SABC ANNOUNCES GCEO APPOINTMENT

According to the SABC's internal communication (The Intercom) - the new GCEO of the SABC has been announced as follows:

SABC ANNOUNCES GCEO APPOINTMENT

Johannesburg, 15 December 2009 -In line with the stated objectives to fill key vacant positions, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) today announces the appointment of Mr. Solly Mokoetle as the corporation’s Group Chief Executive Officer effective from 1st January 2010 for a five year period.

The previous SABC Board commenced the process of appointing a GCEO and short listed candidates for the position. For the sake of transparency the Interim Board of the SABC reopened the process by re-advertising the vacancy and extending the deadline for applications.

In line with the Articles of Association of the SABC, the Interim Board recommended Mr. Mokoetle to the Minister of Communications, General Siphiwe Nyanda, following an intensive interviewing process.

“The Interim Board is happy that this matter has been brought to finality since one of the main objectives of the Interim Board was to fill the key vacant positions in order to stabilise the corporation. The appointment of GCEO will go a long way in moving the organization forward.” said Ms. Irene Charnley, the Chairperson of the SABC Interim Board.

“The decision to appoint Mr. Mokoetle was based on his experience and a proven track record during the time the SABC was profitable, making him the most suitable candidate. The board is confident that his appointment will provide the required leadership to turn around the SABC while maintaining public broadcasting mandate” said Ms. Charnley.

Mr. Mokoetle is no newcomer to the SABC having served the corporation for twelve years. He started working at the SABC in 1994 as one of the team of executives who were assigned to transform the SABC from the state broadcaster to a true national public broadcaster. He also performed various leadership functions within the radio and television services and ended up as COO from 2001 until December 2006.

Media Enquiries

Kaizer Kganyago

SABC Spokesman

082 306 8888

New Board of the SABC

Dear All

The President of the Republic, Mr Jacob Zuma today, in terms of section 13(1) of the Broadcasting Act 44 of 1999 (the Act) appointed, with effect from 10 January 2010, twelve non-executive members of the Board of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) as recommended by the National Assembly.

These are:

* Mr Cedric Sabelo Gina

* Ms Phillipa “Pippa” Green

* Mr Peter John Harris

* Ms Barbara Masekela

* Mr Magathe Mello

* Mr Nkotomane Motsepe

* Dr Baldwin “Ben’’ Ngubane

* Mr David Niddrie

* Ms Claire O’Neil

* Ms Felleng Sekha

* Ms Suzanne Vos

* Mr Desmond Golding

In terms of section 13(3) of the Act, the President has designated Dr Ben Ngubane as Chairperson of the Board and Ms Felleng Sekha as Deputy Chairperson of the SABC Board.

Dr Ngubane, a highly regarded former Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and former South African ambassador to Japan, will bring the necessary expertise and depth of experience required in a weighty position of this nature.

Ms Sekha brings extensive experience in the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors, having served in various positions, including as chairperson of the Independent Broadcasting Authority and the National Telecommunications Forum. She was also actively involved in the Telecommunications Policy process leading to the enactment of the South African Telecommunications Act of 1996, which will assist the board in this era of convergence between telecommunications and broadcasting.

The President thanks Ms Irene Charnely and the entire interim Board for the excellent manner in which they have steered the SABC forward under challenging conditions, bringing about stability.

The President wishes the new Board members well in their task of strengthening the public broadcaster and to build an SABC that will efficiently and effectively execute the mandate of informing, educating and entertaining citizens and the world.

GFC arrangements for December / Jan

Kindly please take note of:

GFC arrangements for December / Jan

Dear Industry Partners -

Kindly note that the GFC will be closing on the 18th of December 2009 and we will open again on the 4th of January 2010. All shoots taking place between 14 December 2009 and 11 January 2010 are requested to submit their permit applications to Rochelle Roscoe by no later than the 17th of December 2009. Note that we will not be able to assist with permit applications between 18 Dec – 10 January 2010 so it is essential that permit applications are submitted prior to our office closing.

