The SABC is attempting to abolish TV licenses in favor of a tax on the public to secure funding. The South African Broadcasting Corporation is a public service broadcaster, its vision being to empower citizens with the knowledge to participate in a democratic society. Its three television channels and 18 radio stations broadcast news in all eleven official languages. Currently, people must pay a license in order to receive the public television stations, much like in England.
This change is of concern to wealthier taxpayers, who will have to pay a higher percentage of their incomes to the public broadcaster, and to families with people earning multiple incomes, who will each have to pay. TV licenses are currently paid by household. Of concern to politically active citizens, however, are the changes being made within the corporation. The government already appoints SABC board members and top level executives, therefore controlling the content and point of view of the news.
Cartoon by Zapiro/Z News
Channel Africa, an international radio station braodcast in six langauges, will now promote South Africa’s official foreign policy. This shift has industry experts concerned SABC will become a state broadcaster and the transition will happen before the public has a chance to speak out against it.
The shift in ideology may not seem harmful at first glance. There are countless radio stations, television stations, newspapers and magazines produced in South Africa, most of which are independent. Those who have satellite television and radio and purchase a daily newspaper can easily avoid hearing foreign policy masked as news, but those who cannot afford such luxuries, who rely on the public broadcaster for information, cannot. Turning one radio station into a state mouthpiece could be a signal of additional influence in the future. It is a slippery slope. When the government already influences the content on SABC’s TV and radio stations, imagine how that control will increase if they are officially sanctioned to do so.
Reporters Without Borders issued its eigth annual World Press Freedom Index today, ranking each country based on violations of press freedom that have occured within the past year. The organization reviews media law and legislation, censorship, access to public records, threats to journalists, and incidents of journalists being arrested or killed in each nation. At the top of the list are Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden, all tied for having the most free press systems. This year, South Africa was ranked 33rd, up from 36th last year. The United States, which often prides itself on its freedom of the press, was tied with South Africa in 2008 and moved up to 20th in the last year.
Cartoon by Zapiro/Z News
I’m not sure whether that is a comment on the United States’ press freedom violations under the Bush administration or South Africa’s valiant attempts to adopt a more free press system since the end of the apartheid. Probably both. How will Reporters Without Borders reflect this shift in policy in its report next year? But more importantly, how will South African citizens respond to the (albeit slight) erosion of a press system free from government control? And why are people around the office (journalists) concerned more about what it will now cost them to watch television?
