Petition to delay PBS Bill public summisions deadline

The Bill proposes a number of fundamental changes to the public service broadcasting environment, and they argue 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 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 be amended. The Fund is mandated to fund a wide-ranging set of issues including the public service division of the SABC, 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.

MMA is running a campaign on its website, www.mediamonitoringafrica.org/petition, launched yesterday, Tuesday 1 December, for all interested parties to submit a simple electronic letter to the Director General of Communication, Mamodupi Mohlala, requesting the deadline be extended.