The transformation of broadcasting in South Africa

During the period that the e-archive documents the country moved from being an apartheid state to a constitutional democracy, with the first democratic elections taking place in 1994. The documents trace the work that was done to transform broadcasting from a state-controlled sector to one characterised by diversity and independent regulation.

More specifically the documents trace the work of the Campaign for Open Media (COM) and the Campaign for Independent Broadcasting (CIB). The documents relate to the establishment of South Africa's first broadcasting regulator, the Independent Broadcasting Authority, as well as the transformation of the South African Broadcasting Corporation from a state broadcaster to a public broadcaster (more specifically the process of appointing the first independent SABC Board).

The intention of establishing this e-archive is to make the information available internationally, so that it can inform governments, media practioners and activists seeking to transform state broadcasting to public broadcasting in other parts of the world. The e-archive may also be of interest to people who wish to assess the successes and failures of broadcasting transformation in South Africa.

COM was a lobby group established to achieve the public and transparent appointment of a new Board for the SABC, as well as to monitor the media in the run-up to the elections, lobby for the establishment of the IBA and the scrapping of censorship legislation. COM helped to establish an umbrella group of 37 organisations in November 1992, called the Campaign for Independent Broadcasting. The CIB broadened the lobbying base around the appointment of the SABC Board, resulting in its appointment on May 31, 1993, after a civil society-led process.

While the history of COM and the CIB has been documented in numerous papers and books, the original documents relating to this period of broadcasting history have not been accessible to the public, and have been held by the FXI since its inception in 1994.

These documents include the following: