
and female, urban and rural, black and white.
The Constitution enjoins
us to correct the imbalances arising out of our unjust past.
It enshrines the aspirations
of South Africa’s people for a truly democratic society.
In particular the constitution
affirms and entrenches the right of all South Africans to freedom
of expression, embracing the freedom of the press and other media
and the freedom to receive and impart information or ideas.
The Bill, which I have
the privilege of introducing today, is one small but significant
contribution to the task of translating the aspiration to freedom
of expression into actuality.
When our country emerged
from generations of oppression and discrimination these rights were
enjoyed in practice only by a minority of citizens.
Even today, though
there has been progress, there are still millions of South Africans
who have minimal access to these rights. Let us remind ourselves
of the stark reality. To us, reading newspapers, listening to radio
and watching television are as familiar as breathing and eating.
But barely half of South Africans read newspapers or magazines,
in rural areas less than a third. Only three quarters of South Africans
watch television, and millions are still beyond the reach of FM
radio.
And given the distribution
of wealth in our society and the history of neglect of the education
of the majority, the communications landscape which Comtask surveyed
in 1993 was one of barriers to full participation of most South
Africans in the media. There were barriers of different kinds to
people participating as consumers, as writers, as managers or owners,
or as citizens who find perspectives in the media matching their
own experience and aspirations.
Such was the marginalisation
of the poor and of black people from the media world that Comtask
concluded that it was necessary to establish an agency whose task
would be to lower those barriers so that in a reasonable time the
imbalances should diminish.
The progress that has
been made in the boardrooms and newsrooms is welcome. But measured
against the needs of the situation it is a drop in the ocean and
only a beginning.
It was from such premises
and aspirations, part of our founding national consensus as a nation,
that the project towards a Media Development and Diversity Agency
began.
The MDDA Bill embodies
the principles and objectives that have informed this initiative
from the start and through the long consultation with stakeholders.
In my budget speech two years ago I enumerated the most important
of those principles.
A fundamental principle
is that government, private media sector and international donors
should mobilise resources to promote media development and diversity.
This principle of partnership informs every facet of the agency
provided for in the Bill as it informed the long and complex process
of consultation with stakeholders in all sectors out of which it
has emerged.
Funding from government,
both existing allocations to the Department of Communications in
the field of media development and a recent allocation to GCIS,
will support the work of the agency. The commitments by the private
sector, which can only be formalised when the agency exists and
can enter into agreements, are tangible and significant. Indeed,
without anticipating the precise figures we can say that there is
no precedent for private sector financial contribution to a statutory
agency on this scale.
I would like to thank
the media houses for their positive approach during the extensive
consultation process. Notwithstanding differences of opinion, we
reached consensus, or at least positions that all sides were comfortable
with.
This gives concrete
expression to the fact that complex as the media sector is in terms
of differing interests, there is an overriding consensus that it
is in the interest of our democracy and of all sectors of the media
and our society to act together to redress the imbalances of our
past.
The principle of partnership
is carried forward into the composition of the Board. Six members
will be appointed through a Parliamentary process, and three directly
by the President taking into account the funding of the Agency.
In particular those three appointments will include one from the
commercial print media and one from the commercial broadcast media
sector so that there is participation in the Board from the private
sector funders.
The Bill leaves open
the inclusion on the Board of a representative of government as
a principal funder and indeed the originator and driver of this
initiative aimed at promoting development and reconstruction.
Perhaps we should note
where we stand in this matter of funding.
When we assessed the
gap in resources between the current situation and what would be
desirable, it totaled R500 million over the next five years. After
that the requirements would sharply diminish, with much of the backlog
having been dealt with. With an eye on what was feasible, and on
the understanding that developing media enterprises could find ways
of raising the remainder from other sources, we set the target at
half that amount, in other words R50m a year over five years.
We have commitments
amounting to just over R40m per annum. And this does not include
what will be forthcoming in terms of material support such as training,
print and distribution facilities or subsidies and discounts that
the MDDA will be seeking.
As far as international
donors are concerned, we have proceeded on the basis that they will
in the first instance want South Africans to demonstrate their commitment
to make this initiative work. Having done that, we are preparing
to approach donor agencies for their support for an initiative which
has already awakened interest in other parts of the world.
A further basic principle
informing the MDDA initiative is that the MDDA as a body promoting
the rights to freedom of expression through support for media development
should have a relationship with both government and the media houses,
public and private, that is arms-length.
