Media and communication activists and organizations in South Africa have united into the strongest communication advocacy campaign since the collapse of formal apartheid: the SOS Support Public Broadcasting coalition. The coalition formed first in response to the governance and financial crisis at the SABC and then broadened to engage the Department of Communication's (DOC) bold steps to review Broadcasting legislation.

Civil society has welcomed the Public Service Broadcasting Bill's acknowledgment that existing governance and funding policies have orientated broadcasters (the public SABC and community radio) with a social mandate to commercial practices where they are not accountable to their communities and the public at large, but rather driven largely by the pursuit of advertising.

While civil society have welcomed the proposed Public Broadcasting Fund that promises to finance non-commercial programming they have rejected elements of the Bill that narrow the social mandate of broadcasters to serve the "developmental goals of the Republic" and undermine the independence of broadcasters. Rather than strengthening ICASA to regulate broadcasting, the Bill gives virtually unlimited powers to the Minister of Communications and other government officials. In the case of community radio, rather than strengthening mechanism that would ensure greater community participation and democratic governance, the Bill obligates stations to partner local governments, locate thier studios at municipal offices and have government officials serve on their boards. The Bill goes so far as to prescribe a Charter of Community Broadcasting. Civil Society assert that community broadcasters should develop their own Charter based on the principles already affirmed in the existing NCRF Charter.

The SOS Support Public Broadcasting coalition is calling for though policy review process be followed, including a review of the Broadcasting White Paper, 1998.

The SOS: Support Public Broadcasting coalition includes the following organizations:
* AIDC (Alternative Information Development Centre)
* BEMAWU (The Broadcast, Electronic Media and Allied Workers Union)
* COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions)
* Documentary Filmmakers Association
* Ecumenical Services for Social and Economic Transformation (ESSET)
* IDASA, an African Democracy Institute
* The FXI (Freedom of Expression Institute)
* The FXN (Freedom of Expression Network)
* The IPO (Independent Producers Organisation)
* The IAJ (Institute for the Advancement of Journalism)
* The MMA (Media Monitoring Africa)
* The South African Screen Federation (SASFED)
* MISA South Africa (The South African National Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa)
* The NCRF (National Community Radio Forum)
* The National Consumer Forum
* SANGONET (The South African Non-Governmental Organisation Network)
* SAHA (The South African History Archives)
* The TAC (Treatment Action Campaign)
* Workers World Media Productions
* Writers Guild South Africa

Join the SOS: Supporting Public Broadcasting coalition:

Contact Kate Skinner, SOS Coordinator on (082) 926-6404 or email [email][email protected]