Public Broadcasting Survey in Africa

- by Hendrik Bussiek * (article available in this week’s Mail & Guardian)

Public broadcasting has a lot of friends in the world today – though they do not always seem to be loving quite the same thing and certainly not for the same reasons.

(Almost) every national broadcaster in Africa now lays claim to the PBS title, proudly calling itself a ‘public broadcasting service’, regardless of how it is run or constituted. There are obviously a lot of myths and misperceptions around what is basically a simple and straightforward concept: a broadcaster that serves the public as a whole and is accountable to the public as a whole.

Clearing up some of these misunderstandings and assessing the real status of public broadcasting in Africa is one of the purposes of a comprehensive survey currently undertaken by the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP) of the Open Society Foundation – the first such survey on the continent. Researchers in 12 carefully selected countries (Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) are presently busy collecting and collating information on regulation, ownership, access and performance as well as prospects of reform of broadcasting in Africa. Field workers are interviewing representative samples of listeners and viewers to assess their use of media in general and opinions on broadcasting in particular – another first in most of the countries under review.

The study starts from the premise that development and democracy cannot thrive without open and free public space where all issues concerning people’s lives can be aired and debated and which gives them room and opportunity to participate in decision making. Nobel Prize laureate Amartya Sen describes democracy as “governance by dialogue” and broadcasters are ideally placed to facilitate this dialogue by providing the space for it – if their services are accessible, independent, credible and open to the full spectrum of diverse views.

The key objective of the survey, therefore, is to assess whether and to what extent the various forms of broadcasting are able to create such a public space, with special attention given to those services which call themselves ‘public’.

While the study may be unprecedented in its scope and depth, it does feed into ongoing discussions among broadcasters, civil society and politicians on the nature and mandate of genuine public broadcasting. At least on paper there is already broad consensus on the need for state broadcasters to be transformed into truly public broadcasting services. The AU’s African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights says in its 2002 Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa that “state and government controlled broadcasters should be transformed into public service broadcasters accountable to the public”. This African document serves as one of the major benchmarks in the AfriMAP survey (see box below).

Most countries in Africa still have a long way to go towards the realisation of the ideal of a truly public broadcaster. But the process is gathering speed – not just because progressive forces in civil society and among law makers are pushing for it. Already even staunch defenders of state broadcasting are reluctantly learning the lesson that their impact and influence is on the wane: with more and more other sources of information at their disposal, people are not easily fooled any longer by blatant propaganda or content with government using the airwaves purportedly to ‘inform’ its citizens while in fact crowding out almost all other information or points of view.

The survey’s ultimate goal, then, is to provide facts, figures and informed assessments on where broadcasting in Africa stands between “His Master’s Voice” of old and the envisaged public broadcasting service of the future. These data can then be used as a sound basis for the friends of public broadcasting to conduct and intensify their advocacy work, both among decision makers and civil society as a whole. To assist in these efforts, National Fora will be held in all participating countries to discuss the results of the survey and explore avenues and strategies for possible reform.

First results will be available from September 2008 on www.afrimap.org

* Hendrik Bussiek is the editor-in-chief of AfriMAP’s Survey on Public Broadcasting in Africa

Article VI of the 2002 Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa issued by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights of the African Union:

State and government controlled broadcasters should be transformed into public service broadcasters, accountable to the public through the legislature rather than the government, in accordance with the following principles:

Ø public broadcasters should be governed by a board which is protected against interference, particularly of a political or economic nature;

Ø the editorial independence of public service broadcasters should be guaranteed;

Ø public broadcasters should be adequately funded in a manner that protects them from arbitrary interference with their budgets;

Ø public broadcasters should strive to ensure that their transmission system covers the whole territory of the country; and

Ø the public service ambit of public broadcasters should be clearly defined and include an obligation to ensure that the public receive adequate, politically balanced information, particularly during election periods.

On Apples, Seeds and Public Broadcasting

- by Dan David*

Fifteen years ago, I arrive in Johannesburg with one of the early waves of foreign journalism trainers invited to a country tensing for its first truly democratic elections. We come from public broadcasters in Denmark, the U.K., or the U.S.A. I’m with the Canadian crew from the CBC. We’re invited to help SABC transform itself from a “state-controlled” broadcaster into a “public” broadcaster and to prepare for the elections.

On the ride in to the SABC, we pass through neighbourhoods with names like Houghton, Rosebank, or Parkview. I notice the high walls around homes that are going even higher. The driver, a journalist and friend, says almost every home is fortified, armed and guarded. The walls are going up, he says, because people are afraid. Change is coming .

