Minister
Essop Pahad
Speech:
Introducing the Media Development & Diversity Agency Bill -
3rd reading - National Council of Provinces
6 June 2002
Madame Chairperson,
Honourable members
It is a great pleasure and an honour
to introduce this legislation to the National Council of Provinces.
It paves the way towards making a living reality for all South Africans
of their right to freedom of information and expression.
Indeed the Media Development and Diversity
Agency Bill, now before this House, gives expression to a major
South African achievement.
It represents the building of an unprecedented
partnership that will allow government, the media industry and donors
to work together to redress the legacy of imbalances in access to
the media.
It represents an important step towards
the fulfillment of the pledge enshrined in our Constitution, that
all citizens shall enjoy freedom of expression, including freedom
of the media and freedom to receive or impart information and ideas.
It provides effective means for implementing
the recommendation of Comtask in 1996, adopted by Cabinet, that
government should:
"facilitate the process of setting
up a statutorily recognised media development agency…[that]
will operate a statutorily recognised subsidy system for community
and independent media in South Africa."
The journey from Comtask in 1996 to
NCOP in 2002 has been long and complex. But if it has evoked some
impatience and frustration amongst those eager to benefit from support
for media development, it has been thorough in seeking consensus
in a complex sector of our society.
Conferences, consultations, research
and public hearings, not to speak of debate in the media, have left
the imprint of wide ranging views and opinions on this piece of
legislation.
We believe that the work has been done
to allow the NCOP to put the final Parliamentary seal on the MDDA
Bill.
Generations of oppression and domination
have left our emerging democracy with a skewed information and media
landscape.
While some progress has been made in
changing the media industry since the achievement of democracy,
it is only a very small beginning compared with what is needed.
We are constantly reminded of the enduring
legacy. Recently Statistics South Africa published results of a
survey of conditions in the nodal areas of the Integrated Sustainable
Rural Development Programme. Nine million South Africans live in
these areas, including the bulk of the poorest of the poor. Amongst
other things the survey found that in these areas only three quarters
of households had a radio; and only a third a television. Other
surveys tell us that in such areas newspapers are read by less than
20% of people
None of us would want such a situation
to persist. We must find ways that assist in the dismantling of
the many barriers to participation in the media, as consumers; as
writers; as managers. Transformation must touch every major institution
and sector of our society if we are to make a reality of our vision
of a fully democratic society. That includes the media. The recognition
that it is in the interests of democracy that we should all work
together to address the imbalances of the past, informs the broad
support for the MDDA that has been built.
A driving force in the process towards
an MDDA is the principle that government, private media and international
donors should jointly mobilise resources for media development and
diversity. There have been debates about how to do this. A proposal
for a compulsory levy on advertising has given way to a voluntary
approach. But throughout, the principle of partnership has guided
the process. And it is firmly entrenched in the legislation.
The media industry has committed itself
to supporting the work of the MDDA. We are preparing to approach
donor agencies for their support now that it has been clearly demonstrated
that South Africans are going to work together in a sustained way
to promote media development and diversity.
We should note that while this is a
partnership, government is putting the bulk of the money into the
Agency. At the same time the private sector contribution has great
significance. There are also few if any countries in which the commercial
media sector has joined hands with government to give material support
to a statutory agency.
I must therefore once again express
our appreciation of the commitment to media development and diversity
on the part of the media houses. We thank them for the way they
have engaged with us in working towards positions which, if they
have not brought complete agreement, are ones with which all of
us, I believe, can feel comfortable.
Commitments to date from government
and industry, to be formalised once the Agency is in existence,
amount to just over R40m per annum. There will be further material
support such as training, access to print and distribution facilities
or subsidies and discounts that the MDDA will be seeking for developing
small media. We believe that the process towards the transformation
in the advertising industry will produce creative ways of helping
small media meet the challenges posed by the economic imperatives
of advertising.
The composition of the Board likewise
reflects the principle of partnership. Six members will be publicly
nominated and appointed through a Parliamentary process. Three other
members will be directly appointed by the President taking into
account the funding of the Agency, and will include one from the
commercial print media and one from the commercial broadcast media
sector.
Madame Chair,
It is essential that an agency concerned
with the media should be independent and at arms length, from government,
from its funders in the media industry and from any other donors.
