As the country and the world mourns the passing of the first democratically elected Former President Nelson Mandela, a number of international broadcasters will be descending into our shores for full coverage of the funeral.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) hereby advises all broadcasters to ensure that they have requisite radio frequency spectrum and type-approval licences when covering the upcoming state funeral of Former State President Nelson Mandela.
For the coverage of international special events, broadcasters usually bring communications equipment such as Satellite News Gathering (SNG) to relay their broadcasts to their respective international audiences.
The SNGs require a radio frequency spectrum licence to be allocated for this purpose and some video cameras with microphones and a wireless capability needs type-approval to ensure that there are no reported cases of interference with licensed services. The type-approval label has to be attached to the communication equipment.
In covering the funeral of the Former President, all international broadcasters will have to go through this standard licensing process for compliance purposes; and when a radio frequency spectrum licence is issued, the licensee is obliged to show it to ICASA inspectors as they continue to conduct routine monitoring and compliance duties.
The Authority’s website (www.icasa.org.za) has a dedicated link for Special Events licence application forms to enable international broadcasters to apply for requisite licence to cover such events. It should be noted that Special Events licences generally take two (2) days to be issued but the Authority will do everything to expedite such applications.
All media enquiries:
Paseka Maleka
Cell: 079 509 0702
Tel: 011 566 3455
Email: pmaleka@icasa.org.za