For all location enquiries the industry can contact myself directly preferably by e-mail but they can also get hold of me on my cell at 083 455 9688.

We also would like to remind the industry that many of our location partners will be closing offices/ running on skeleton staff during the festive period, so urge all companies to confirm shoots as soon as possible. As the GFC will be on skeleton staff we unfortunately cannot guarantee that we will be able to assist with pitches and location enquiries during this period.

Key contacts are as follows:

December 2009:

Emergencies: Tumi Ntshingila: +27 (0) 83 447 7011 and tumi@gautengfilm.org.za

Permit applications: Rochelle Roscoe: +27 (0)11 833 0409 and rochelle@gautengfilm.org.za

Location enquiries: Jacques Stoltz: +27 (0) 083 455 9688 and jacques@gautengfilm.org.za

From 11 January 2010:

Emergencies: Jacques Stoltz: +27 (0) 083 455 9688 and jacques@gautengfilm.org.za

Permit applications: Puisano Phatoli: +27 (0)11 833 0409 and puisano@gautengfilm.org.za

Location enquiries: Puisano Phatoli: +27 (0)11 833 0409 and puisano@gautengfilm.org.za

Should you need to get hold of Metro Police during this period the contacts are as follows:

Johannesburg Metro Police Department: Contact Gugu or Sibongile at 011 490 1587, fax: 011 490 1864 or SibongileMan@joburg.org.za

Tshwane Metro Police Department: Wynand at 012 358 6470, Fax: 086 624 0827 and e-mail WynandSc@TSHWANE.GOV.ZA

Mogale Metro Police Department: Elmarie at (011) 951 2000 and elmariem@mogalecity.gov.za'

Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department: Tel: 011 999 8659 and Fax: 086 660 4435

Wishing you a happy and safe festive season.

Kind regards,

Jacques Stoltz

Senior Marketing Manager

Gauteng Film Commission

56 Main Street, Johannesburg, 2108, South Africa

P.O. Box 61601, Marshalltown, 2107

Tel: +27 (0) 11 833 0409

Fax: +27 (0) 11 833 0282 / (0) 86 505 5773

Cell: +27 (0) 83 455 9688

E-mail: jacques@gautengfilm.org.za

Web: www.gautengfilm.org.za

Public Service Broadcasting Bill - Understand it!

Dear All

Please take the time to read up about the proposed Public Service Broadcasting Bill. It is important that all South Africans - but most particularly those involved in television and media production understand its full potential - both good and bad.

Please take time to read up about it here and comment via either SASFED or DFA.

Your comments DO make a difference.

Thank you.

SASFED discussion on Public Service Broadcasting Bill

To: - SASFED Board
- SASFED Committee (affiliate representatives)
- All individual members of SASFED affiliates

One last, important order of business for SASFED before the close of the
year is the development of its positions on the Public Service Broadcasting
Bill. The deadline for submissions on the Bill is 15 January 2010.

Among the provisions of the Bill are:

* alignment of public broadcasting, including community television, to
a developmental state;
* establishment of a fund from personal income tax and its
administration by the MDDA, including for use by commercial brocasters;
* organisation of the public broadcaster into public, commercial and
international divisions, and including regional services and specialist
channels;
* interventionist powers for the Minister;
* establishment of a local content advisory body and an audience
advisory council.

Please attend a SASFED discussion on these and other proposals to help
formulate SASFED's positions.
The discussion will provide the basis for SASFED's submission to be drafted
as early as possible in the new year.

DATE: Tuesday, 15 January

TIME: 13h30

VENUE: Atlas Studios

Please reply indicating whether you will be attending or not.

A get-together for drinks will follow at 17h30 at Xai Xai (7th Str,
Melville) to wrap up the year.

South African Film Industry Organisations Launch a Report and Film on Copyright Barriers to Documentary Film in South Africa.

