ICASA Amendment Bill: civil society demands more time for comment

"We sent a letter to the minister on 15 July [2010] but we have yet to get any sort of response. That is why we are preparing to send another one today. We are doing everything we can and hoping that he will agree to give the general public more time to submit comments - at least until the end of August," SOS spokesperson Kate Skinner told Bizcommunity.com a little while ago.

Deadline for comment

As things stand, the deadline for comment is this Sunday 25 July, but the group believes that 30 days is a very little period for such a complicated matter.

"The issue of regulation is not an easy thing to do. The issue is complicated and we are afraid that if there is no shift in deadline, by Sunday there will be very few comments that won't even cover all the issues," she said.

Skinner said it is in the interest of the whole of South Africa that a genuine and extensive consultation takes place to avoid future problems in the area of regulation.

SOS Support Public Broadcasting - also known as the Coalition - is a large grouping of organisations and individuals working together to address the crisis in public broadcasting in SA.

Under control of the DoC

Furthermore, the group is concerned by certain sections of the bill, which aims to include ICASA under control of the Department of Communications (DoC).

Skinner said that if they allow that to happen, it will mean the end of the independence of the regulatory body, as ICASA councillors might operate in the way that makes the Government always happy. She said the group's worry includes the stakes that the Government has in some of the telecommunication companies such as Telkom.

Skinner also believes that this move is dangerous as it might jeopardise the independence of broadcasting in the country, perhaps culminating in a situation whereby some radio stations, especially community stations, become prejudiced by some ICASA 'unfair' rulings, and forced to turn into pro-government organisations.

"Maximum diversity of views"

"It is necessary that we have a strong and independent regulator in the country for a maximum diversity of views in our democratic society," Skinner insisted.

Several attempts to get comment from the DoC failed by the time of going to press.

For more information, go to www.supportpublicbroadcasting.co.za.