South Africa’s Prison Broadcasting Network (PBN), founded in 1999, remains on the verge of closure despite a statement issued on 3 March 2012 by the former Minister of Correctional Services that the service had been reinstated.
PBN founder Marius Boaden explains: “Our radio station, which featured inmates as the presenters and broadcast in Pollsmoor for nine years, went off-air in 2008 due to an irreparable intercom system. Fortunately we had established our television production division earlier that year where we not only trained prisoners in video production but also broadcast the programmes they produced through the internal prison TV networks to make a positive impact on the greater prison population. The same concept we used with our radio station.
“In July last year we were informed that we had to renew our service agreement with Pollsmoor and weren’t permitted to continue our free services in TV training and broadcasting until this had been done. The renewal process took six months.’
Boaden was then informed in January this year that all PBN services were no longer relevant to Pollsmoor as it was converting to an awaiting-trial prison, where inmates are not given rehabilitation programmes.
“We challenged this on both a Pollsmoor and regional level but received no response,’ continues Boaden. “PBN then asked the Minister, the National Correctional Services Commissioner and the parliamentary portfolio committee to intervene. Again we received no response.
“SABC3’s investigative magazine show Special Assignment produced a programme about the good services we had provided and a week later the Minister issued a statement on all SABC News channels which stated, among other things, that our services had been reinstated but that we may have to move to another prison. That was on 3 March 2012 but as yet nothing has been forthcoming.
“I have spoken to some of our former offender students who are still currently incarcerated in Pollsmoor and they are devastated at having lost their training and an opportunity to change their lives for the better,’ comments Boaden.
Although PBN has trained over 120 offenders Boaden believes the main impact of the service was through its programmes, which reached thousands of prisoners.
PBN was funded solely by a handful of individuals and companies with no government support.
Says Boaden: “It was only through very meticulous financial management that we have managed to exist for 12 years. Sponsorship for equipment has been relatively easy and Sony and especially Sennheiser have assisted us
tremendously. However funding for operating costs and human resources such as salaries has been extremely difficult.
“We are a Non-Profit Organisation (NPO), a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) and are BBBEE certified, with donations being tax deductible, but it has done little to elicit the funding that this sort of initiative requires. Much of our sustainability has come through sacrifices I have had to make personally, but I consider it worth it when we see how it has changed lives.’
PBN currently occupies three offices in Pollsmoor which consist of a radio station, sound studio and TV studio and facilities.
The crisis comes in the midst of PBN’s plan to launch a national TV station for prisons. This would include career-orientated and educational shows; prison health and hygiene programmes; wholesome films; and programmes that could open their blinkered world to a much bigger and brighter world.
Says Boaden: “It would also connect all the internal TV networks in the country’s prisons together so that there would be synergy in each prison (even when offenders are transferred) and give a realistic means to benchmark the success of the project.
“Such a national TV station would cost millions to set up but our focus is not so much about what it will cost but the value it could bring to the entire prison environment and to our nation as a whole.’
The major part of the television infrastructure is already in 66 prisons. All PBN would have to do is connect them and broadcast its programmes.
“We had possible free satellite space when we made our initial proposal in 2011 and the major cost was for uplinking and the specific type of decoders we required to keep our broadcasts closed-circuit,’ concludes Boaden.
PBN recently shared in the glory of two Loerie Awards for a Public Service Announcement (PSA) produced by Ogilvy Cape Town and Platypus Productions about PBN which was filmed by former ex-inmate students of PBN.
More information about PBN can be found at: www.prisonbroadcast.org.za
screen africa magazine – october 2012
