MEDIA CONFERENCE Essop Pahad Koos Of the SACP (left) makes a point to the and CP's Koos van der Mer- SACP we (right) while Van Zyl Slabbert pitch for (centre) looks media on. freedom

By Sue Valentine

should be kept to the bare minimum/' ism/'he said. THE highlight of the discussion on political Democratic Party spokesperson Peter Soal (1FP) representative parlies' views on media freedom was the shar­ said the media should be as free and responsi­ Gavin Woods said the IFP stood in the liberal ing of a platform by the two "CPs" of South ble as any individual. There should not be any tradition and rejected any ideas that the press Atrica - Essop Pa had of the SA Communist limitations on the press/' should fulfil a role prescribed by the state. Party and Koos van der Merwe of the He said the baggage of the old South Africa SACP spokesperson Essop Pahad said the Conservative Party. w was not needed in the new* South Africa, party was opposed to any notion that claimed The lowljght was the failure lo appear of the reminding the audience of how the old restric­ that what was good for the party was good for ANC's Pallo Jordan and the PACs Benny tive legislation of the Rhodesian regime had the country, but said it was equally absurd to Alexander. As many of the conference dele­ been seized on "with glee" bv the incoming sav that what was good for big business was gates mused at the time, it is to be hoped that Zimbabwean government good for the country, their absence from the conference was no indi­ In an entertaining presentation, the Pahad challenged the conventional wisdom cation of the ANC's or PACs attitude towards Conservative Party's Koos van der Merwe which holds that socialists were ideologically the media and its future in this country* attacked the NP bias in the mainstream driven while liberals were not. "Liberal Opening the discussion, Piet Coetzer of the Afrikaans press and the SABC, saying that the democrats are pursuing the interests of a spe­ National Party said freedom of the media had Afrikaans newspapers were actively organising cific class whether they like it or not/' he said. to be related to other rights and freedoms such for the NP. In the discussion which followed* Wevfc/y as privacy and the right of reply He said the CP could not live with a totally Mail co-editor Anion Harber said that, despite "Democracy must depend on a network of free press. "When we come to power there will the rhetoric of press freedom, the country was checks and balances - the media should be part have to be some form of limitations on things marred by a "conspiracy of silence" from all of them. Statutory limitations on the media such as drugs, pornography, satanism, terror­ political parties and organisations, J Taking stock of the conl bv the state or subject to state intervention. agreement in Zimbabwe centered around THE traditional debate and distinction De Vasconcelos said although the need for power*sharing which helped explain the between "advocacv" and "objective" journal­ change was felt several years ago, this did not tighter control of media in that country. ism was tackled matter-of-factlv by mean that what was done after independence Ngavirue said although Namibia's Prime Mozambican journalist Leite de Vasconcelos in had been wrong. Minister and the Minister of Information and a session on "Open Media and the Experience However, while still maintaining that mili­ Broadcasting were not "by habit nor inclina­ of Neighbouring States". tancy and commitment to the needs of the peo­ tion" necessarily committed to a free press or De Vasconcelos, who is director-general of ple were not necessarilv enemies of good and democracy, thev had nevertheless maintained Radio Mozambique, said that during the strug­ honest journalism, De Vasconcelos said this the policy of respecting freedom of the press, gle for liberation from Portugese colonial con­ commitment could not be channelled through a trol there had been no distinction between jour­ In a mature democracy it should be taken for political party because no party was the entire nalism and participation in the struggle. granted that responsible journalists would put people. During this period, journalists fought in bat­ the national interest above party political inter tles and reported on them as well To produce Speaking on the experience of the media in est, but in Namibia this had not always been food and report on the efforts in agriculture, to Namibia, Mbatjiua Ngavirue of The Nmiiibiatt the case, teach and report about education could not be said the fact that Ihc pftMndependencc agree­ A surprise guest at the conference was distinct tasks, he said. ment in Namibia was based on constitutional Nigerian novelist, journalist and professor of Since independence Mozambique has been a and political principles had helped to guaran­ languages Kole Omotoso who was in South one-partv state and until now the radio, news­ tee press freedom. Africa on his first visiL papers, magazines and television were owned By contrast, he said, the Lancaster House Omotoso said in Nigeria with its 120 million

