News
- Media Monitoring Africa calls for Press Council overhaul
Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) has called on the Press Council of South Africa to make significant changes so that it can better protect consumers against a media that is “dumbing down” readers by favouring titillation and personality politics over democratic issues and development stories.
“The commercial imperative (of the press) does affect our democracy because we know the key imperative there is profit making and therefore you are going to sing to the tune of your advertisers,” said MMA policy head Prinola Govenden.
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- “KE NAKO” – the time is now for the SABC board
Despite the breach in corporate governance in the appointment and announcement of Phil Molefe, as head of News, to date there has been no indication that the new SABC board is incapable of fulfilling its mandate. Accordingly the actions of the SABC board are to be applauded in seeking to resolve this breach of SABC’s corporate governance rules so speedily. We are however concerned that there has not yet been any announcement as to what action will be taken against the SABC board chairperson and the SABC GCEO and we call on the Board to inform the public about what processes and investigations are being undertaken to address the breach, and to ensure its speedy resolution.
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- Comment on the Public Service Broadcasting Bill
In this videoclip, William Bird of Media Monitoring Africa speaks with Polity’s Amy Witherden on the controversial Public Service Broadcasting Bill, which was released for public comment in October 2009.
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- SOS submission on Public Service Broadcasting Bill calls for urgent policy review process
The SOS: Supporting Public Broadcasting Coalition, of which MMA is a part, submitted their submission on the Public Service Broadcasting Bill on Friday 15 January 2010.
The Coalition wishes to recognise and applaud the Department of Communications and the Minister of Communications for trying to act swiftly in bringing about much-needed legislative reform. The Coalition welcomes the sense of urgency and energy behind the Proposed Bill. That said, the Coalition is also of the view that while the Bill has a number of positive elements which we certainly support, there are unfortunately a number of problems with it as currently drafted which, if not addressed, will result in the latter not being able to be passed by Parliament.
Overall the Coalition argues that the Bill is premature and that it needs to be proceeded by a substantive policy review process.
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- New deadline for broadcasting bill ‘cosmetic’
COMMUNICATIONS Minister Siphiwe Nyanda yesterday bowed to public pressure and extended the deadline for public comment on the controversial Public Service Broadcasting Bill to January 15, but media watchdog Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) called the extension “cosmetic”.
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- Campaign to get more time for broadcast bill
MEDIA Monitoring Africa, a media policy watchdog, yesterday launched a campaign on its website calling for the public to petition the director- general of the Department of Communications, Mamodupi Mohlala, to allow more time to comment on the controversial Public Service Broadcast Bill, which it says will fundamentally change broadcasting.
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- Petition to delay PBS Bill public summisions deadline
A petition to request the South African government to extend the deadline for public submissions on the proposed controversial Public Service Broadcasting Bill, from 7 December 2009 to the end of March 2010 has been put forward by media policy watchdog Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) together with the SOS (Supporting Public Broadcasting) Coalition.
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- Public Broadcast Bill needs more time
More time is needed for the public to submit changes to the proposed Public Service Broadcasting Bill, Media Monitoring Africa said in a statement on Tuesday.
“We are asking the department of communications for a reasonable extension to the deadline for public submissions on the bill,” the watchdog’s director William Bird said in a statement.
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