The Bill therefore requires the Agency
to be demonstrably independent. It requires them to be impartial
and to act "without fear, favour or prejudice and without any
political or commercial interference".
The strong provision dealing with conflict
of interest, modeled on the ICASA Act, is there to ensure that funds
are not disbursed to further interests of any member of the Board.
Other principles of good corporate
governance are written into the legislation.
This includes transparency in the MDDA’s
operations.
Further, the Agency is subject to the
Public Finance Management Act, audited by the Auditor-General, and
must report to Parliament every year.
The guidelines it follows in providing
support must be set out for all to see in the form of regulations.
In this regard let me stress that in this matter also, the principle
of partnership applies. These guidelines require the agreement of
both the Board and the Minister in the making of regulations. Neither
can make them on their own.
The Bill expressly prohibits the MDDA
from interfering in the editorial content of the media. Its focus
rather is on addressing and reducing the barriers to participation
in the media that have stood in the way of the previously disadvantaged
sections of our society. Support for media development will, we
are convinced, create conditions favouring greater diversity.
That support will include direct cash
grants to community media projects, capacity building, as well as
training in all areas of media production and distribution. In the
case of small commercial media the main support envisaged is the
facilitation of favourable loans, including, through assistance
in developing viable business plans, capacity building.
In the case of community media this
may involve negotiations with advertisers and marketers to explore
new ways of generating income for new operations as well as to ensure
their longer-term survival.
In the case of small commercial media,
the MDDA is empowered to interact with financial institutions and
small business support programmes to facilitate access to loans
on more favourable conditions. That would help utilise funding programmes
that currently exist even where they were not explicitly created
to deal with media needs.
The MDDA will liaise with organisations
such as ICASA and the Universal Service Agency, so that the activities
of the different bodies complement one another.
By supplementing and drawing together
within a comprehensive framework many threads of support for media
development and diversity, the MDDA will provide a powerful impetus
to the development of community media and small commercial media
amongst historically disadvantaged sectors of our society.
Its impact will, we have no doubt,
be felt far beyond the small media sector.
In the course of the public hearings
and discussion around this initiative, we heard eloquent expression
of the hunger amongst our people for media that reflect their own
lives in their own communities. Research points to their wish for
more information of a kind that they can use to improve their lives.
By helping to meet those information
needs, community media will promote an interest in the media generally.
Those who start with media that empowers them in their immediate
circumstances will move naturally to other media products. Promoting
a culture of reading will be of benefit also to the established
media.
When the MDDA facilitates training
and capacity building in the small media sector it will be felt,
as it always has been, far beyond that sector. Many of those who
today are beginning to change the character of our large media houses
cut their teeth in the community media sector.
In most cases the newspapers that nurtured
those communication skills and creativity, the media which opened
a window to public information and discourse, have disappeared.
The MDDA will help create the conditions for a vigorous and expanding
small media sector that will work to the benefit to the country’s
entire media sector.
It will strengthen the hands of citizens
as informed and active agents in the reconstruction of their country
and the development of a just and prosperous society.
Honourable Chair,
I would like to thank the Standing
Committee on Labour and Public Enterprises, and its chairperson,
for the attention it gave to this Bill, which has enabled it to
come before this Council today.
This is a momentous occasion, marking
the final stages of a policy development and legislative process
that has been unique in many ways.
Participation and partnership have
been our watchwords as the country embarked on largely uncharted
territory. It would have been possible to take another route, and
for government to go it alone and simply set up a media development
and diversity agency. Instead we have introduced legislation to
create an agency at arms length from government and based on a partnership.
That, we believe, is the path that
will do the most to foster a more diversified media in South Africa.
Though the passing of this Bill would
complete the Parliamentary process, it will also open the way to
the challenges of implementation and development.
Practical steps towards establishing
the Agency must begin in earnest. Those who have been marginalised
from the media will be planning their applications. Agreements and
commitments must be formalised and finalised. A Board must come
into existence and staff appointed, so that funds can be disbursed.
In short all the possibilities created
by this legislation must be realised so that more of our citizens
enjoy the rights of freedom of expression and information.
I commend this Bill to the National
Council of Provinces.
Minister
in The Presidency, Dr Essop Pahad
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