lu MEDIA CONFERENCE Louis Long road to freedom Rauben­ heimer of From Page 1 trast, 98 percent of these people listen to radio the SABC. Conference delegates also grappled with and % percent listen to black radio stations. issues such as control and access to the media, Of South Africa's total population, one in journalistic ethics, media freedom and the four is illiterate and only about two people in thorny question of the extent to which journal­ 10 could read a newspaper. The only medium ists had a responsibility to build national unity which shows some signs of reaching the cent share of total daily circulation and a 15 to and whether racism, tribalism or sexism should majority of South Africans was radio* 20 percent share of weekend titles. be outlawed in the media. This was confirmed later bv the SABC's edi­ He said nationalisation of the press would Under the theme, "Towards an Open Media tor-in-chief of news management, Louis not help create a diversity of media. The high for a new South Africa", Gavin Stewart of Raubenheimer, who said that the corporation's cost of entry into the newspaper industry was Rhodes University's journalism department black language service was the only medium a "very compelling reason" for the Argus painted a bleak picture of repressive regimes with any penetration in the rural areas. Company's decision to offer others access to its and the systems that succeeded them, He said despite the fact that such services human and material resources and in this way. "We will inherit intolerance and repression, were often labelled "apartheid services", inde­ to enable them "to find a voice". along with a state monopoly of broadcasting pendent research had shown that 80 percent of The Star's editor Richard Steyn, said neither and a corporate monopoly of newspapers and black listeners preferred programmes in their state nor corporate ownership of the media r magazines/' he said. ow n language. Only about 17 percent had a was desirable. A greater spread of titles was In the opening address to the conference, reasonable understanding of English and needed to entrench diversity and to reflect the manager of Ravan Press, Glenn Moss, said about five percent understood Afrikaans, grassroots opinion. However, he added that support for freedom of the media by political Raubenheimer, who emphasised that he efforts to break up existing press groups in the organisations was contradicted frequently by spoke in his persona! capacity and not on country might lead to fewer rather than more the actions of their followers. "Journalists in the behalf of the SABC, said there was a definite titles - because of economic realities. townships face enormous pressures and are need for services in the Nguni and Sotho lan­ Other impediments in the way of an open subject to disciplinary hearings and struc­ guages. media, he said, included "gatekeeping" (the tures," he said, and emphasised that perilously "The SABC is not opposed to competition, dominance of the mainstream media by white, little had been done to develop a culture of provided the wishes of the public are given middle-class men who believed in capitalism), diversity and pluralism by the leadership of recognition," he said. The SABC's privatisation legal restrictions, the absence of a culture of organisations, drive as well as its task force examining the dissent and public apathy Stewart said a survey done by his depart­ broadcast media came under attack time and "If people want an open media, they must ment among rural people late this year showed aeain during the conference ,_ _... t. . that a vast number were unaware that Nelson amid calls for the issue to be Edltors wnle what theV llke> because Mandela had been released, while others did opened as a public cam­ managers and owners like not even know who was. paign. Amps (All Media Products Services) figures The workshop on broad­ what they write* for 1989/90 painted a vivid picture of media casting suggested to the con­ poverty among rural South Africans who com­ ference that alternative prise more than 40 percent of the population. research be done forthwith According to research by the journalism so that information would be on hand to eval­ want to know. It takes a mature democratic department at Rhodes, 83 percent of people in uate and, if need be, to counter the conclusions society to have an open media/' he said. presented by the task group. the Eastern Cape are illiterate. By stark con- Association of Democratic Journalists repre­ The manager of Radio 702, Stan Katz, said if sentative David Niddrie said the media, broadcasting were deregulated, the private almost without exception, depended on adver­ sector could operate commercial stations tising for survival. An alternative system of dependent on advertising, alongside the state- subsidies offered a means of "levelling the ent funded service ufhich would form the nucleus playing fields" in ensuring the publication of of public broadcasting but would be indepen­ media representing the interests of rural people and a multitude of different languages, dent of government control. people, youth and women. privately-owned newspapers proliferated. Radio Freedom's Thami Ntenteni said his Referring to claims that editors were free The press was free but, as Omotoso pointed station had always announced itself as the from intervention by management Niddrie out, "free to do what?". Press freedom did not voice of the African National Congress and the quipped, "editors write what the like, because make for political maturity, he said. people of South Africa, but in the light of managers and owners like what they write". A visitor from Senegal and head of Ihe recent developments in the country. Radio In delivering the closing address, former African jurists' Association, Benoit Ngom. Freedom was re-examining its role. Rand Daily MtUI editor and chairperson of the gave the conference a brief picture of Ihe media As part of a challenge to the SABC's mono- Campaign for Open Media Raymond Louw in his country* Speaking French (translated by p>ly, the notion of "guerrilla" or pirate radio said South Africa did not have even the press Prot Omotoso), Ngom said the press in Senegal stations, which simply began broadcasting freedoms it had en|oyed in 1948. was free and largely privately owned. without waiting for permission, was mooted He called for the immediate abolition of f However, there w as only one television station A recurring theme emanating from ihe big med" curbs \n lhe Police and Prisons Acte' and one radio station, both state-owned. guns in the commercial press was the possibil­ adding that if the government wanted to In sharp contrast to the South African ity of assisting smaller, alternative publications restore some public faith in itself as a reform­ ing regime, it should dismantle the 100 and Newspaper Registration Act which can set a - in effect, a piggy-back system. more laws affecting the media which were still registration deposit as high as R40 (100( the Murray Hofmeyr, chairman of the Argus in force. Tlxere was still a long road to reshap­ establishment of a newspaper in Senegal Group, defended the company's size saying it ing the media, he said. 3 entailed the submission of the title and name of was no different to other major newspaper the editor on!v* J groups in the world. It enjoyed a 50 to 60 per- Suo Valentine is Idasa's Media Co-ordinator *

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