South African Film Industry Organisations, including SASFED member organisations the DFA and WoS together with the American University Launch a Report and Film on Copyright Barriers to Documentary Film in South Africa.

Please click here for the attached press release issued by two of our member industry organisations who have been working together with the American University on Copyright issues. Some good news from a pro-active industry for a change, to end of the year.

Civil society responds to the shift in deadline for submissions to 15 January 2010 on the Public Service Broadcasting Bill

SOS: Supporting Public Broadcasting, previously Save our SABC: Reclaiming our Public Broadcaster

Civil society responds to the shift in deadline for submissions to 15 January 2010 on the Public Service Broadcasting Bill

4 December 2009

The “Save our SABC” Campaign representing a number of trade unions including COSATU, COSATU affiliates CWU and CWUSA, FEDUSA and BEMAWU; independent producer organisations including the South African Screen Federation (SASFED); and a host of NGOs and CBOs including the Freedom of Expression Institute, Media Monitoring Africa, the Media Institute of Southern Africa and the National Community Radio Forum; as well as a number of academic and independent experts welcome the fact that the Department of Communications has shifted the deadlines for comment on the Bill from 7 December 2009 to 15 January 2010. However, we do note that this extension is over the Christmas period and this certainly significantly hampers our ability to research, debate and consult on the issues raised by the Bill. We had originally asked for an extension until the end of March 2010.

However, one sector will certainly benefit from the extension – the community media sector. This gives members of the National Community Radio Forum (NCRF) representing 105 stations nation-wide and a 150 communication activists from civil society organisations an opportunity to gather in Upington, Northern Cape next week at the Media Mindblast conference to develop a shared response to the Bill.

The Coalition notes again that this Bill introduces fundamental policy shifts that seek to transform the landscape of broadcasting in the country. This potentially impacts on every citizen in South Africa either as a tax payer or as a viewer or listener of TV or radio. We reiterate that some of the fundamental policy shifts include:

1. The Bill aligns broadcasting to the “developmental goals of the Republic” and the developmental state. Previously broadcasting was aligned to the Constitution.

2. The Bill introduces fundamental shifts to the broadcasting funding environment. It calls for the scrapping of TV licence fees and for amendments to the Income Tax Act, 1962, to ensure that up to 1% of personal income tax is set aside for public broadcasting.

3. In terms of funding, it introduces a new Public Service Broadcasting Fund to be administered by the Media Development and Diversity Agency, requiring that the MDDA Act is amended. The Fund is mandated to finance a wide-ranging set of functions, including the public service division of the SABC (together with regional television and international broadcasting services), content development, community broadcasting services, and signal distribution. The MDDA at present funds small commercial and community media and is specifically barred from getting involved in editorial independence issues.

4. The Bill introduces far-reaching new powers for the Minister of Communications. The Minister can now issue directives to the SABC and community media on “any matter connected to public service broadcasting” if the entity is unable to “perform its functions as prescribed in this Act”.

5. Previously the SABC was split into two divisions – public and public-commercial. The SABC is now to be divided into three separate divisions – public, commercial and international.

6. Sentech has now been designated as the common signal distribution carrier, requiring amendments to the Electronic Communications Act, 2005.

7. Finally, and importantly, community media’s role has now been reconceptualised. A new Charter has been introduced for the community media sector specifying the ways in which the community media sector needs to be organised. Further, the Bill ensures community media forge partnerships with their local municipalities.

In light of these major policy shifts the Coalition still calls for a proper policy review process including a review of the Broadcasting White Paper, 1998. In line with sound law making practices we believe that the policy review process should proceed the drafting of new legislation.

