The People to People International Documentary Conference held at the Goethe Institute in Johannesburg from 10 to 12 September opened with an impassioned plea from producer Harriet Gavshon (Hard Copy, The Lab, Heartlines) to renew the fight for an independent public service broadcaster (PSB).
This plea comes in light not only of the financial and management crisis of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), but in an environment which is seeing increasing government interference in the public broadcaster and diminishing media freedom.
A self-proclaimed “industry elder”, Gavshon spoke about her 15 years of experience in the industry and as one who was involved in consultations round the White Paper relating to the Broadcasting Act of 1999. “Recently, in the same week when SABC announced its R800m deficit, I was asked by the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) to speak to young people about a career in PSB and I felt totally demotivated to do so. But there have been good things about PSB in this country – it has spawned a multitude of stories and created and sustained a production industry. However, the SABC has always been an imperfect beast.
“Through working with the SABC I’ve had the opportunity to make amazing stories and collaborated with amazing people. My first taste of broadcasting was in 1993 when the political future of the SABC was still being negotiated, prior to the country’s first democratic elections. We made a series called Ordinary People which was the first truly independent production shown on SABC – and I believe it’s also the last truly independent production shown on SABC. Ordinary People would look at an event and at how three people from totally different backgrounds intercepted with this event. The series was designed to give every perspective a voice.
“We covered big stories like the AWB march on the World Trade Centre and small stories like a farm auction – a personal tragedy prompted by the 1993 recession. It was at this point that I realised the power of broadcasting. Just days after that story was broadcast, I was doing a story about the drive-by shootings in Sebokeng. A member of the ANC’s armed wing said he’d watched the story and felt sorry for the white farmer. This proves that TV can make a true and deep connection between different people.”
Gavshon noted how in the early 1990s the SABC was a furnace in the apartheid struggle and how the fight or an independent PSB was spearheaded by the industry union FAWO (which later became the Independent Producers Organisation). “Although there were campaigns for media freedom at the time it was filmmakers themselves were central to the struggle. FAWO advised the ANC government in waiting on broadcasting. From that process came local content quotas and the SABC changed from a state broadcaster to a PSB.
“The tale of the SABC in recent months has been a bit like a complex soap opera with an ever changing cast of characters. I’ve been dismayed with all the laws that have been introduced that eat away at the broadcaster’s independence, such as the introduction of a not very independent regulator (Independent Communications Authority of South Africa). I have to say that between 1994 and now, we filmmakers have done nothing in the battle for the public broadcaster’s independence. I think we’ve been so wrapped up in our own businesses and trying to survive and in the divisions between race in this country and trying to compete with each other, that we stopped fighting. There have been a small group of individuals who have fought the battle since 1994 but it’s not enough. The whole industry needs to fight. The public broadcaster is for the public so we have to have a say. The current SABC crisis should teach us that our ability to create stories is integral to society. There is a total convergence of policy now so we have to fight again, anew. Documentaries are the biggest casualty in the SABC crisis and in PSB generally. It was filmmakers like us who helped shape PSB in this country.”
In closing Gavshon gave her vision for PSB – making programmes for people, not consumers.