The Bill explicitly
requires the Agency to be independent. It defines Independence not
in terms of the composition of the Board or where it draws its members
from, but by the way it acts in exercising its powers. The law requires
the Board to be impartial and to act "without fear, favour
or prejudice and without any political or commercial interference".
There is a strong provision dealing with conflict of interest, to
ensure that funds are not disbursed to further interests of any
member of the Board.
Amongst the principles
we affirmed from the start was that the MDDA should be a body with
the necessary authority, and should have a small structure with
the best systems of corporate governance.
Those involved in the
wide and lengthy consultation preceding the submission of the Bill
are agreed that a critical reason for the failure of earlier attempts
to promote media development and diversity was their informal character.
The law which this Bill proposes and the consensus amongst stakeholders
will ensure the authority and status of the MDDA.
A further principle
is that the MDDA should be transparent in its operations, in so
far as it should conduct its operations and provide assistance on
the basis of broad criteria set out for all to see. In requiring
that the Board formulate publicly the criteria and guidelines it
will be following in allocating support, the Bill will ensure such
transparency.
A fundamental guiding
principle has been that the MDDA will pursue diversity, not by interfering
in the content of the media, but by promoting development that overcomes
the many barriers that until now have prevented historically disadvantaged
communities from being full participants in the media, whether as
consumers, producers or distributors.
The Bill is informed
by this conviction that in dealing with these structural impediments,
it will act as a catalyst to the emergence of a more adequately
diverse media. In short, development should lead to greater diversity.
The Bill explicitly affirms that the MDDA will not interfere in
the editorial content of the media.
In any case the agency
will not have the power to do so. Where there is reference to regulations,
these are guidelines for the conduct of the Board itself in the
exercise of its functions. They are not regulations governing the
opinions of others.
As befits a statutory
body based on partnership, these guidelines have the dual authority
of Board and Minister. The Bill requires effective concurrence in
the prescribing and making of regulations.
The MDDA will work
in partnership with those agencies that do have regulatory powers,
like ICASA, and the process out of which this legislation emerges
has involved co-operation and consultation with such bodies.
A broadcasting project
to which the MDDA gives support could operate only if granted a
licence by ICASA, and ICASA retains the sole right to grant licences
according to its own criteria.
The MDDA will address
those conditions which have undermined the emergence and initially,
the survival of community and small media projects:
The experience of recent
years has made it quite clear that the granting of a licence does
not translate automatically into viability; that the transfer of
equipment does not ensure sustainability and survival; and indeed
that cash grants on their own will not ensure lasting health in
a media enterprise.
Capacity building and
training in all areas of media production and distribution therefore
receive strong emphasis in the mix of support that will come from
the MDDA.
By providing a powerful
impetus to the development of community media and small commercial
media amongst historically disadvantaged sectors of our society,
the MDDA will promote diversity in our media as a whole.
Small as this initiative
may be in relation to the legacy to be addressed, we are confident
that it will act as a powerful catalyst.
The community media
sector of today will tell you that it has acted historically as
a training ground from which journalists, media workers and managers
have moved into the mainstream commercial media.
By promoting a reading
culture amongst South Africans a bigger community sector will expand
interest in media products and processes generally, to the benefit
of the established media.
It will enlarge the
pool of creativity and communications skills in our country.
In short, a vigorous
and expanding community media sector will have consequences far
beyond its own sphere, to the benefit of the entire media sector
of South Africa, and to all our citizens.
All our research points
to an immense hunger amongst our people for information which they
can use to improve their lives and information which empowers them
to have an effective say in governing. It shows too that this hunger
is being inadequately met, for various reasons, by our media as
presently configured.
In passing this Bill,
this House will create a framework for a partnership of government
and media that will create more implements with which the people
of South Africa can plough the fields of freedom.
It will strengthen
their hands as informed and active agents in the reconstruction
of their country and the development of a just and prosperous society.
Madame Speaker,
I would like to thank
the Portfolio Committee and its Chairperson, Nat Kekana, for all
the work from their side to ensure that the Bill is in the House
today.
The Bill has benefited
substantially from the legislative experience and wisdom of the
Portfolio Committee. The Public Hearings which the Committee held,
both on the Draft Position Paper and the Bill itself, made it possible
for all those interested in media development to play a part in
this initiative.
The Bill is the outcome
of all these inputs and those of many others who participated in
the process. I wish to thank all those who have contributed to this
democratic initiative.
Minister
in The Presidency, Dr Essop Pahad
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