The Coalition will certainly respond to the new deadline of the 15th of January but ideally we still believe that the deadline should be shifted to the very minimum to mid February 2010 to allow for a genuinely consultative process. We still believe the present process is unnecessarily rushed and we are still not certain as to the reasons. People can sign up on the Media Monitoring Africa website to call for a less rushed, proper policy review process on

http://www.mediamonitoringafrica.org/index.php/petition/the_public_service_broadcasting_bill

Finally, we once again respectfully request access to the research done by the Department of Communications that informed the proposals in this Bill. We feel that this will better facilitate our understanding of the thinking behind the proposals put forward in the Bill.

For more information please contact:

Kate Skinner – (082) 926-6404

Tawana Kupe – (078) 459-6041

William Bird – (082) 887-1370

SA Première - "The Order Of Myths" and Workshop on the use of Copyrighted material in Documentary Film in South Africa with leading global experts.

Dear Friends of the DFA,

Apologies for those not in Gauteng next week, this event is unfortunately only Gauteng based.

The Documentary Filmmakers Association (DFA), Women of the Sun (WoS), and American University’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and Center for Social Media, American University, invite you to a special 2-day workshop and film screening focusing around the issue of expanding the utility of copyright “users’ rights” for documentary filmmaking.

Please see attached flyer for this film, and feel free to pass on this e-mail to others you feel may benefit.

More information and registration information at http://www.docfilmsa.com/rights/

Sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the Gauteng Film Commission, the City of Johannesburg, Underdog and most recently the NFVF, this workshop will feature the launch of Untold Stories in South Africa: The Creative Consequences of the Rights Clearance Culture for Documentary Film, the final report of a year-long study of rights clearance and documentary film in South Africa.

The workshop will begin with a public screening and discussion with the director of The Order of Myths, a documentary that explores race, music and celebration at Alabama’s Mardi Gras, and which benefitted from a project in the U.S. working with filmmakers to understand users’ rights under copyright law. Click here to learn more about the film.

The following two days at, workshops will be conducted on how South African filmmakers can use and expand users’ rights under South Africa’s copyright law. All of the events are open to the public and FREE of charge for members of DFA, WoS and BFN. There is a minimal charge for others to attend the Workshops to cover catering. The Opening and film screening is FREE to all.


Thursday 10th December - 19h00 - 22h00
Film Screening and Discussion with Director: The Order of Myths
A Film by Margaret Brown

Venue: The Laager Theatre at the Market Theatre - Newtown
FREE to ALL including Drinks and Snacks


Friday 11th and Saturday 12th December - Registration at 09h30 - Workshop form 10h00 - 17h30
Workshop Day 1: User’s Rights Under South Africa’s Copyright Law: What are They and How Can Filmmakers Use Them?
Workshop Day 2: Expanding the Utility of Users’ Rights: Implementing the Recommendations of the Cape Town Workshop on Copyright Clearance and Free Expression, March 2009.

Venue: “SAB World Of Beer” Conference Venue – Newtown
FREE to DFA, WOS or BFN members and invited guests, a subsidised fee of R80 for others can be paid at entrance, includes lunch, and refreshments.

Featuring:

Peter Jaszi, Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law, Author of Copyright Law (2006) and Director of the Fair Use and Public Media Project.
Sean Flynn, Associate Director, Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, American University Washington College of Law
Andrew Rens, Intellectual Property Fellow, Shuttleworth Foundation, Legal Lead for Creative Commons South Africa, co-founder and director of The African Commons Project
Marc Schwinges, National Treasurer for the Documentary Filmmakers' Association, National Board Member and Head of Communications for the South African Screen Federation & Independent Producer - Underdog Productions
Eve Rantseli, Executive Officer: Women Of the Sun and Vice Chairperson: The South African Screen Federation
Margaret Brown, Independent Filmmaker from the USA
Freddy Ogterop, Visual History Archive, University of Cape Town, Author of Audiovisual Audit Report: The South African Liberation Struggle

Please RSVP ASAP by using the online registration form at: http://www.docfilmsa.com/rights/register.php and don't miss out!

