6. COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION Section 1 of the Broadcasting Act states that a community broadcasting service encourages members of the community served by it or persons associated with or promoting the interests of such community to participate in the selection and provision of programmes to be broadcast in the course of such broadcasting service. Participants at the workshops pointed out that the statements “serves a particular community” and “encourages members of the community served by it or persons associated with or promoting the interests of such community to participate in the selection and provision of programmes to be broadcast in the course of such broadcasting service”, are vague statements that need to be clarified in the new policy. BG Attorneys also submitted that the word ‘encourage’ is vague in that it does not give a clear indication of what exactly is required of licence applicants. “Perhaps the word ‘encourage’ also sets the bar too low. Instead, licence applicants should be required to establish appropriate structures that are reasonably likely to facilitate and ensure active community participation in the selection and provision of programmes. Ideally, the Position Paper should also provide guidance to licence applicants on appropriate mechanisms for community participation.”14 The NAB submitted that the matter of community participation is sufficiently dealt with under the provisions of existing legislation and regulations. The NAB submitted that the Authority can resolve the problem by educating broadcasters and providing them with guidelines on the meaning of community participation and how the Authority evaluates it.15 MISA-SA submitted that stations bemoan the interference from some community members in the running of the station. “While this issue could potentially be remedied by interventions vis-à-vis governance (e.g. relevant clauses in the stations’ constitutions), community participation needs to be negotiated so as to meet the expectation of both the community and the stations in achieving its goals.”16 MISA-SA also submitted that the principles defining community television reflected in the Authority’s Community Television Position Paper, 2004, provide sufficient articulation of the defining characteristics for the sector. “However, we are of the view accountability must be highlighted as a critical principle.”17 The Association of Christian Broadcasters of Southern Africa (“the ACB”) submitted that programming committees, if run properly, can help to encourage community participation.18 The MDDA submitted that AGMs are expensive and time consuming to organise and communities have not necessarily seen attendance at such meetings as an important means of claiming ownership of a station. “Such gatherings even when they happen regularly are not necessarily a measure of the extent of participation in a station. ICASA should rather require that each individual station shows that it has support, and that there has been widespread participation by a range of sectors (not only individuals) in developing the station. Such enabling requirements could for example provide for representatives of a range of community based organisations to participate in governing a station.”19
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 08:07:51 +0000
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