At the SABC, I see massive metal gates, airport-style metal detectors, and armed guards telling people to check their weapons at the door. Our friend describes the building as a fortress built by the rulers, a state institution with no need for pretense. He warns that inside, bureaucratic walls may be going up as well.

As foreign trainers, I sense that we’re viewed with a mixture of fear, ambition, and hope. Some people approach with caution, as though we are here to judge, and their jobs are on the line. Others cling, I’m warned, using adaptive colouration like chameleons hoping to blend into the background. One senior executive becomes a shadow. I’m never quite sure if he’s registering approval by his hovering presence, or if he’s taking names. My sense is the latter.

The trainees are a different story. They want change badly. Many of them are tired of being treated like lepers by the greater journalism community. They want self-respect; to feel good about their chosen professions again. They want to be recognized as journalists by their peers.

This training, and moves to change the SABC, are seen as major steps in that direction. Journalists and technicians of all colours, genders, and job descriptions, want to be part of any initiative that might breathe new life and purpose into a rigid old broadcaster.

Many of the trainees are already highly skilled and experienced. Others are less so, and relatively new to their jobs. They’re a mixed group from various programs, positions, channels, colours, languages and regions of the country. This is deliberate. It’s a way of tearing down internal walls.

During the workshops, everyone leaves job titles by the door. We nudge very different people to find something in common with each other. Junior reporters work with, and help, senior editors. Editors take time to thank a camera person. A video editor writes a story that earns applause from professional writers.

The workshops polish skills, but they also tackle ethical and moral questions that journalists around the world grapple with each day. Discussions about their tasks in the coming elections lead to debates about their roles in society, and hopes for the SABC. Something is happening here. They are becoming a team despite all of their differences.

One person says this may be the first time that anyone at SABC has respected her, encouraged her to think, took her ideas seriously. Others say they feel better, more confident about themselves and their work. People want to return to their jobs so they might push for more change from within. Before they leave, however, there’s a warning: This opportunity for change has a “best before” date.

Then, the training is over. Another group waits by the door. And then another. During these months, I’m stunned by the speed of change at the SABC. Almost overnight, an entire corporation turns itself upside-down. It creates new programs, hires new faces. The place is awash with optimism and a renewed sense of purpose.

For the next several years, I go back and forth between Canada and South Africa. As expected, the “best before” date expires. The SABC still evolves, but much more slowly than before. Corporations tend to do that.

According to most public broadcasters, the ideal is to become something that keeps everybody else honest. It would set an example and never knuckle under to pressures from advertisers, lobbyists, governments, or any single segment in society. Any public broadcaster that could achieve that, the theory goes, would set a standard against which society’s institutions might compare themselves.

The transformation of the SABC, only fifteen years old, began with similar high ideals and hopes. Some people look back at those years with longing. They may even judge the SABC by those earlier years. But, as the saying goes, reality bites. Everything changes with time.

Expectations are always highest with a public broadcaster. When people feel it has not met their expectations, they let the SABC know it. Woe to the public broadcaster that dares to violate the trust the audience has invested unto it. That is not a negative. It shows they care.

When things have gone well, there is the comfortable sound of crickets and bullfrogs. To the audience, all is well with the world. No need to rally in front of Auckland Park today. The SABC has entertained them, surprised them, challenged them to think. It made them laugh. It made them proud. It informed them about what was right and wrong with the world on this day. It showed them problems, but solutions too. In other words, it honoured the contract with the people.

You cannot ask for more from a public broadcaster that has too many audiences to serve, in too many languages, on too many channels, in too big a country, on too large a continent. Yet, you – the audience – always demand more. And so you should.

Unlike some, I don’t long for some mythical “golden age” in public broadcasting in South Africa. It doesn’t exist. It never did. Instead, I want to see what happened to those seeds we sowed back then. I want to see which ones have taken root, or have mutated into something weird and wonderful.

I want to see just how far an apple may hope to fall from the tree.

* Dan David is first a Six Nations Mohawk, bear clan, with roots in Kanehstake Territory, near Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Then he is a writer, journalist, teacher and trainer, and former construction labourer, photographer, tree surgeon, and offset printer. He’s created a wake of confused employers at (to name a few) the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Ryerson University’s School of Journalism, and the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ). He is currently writing two books; one slamming Canada’s Indian Act, and the other a novel based upon his father.

The above article where he recounts his visits to the SABC during its transformation, appears in the South African Mail & Guardian (25 April-1 May)