26 March 2001
From 13h00 tomorrow, 27 March 2001, the South African Communist Party (SACP) will make a submission to the Portfolio Committee in Parliament (Cape Town) on the Draft Position Paper on the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA).
The full text of the SACP submission is available here: http://www.sacp.org.za/docs/mddasub.html.
In outline, the SACP welcomes the MDDA Draft Position Paper. The SACP argues for a long-term and sustainable programme of action to effectively realise development, diversity and transformation of our country's media as a whole.
The SACP submission focuses on:
The MDDA process cannot narrowly focus on community media, whilst leaving the largely un-transformed media to the whims and moods of the private capitalist markets which have no other interests and obligations other than those of private profit. This means a government and community led process to introduce new forms of collective ownership and control of our media.
Linked to this is the issue of foreign ownership of our media. For example, the MDDA Draft Position Paper states that Independent Newspapers and the Mail and Guardian are more than 50% foreign owned. As a result the question of who are they accountable to arises. Are they accountable to the South African public or their foreign capitalist owners? To what extent is this foreign ownership influencing their coverage of South Africa and Africa as a whole? Should we not be putting a limit on the extent of foreign ownership of our media?
Part of the SACP submission will also be a call for a Media Transformation Summit out of which should emerge a Media Transformation Charter. Issues for discussion and action at this Summit must include labour relations, affirmative action in the media industry, media ownership and control, the promotion and use of all South African languages in our media, the transformation of the Advertising Industry, public service obligations on all media, and the transformation and funding of the SABC.
The SACP calls on the GCIS, commercial media, community media, media workers and other stakeholders to extend the MDDA process to explore and take action on the role of, and the challenge of the transformation of media in our society.
CONTACT
Mazibuko K. Jara (surname Jara)
Department of Media, Information and Publicity South African Communist Party
Tel: 27 11 339-3621/2
Fax: 27 11 339-4244
Cell: 083 651 0271
Email: sacp1@wn.apc.org