On 18 April the SOS: Support Public Broadcasting Coalition met with the board of beleaguered public service broadcaster SABC to discuss ways of ensuring that the SABC works more closely with civil society.
According to SOS’ campaign coordinator Kate Skinner, the discussion on the SABC’s turnaround strategy went well with many issues discussed. “One disappointment was that only two SABC board members, Robin Nicholson and Clare O’Neil, attended. The hope is that there will be better turnout in future,’ says Skinner.
She reports that some important things came out of the meeting:
The SABC is not engaging with the broader broadcasting policy review process as yet.
The SABC’s critical foci are on the digitial migration issues and the SABC’s editorial policies. As discussed previously the SABC is reviewing its own editorial policies. The SABC has created a new division/ department to look at regulatory/ policy/ editorial policy issues. This is headed by Charlotte Mampane.
Turnaround strategy issues are:
In terms of the 24 hour news channel Nicholson explained that initially the channel would be broadcast as an offering on DStv but that it would be part of a free-to-air bouquet. He explained the importance of ensuring the SABC offers this service because the SABC is lagging behind other broadcasters as regards its news offerings. SOS raised concerns about the channel not being available to all South Africans. Nicholson insisted that it would be.
SOS then had a brief discussion about SABC International. Nicholson confirmed that it has not been closed down although most of the bureaus have been. He said that a core staff had remained and that the programming produced contributed to a late night feed for SABC2. SOS raised this issue because we believed that the operations had been closed down under the interim board and this was an important cost cutting measure.
