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Manyi vs the media: the ad budget battle begins

By Mandy de Waal: @mandyldewaal

13 Jun 2011

Media people shook their heads in disbelief when government spokesman Jimmy Manyi laid out his rules for media outlets to receive slices of government's advertising cake. But not many are surprised to hear that Manyi wants to convert free, independent media into government marketers. That would be the same government that is funded by taxpayers.

The ANC government is in charge of running South Africa and newspapers must report on this. But the press must mirror messages issued by government if they want a share of the state's massive ad budget. This is the new government spin redux delivered by Manyi. Media that don't comply with this edict will be punished where the government thinks it will hurt the most: revenues.

SA editors were understandably outraged after government communication and information system boss, Jimmy Manyi, announced that Cabinet had approved a state communications plan to reward media which put a positive spin on what government was doing. The government communication plan sees the consolidation of an R1 billion advertising budget under GCIS, which means that media buying will now be done internally at GCIS instead of through individual government departments.

SA's media was deeply sceptical when Manyi was appointed to head the GCIS late last year. This latest move seems to validate that scepticism as the real shocker was Manyi's statement that media which mirrored government spin would get more of his budget, and those which didn't, would get less.

Continue reading the full article on www.thedailymaverick.co.za.

See also:

Zapiro: New communications policy from Jimmy Manyi

Source: Daily Maverick

Daily Maverick is a unique blend of news, information, analysis and opinion delivered from our newsrooms in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. There are many ways to describe exactly what we do (and for the price of a cup of coffee we’re capable of talking your ears off about it), but the best way to understand the end result is to experience it. Every part of Daily Maverick is free-to-air and no payment is required, although free registration is required for a small subset of functions and pages.

Daily Maverick is run by an independently owned, private company with no affiliation to any other media group (or political party or religious organisation.) Follow Daily Maverick on Twitter at @dailymaverick.

Go to: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/

Mandy de Waal

About Mandy de Waal: @mandyldewaal

Editor, writer and researcher. *Editor of #TheFutureByDesign & The Africa Annual *Published in Africa's Greatest Entrepreneurs *Published in Rolling Stone Magazine, The Guardian (UK), Daily Maverick, Finweek, Mail & Guardian, City Press, Rapport, Moneyweb, Noseweek; Brainstorm Magazine; ITWeb, and MarkLives. *Before becoming a full time writer, de Waal founded brand agency Idea Engineers, and led the Cape Town office of Text 100.