The Television Industry Emergency Coalition (TVIEC), which represents the interests of South Africa’s independent production sector, will be re-launching its lobbying campaign to government and political parties to save the industry from the crippling effects of the financial crisis at public broadcaster SABC.
This move is partly in response to the presentation made by the SABC board and GCEO Solly Mokoetle to the Parliamentary Communications Committee on 19 March. It is also motivated by the TVIEC’s belief that the SABC management is not fully committed to speedily resolving the issues of outstanding debt to producers (estimated by the TVIEC to R8m), unfair terms of trade relating to intellectual property (IP), administrative malfunctions at the Content Hub, and the lack of commissions over the last 18 months.
Says the TVIEC’s Rehad Desai: "Going through the minutes of the Parliamentary Meeting we were disheartened to read that Mr Mokoetle announced the implementation of the ÔSABC Intellectual Property Framework Policy and media rights regime". We’ve never heard of this before. Prior to the SABC’s crash last year the industry had negotiated with the broadcaster for two years regarding IP and the outcome was the joint agreement to do research into international best practice. Since the publication of the research document we’ve had no formal feedback from the SABC.
ÒAt Mr MokoetleÕs first meeting with the TVIEC on 25 January he said he was committed to rebuilding the SABCÕs relationship with the industry and referred to us as partners. Now he is, without consulting us, announcing this IP Policy as a fait accompli. ItÕs a serious slap in the face.Ó
Read more in the April 2010 issue of Screen Africa