Note: This was pre-released to paid members on Monday this week, and to people who attended the March Workshops in Cape Town, apologies for duplication to these people, please RSVP urgently

Notice extending the closing date for public submission in respect of PSB Bill

Colleagues,

Notice is hereby given that the Department ; of Communications has extended the closing date for public submission in respect of the draft Public Service Broadcasting Bill, Charter of the Corporation and Charter of Community Broadcasting services.

The new closing date for public submission is 15 January 2010.

Submissions are to be made through the following address: psb@doc.gov.za

A gazette is to be issued to this effect

Regards

Ms Miyelani Khosa | Deputy Director: Broadcasting Policy

+27 12 427 8174 | +27 12 427 8059|e-mail: Miyelani@doc.gov.za

399 Duncan Street | iParioli Building| Hatfield | Pretoria | Switchboard: +27 12 427 8000

SASFED calls on the Department to extend the deadline for responses to the Broadcast Bill

The following communication was sent on behalf of SASFED and its member organisations:

To the Director General – Mamodupi Mohlala

Department of Communications

IParioli Park

399 Duncan Street

Pretoria

0002

Fax: (012) 427-8026

Email: director-general@doc.gov.za

30 November 2009

SASFED welcomes the Department of Communication’s initiatives for a renewed vision for public service broadcasting, particularly with regard to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

However we are deeply concerned about a number of the provisions of the Public Service Broadcasting Bill 2009 and request much more time than has been provided for to canvass the opinion of our substantial membership in response.

SASFED represents the interests of most film and television industry organisations as a federation, and is the most broadly unified TV and film industry body.

Our members include: The DFA - The Documentary Filmmakers Association, OSCA SA - The Official South African Casting Association, PMA - The Personal Managers' Association, SACOD - Southern African Communications for Development, SAGA - South African Guild of Actors SAGE - South African Guild of Editors TPA - The Producers Alliance (Merged with the IPO from September 2009) WGSA - Writers Guild of South Africa WIFTSA - Women in Film and Television, SA WOS - Women of the Sun – our associates include Animation SA, Arts in Africa, Big Fish School of Digital Filmmaking, CPA - Commercial Producer Association South Africa, FEPACI - Pan African Federation of Filmmakers, TVIEC – The Television Industry Emergency Coalition, Industry Hunger Protesters, IPO - The Independent Producers Organisation, TAC - The Actors Coalition, UKZN - University of KwaZulu Natal

SASFED is concerned that an inadequate process of discussion for enduring solutions to the complex matters of the public broadcaster and public broadcasting, will continue to render the public broadcaster unstable, conflict ridden and ineffective and, fail yet another generation in the ideal of meaningful public broadcast services.

The experience of the public broadcaster in a democratic South Africa has in the main been one of chronic instability and crisis, including of vision, mission, and strategic and operational management. This has been possible not least because public broadcasting has not been anchored in any co-determining and collaborative reference with all relevant role players and interests.

It is vital to ensure the outcome of a public broadcaster that enjoys the overwhelming confidence of all role players and interests going forward. A necessary first step for this is thorough and informed discussion of the far-reaching proposals presented in the Bill.

SASFED calls on the Department to extend the deadline for responses to the Bill to the end of March 2010 to allow for thorough debate and consultation before new legislation is passed.

Issued by the SASFED Board

Co-Chairs: Kgomotso Matsunyane & Feizel Mamdoo

Vice Chair: Eve Rantseli

Treasurer: Michael Lee

Co-Secretaries: Thandi Brewer & Khalid Shamis

Legal: Stacy Koma

Communications: Marc Schwinges

Additional Members: Rehad Desai & Dan Jawitz

SASFED is The South African Screen Federation, representing the interest of most film and television industry organisations as a collective federation. Our members include:

DFA – The Documentary Filmmakers Association

OSCA SA - The Official South African Casting Association

PMA – The Personal Mangers’ Association

SACOD – Southern African Communications for Development

SAGE – South African Guild of Editors

TPA – The Producers Alliance

WGSA – The Writers’ Guild of South Africa

WIFTSA – Women in Film and television, SA

WOS – Women of the Sun

SAGA – South African Guild of Artists

FEPACI News

The latest news from FEPACI (Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers):

