Search Constraints
Search Results
- Description:
- This is an analytical appraisal of the making of a vibrant media industry in South Africa. The author commends the government effort to repeal oppressive legal regimes that served the defunct apartheid system in stifling press freedom and fundamental human rights. While extolling the virtues of the new democratic culture in the country, the paper also underscores the centrality of the press, especially the media, in nurturing and safeguarding the new plural political system. The author argues strongly that the formation of a more media friendly communication policy, to create a final and rapid break with the divisive past, is imperative. The paper enjoins the new government of national unity to devise comprehensive communication policy and profound training packages for journalists to strengthen and professionalize the media industry, as an instrument of national development. It contends that democratic growth requires a free and authoritative press to provide a forum for national debate, where people can exchange critical and competitive views, to enable them to make rational or informed choices on various matters critical to national cohesion. This, the author says, is only possible if the new communication policy establishes efficient information feedback mechanisms. The paper also highlights various legislations put in place to ensure that national interest is catered for in programming in a liberalised broadcast media. The issues of ownership and media accessibility to the poor are discussed.
- Date Issued:
- 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- The African National Congress (ANC) has been working towards establishing a blueprint for transition to a post-apartheid South Africa since the drawing up of the 'constitutional guidelines' in Lusaka in 1988. In all these deliberations, the political, land and economic policies have taken precedence, while In the area of social reform, housing, education and welfare have featured prominently. Detailed attention to the media has been a later development. Even so, media remains something of a poor cousin relegated to a lower order of priority while other areas of concern are better articulated. On 23/24th November, 1991, the Department of Information and Publicity (DIP) of the ANC convened a meeting of approximately 300 delegates to discuss the drafting of a media policy. The outcome of this gathering was a document entitled, Resolutions adopted at the DIP National Seminar (ANC, 1991). The Resolutions were prefaced by a 'Draft Media Charter' which was also the result of the November deliberations. The Resolutions and the Charter were adopted by the ANC's National Executive Committee on 13th January, 1992, and remain the key expositions of ANC media policy. This paper examines that policy in light of the potential and powerful impact of the broadcast media.
- Date Issued:
- 1994-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review