The Highway Africa project in the School of Journalism and Media studies at Rhodes University is organising a training programme for the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications on the principles and practices of public broadcasting.
The Committee is a standing committee of Parliament, and is tasked with drafting legislation for the communications sector as well as for oversight of organisations such as the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).
This training programme, which takes place on the 16th July, emanates from a consultative meeting between the Chair in Media and the Information Society in the Highway Africa project, Professor Jane Duncan and Mr Ismail Vadi [Chairperson of the Portfolio on Communications] about the priority areas the Committee had identified for the foreseeable future.
While the Committee holds public hearings on much of its work, participation is often limited to a small group of industry bodies with limited civil society input, and such participation is often not research-based. The meeting sought to address these challenges. Prof. Duncan was asked whether the Highway Africa project would be willing to organise a one day training programme on the principles and practices of public broadcasting, to give the Committee a grounding in the international debates about public broadcasting, and to assist its preparations for the upcoming debates around the Public Broadcasting Services Bill.
The Bill caused a stir when it was released late last year, as it proposed far reaching changes to the broadcasting sector generally, and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), specifically. The Bill will be going to Parliament later this year, and a way forward needs to be found on all the controversies during the ensuing public hearings and deliberations.
The training programme will take place at Wits University, and will be conducted by Prof. Duncan, Prof. Guy Berger, Prof. Tawana Kupe, Dean of Humanities of Wits University, media consultant and former regulator Libby Lloyd, broadcasting consultant Hendrik Bussiek, and former independent producer Indra de Lanerolle (currently at Wits University).