Tribute to Senegalese filmmaker Samba Felix Ndiaye - Click HERE

Focus on Africa at 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam - Click HERE

Africa's re-awakening should rely on its cultural heritage - Click HERE

Want to read more about FEPACI? Click HERE

SASFED presentation at the NFVF Indaba

On Thursday the 26th of November 2009, SASFED Co-Chair - Kgomotso Matsunyane gave a presentation for SASFED at the NFVF Indaba, which was witnessed by the department of Arts and Culture, the NFVF and extensive members of the industry. The Power-Point given is attached here... and worth the read. A PDF version of the document can be found here.

SASFED a Full Member of FEPACI

SASFED is officially the only Full Member of FEPACI in South Africa

THE PAN AFRICAN FEDERATION OF FILMMAKERS (FEPACI)

HISTORY

From its inception in 1969, FEPACI, the PAN AFRICAN FEDERATION OF FILMMAKERS, in French, FEDERATION PAN AFRICAINE DES CINEASTES, from where we got the acronym, FEPACI, has been the continental voice of filmmakers from various regions of Africa and the Diaspora.

FEPACI’s founding fathers include Sembene Ousmane of Senegal, Lionel Ngakani of South Africa, both of whom have passed on, and living icons like TAHAR SHARIA of Tunisia and GADALA CUBARA of Sudan, who at 84 and blind, is still making films

FEPACI, has in collaboration with affiliate national bodies, its membership and relevant national and international governments and private sector institutions, worked towards developing and implementing solutions to the common challenges and problems that African filmmakers experience in funding, production and distribution of African audio – visual content on the continent and aboard.

FEPACI’S MANDATE

FEPACI mandate is to further professionalize and institutionalize the cinema and audio- visual industry in Africa, so as to the unite African filmmakers and empower them with a view to encouraging the ownership and control of Africa’s imaging and imagination. It also includes the streamlining of activities across the continent that are aimed at developing the African Audio Visual Industries in such areas as the development and maintenance of an Archives and Research Centre, the resuscitating of cinema houses, the protection of copyright and intellectual property of filmmakers and the standardisation of curriculums of film schools across the continent.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Among FEPACI’s achievements to date are, notably:

• The establishment of FESPACO, the Pan Africa Film Festival of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.

• The establishment of the Southern African Film Festival in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1990

• The establishment of the magazine ECRANS D’ AFRQUE (African Screens) in collaboration with Centro Oriamentto Educativa (CEO in Milan) in 1993.

• The founding of the Zanzibar International Film Festival, (ZIFF) in 1995-6

• Contribution towards the founding of SITHENGI, the Cape Town World Cinema Festival and so on.

FEPACI has observer status with AU, formerly OAU, and had agreed with the AU on a draft Memorandum of Understanding soon to be signed by both FEPACI and the AU.

STRUCTURE

FEPACI’S membership constitutes 53 counties encompassing 6 regions across Africa and 3 regions across the Diaspora; namely: in Europe, in the Americans and in Asia. FEPACI holds its Congress every four years. At its 7th Congress in Tshwane, Pretoria South Africa in April 2006, FEPACI secretariat was moved from Benin Republic in West Africa to Johannesburg in South Africa. The Congress is the highest organ of FEPACI.

The FEPACI structure is compromised of the office of the President, who is non-executive, the Secretary General, who is the chief executive officer and Treasurer Genera, the chief financial officer. The regions mentioned above are represented by Regional Secretaries who implement the vision, mission programmers of FEPACI from their regional bases.

PROJECTS

From time to time FEPACI engages in projects that will help actualize its mandate of further professionalizing and institutionalizing the audio-visual industry on the Continent and the African Diaspora. In this connection FEPACI currently has a number of projects for implementation in the short, medium and long term.

