"Potential to use and abuse"
"There is a potential to use and abuse broadcasting in many ways," Lumko Mtimde, CEO of the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), said yesterday, Wednesday, 25 August 2010, in Parktown, Johannesburg.
"In Africa [when] there is a coup d'etat, radio stations are often used to speak to millions of people," Mtimde, an ANC and SACP member, pointed out, speaking at the 'ICASA Strengthening' workshop hosted at the IAJ by the Media Monitoring Africa and SOS Support Public Broadcasting.
"Broadcasting can also be abused for commercial interests when a community broadcaster becomes a commercial broadcaster," he said, adding that another form of abuse is when a public broadcaster turns into a state broadcaster.
Mtimde's last theory is the most popular practice in Africa, where ruling parties and governments use it to disseminate their propaganda, consolidate their grip on power, weakens their opponents and sow fear into the population.
Many critics believe the SA government's aim to bring the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) under its control through the enactment of the proposed ICASA Amendment Bill will end the independence of the regulator.
They also argue that it will create an uneven terrain whereby broadcasting companies with close links with the ruling party applying for licences might have an unfair advantage over private or less influential operators.
Some said this is an attempt by the ANC-led government to stifle freedom of expression and diversity of views. But, Mtimde firmly believes that those who oppose government intervention in regulating broadcasting were motivated primarily by commercial interests.
"We should not let the market's commercial interests hamper the betterment of people's lives and stifle reconstruction and development," he said, accusing white-owned media companies, which he said own vast interests in print and broadcasting, of sensationalising the issue and blowing it out of proportion.
"The market is failing us through its two faces - first of all, they need an independent regulator because it provides certainty for their business. Secondly, they won't tell you that they also need a weak regulator.
"We need to be vigilant so that when something is being tabled the media goes berserk and sensationalises the whole issue. Who is the media by the way? Seventy five percent of the media in this country is owned by whites."
As ICASA's weaknesses continue to be exposed, becoming one of SA's laughing stocks, some observers ask whether the regulator's presence will still be relevant in the future.
Mtimde said: "Yes, we need ICASA. Otherwise, it is going to be the survival of the fittest (urban) and the elimination of the weakest (rural).
"And who has more money? The whites. And most of the poor are black. Yes, viewed collectively the whites - as few as they are - continue to dominate the SA economy."
Lastly, he said the ICASA Amendment Bill - as it is now - will unlikely pass the parliamentary test or presidential test. "If it passes both tests, there is a possibility that the Constitutional Court will stop it."
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