In the medium and long term FEPACI has the following projects:

1. Regional coordinator and Membership Strategy implementations

2. Establishment of African Cinema Archives Centre.

3. Harmonization of Film Education Standards – leading to a coherent audio-visual cinema curriculum.

4. Film Distribution and Exhibition: Rehabilitation of Cinema houses, many of which have given way to churches, - to name but a few.

REGISTRATION

FEPACI is registered in South Africa under section 21 of the Companies’ Act of South Africa as a non profit organization. Its registered offices are at:

SCI-BONO DISCOVERY CENTRE

1,Cnr President and Miriam Makeba Streets

Newtown 2113

Johannesburg, South Africa

info@fepaci-fil.org

www.fepaci-film.org

URGENT CALL FOR DEADLINE ON SUBMISSIONS TO CONTROVERSIAL PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING BILL TO CHANGE

PRESS RELEASE: URGENT CALL FOR DEADLINE ON SUBMISSIONS TO CONTROVERSIAL PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING BILL TO CHANGE

Issued by: Media Monitoring Africa

Date: December 1 2009

Media policy watchdog Media Monitoring Africa, together with the SOS Supporting Public Broadcasting Coalition, is imploring the South African government for a reasonable extension to the deadline for public submissions on the proposed controversial Public Service Broadcasting Bill, from December 7 to the end of March 2010.

The Bill proposes a number of fundamental changes to the public service broadcasting and community media environment, and based on this, MMA and the SOS Coalition argues that it would be in the interests of all affected by it to take the time necessary to debate, discuss, research and address the various proposals included in it.

Among other important issues:

- The Bill includes two new charters – one for the SABC and one for community broadcasting.

- The Bill aligns broadcasting to the “developmental goals of the Republic” and the developmental state. Previously broadcasting was aligned to the Constitution.

- The Bill introduces fundamental shifts to the broadcasting funding environment. It calls for the scrapping of TV licence fees and for amendments to the Income Tax Act, 1962, to ensure that up to 1% of personal income tax is set aside for public? broadcasting.

- In terms of funding, it introduces a new Public Service Broadcasting Fund to be administered by the Media Development and Diversity Agency, requiring that the MDDA Act is amended. The Fund is mandated to finance a wide-ranging set of functions, including the public service division of the SABC (together with regional television and international broadcasting services), content development, community broadcasting services, and signal distribution. The MDDA at present funds small commercial and community media and is specifically barred from getting involved in editorial independence issues.

- The Bill introduces far-reaching new powers for the Minister of Communications. The Minister can now issue directives to the SABC and community media on “any matter connected to public service broadcasting” if the entity is unable to “perform its functions as prescribed in this Act”.

- Previously the SABC was split into two divisions – public and public-commercial. The SABC is now to be divided into three separate divisions – public, commercial and international.

- Sentech has now been designated as the common signal distribution carrier, requiring amendments to the Electronic Communications Act, 2005.

- Finally, and very importantly, community media’s role has now been reconceptualised. A new Charter has been introduced for the community media sector specifying the ways in which the community media sector needs to be organised. Further, the Bill ensures community media forge partnerships with their local municipalities.

Media Monitoring Africa is requesting the South African government to not rush public submissions into this key piece of proposed legislation, given the complexity of the changes proposed.

We are running a campaign on our website, www.mediamonitoringafrica.org, launched today, for all interested to submit a simple electronic letter to the Director General of Communication, Mamodupi Mohlala, requesting for the deadline to be extended.

For more information, or to get involved contact: William Bird, Director, Media Monitoring Africa

Mb: +2782 887 1370, Tel: +2711 788 1278, Fax: +2711 788 1289

www.mediamonitoringafrica.org

Sincerely,

--The Team at MMP

PS. Remember if you add this address Media_Monitoring_Africa@mail.vresp.com to your address book, your MMA emails will not end up in your junk mail.