Programme Director;
CEO of GCIS, Ms Phumla Williams;
CEO of the MDDA, Mr Lumko Mtinde;
MDDA Board members present;
Members of the Reference Team;
The Chapter writers;
Colleagues from academia, media industry;
Esteemed guests and;
Ladies and gentlemen
It gives me a great pleasure to join such esteemed company this evening to launch Media Landscape 2012: Reflections on South Africa’s Media Environment.
I was pleased to see the guest list pointing to an interesting range of media professionals from owners, editors and journalists to educators, publishers and other communicators who are shaping the South African media landscape.
We have all witnessed tremendous levels of growth and innovation in the media sector since the advent of our democracy. This growth represents one of the many dividends of freedom.
The constitutional imperatives of access to information and freedom of expression, as well as rapid shifts in literacy rates in the country and South Africans’ appetite for local and global content have created a vibrant media sector. Coupled to this has been the growth in community media, with previously unheard communities now operating their own platforms to share and obtain information.
Government has established several institutions to enable a suitable environment for media to operate, to grow and inform and educate the public. Government equally established the Media Development and Diversity Agency, MDDA to deliberately encourage media diversity in our far remote communities.
I specifically mention the MDDA because it turned 10 years old earlier this year. Please allow me to take this opportunity to congratulate them on their achievements as they celebrate 10 years of excellence.
All this activity has made an important and welcome economic contribution, with the most expensive share on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange currently belonging to the biggest media group in South Africa.
However, media landscape 2012 shows very clearly that particularly in the domain of media ownership as opposed to media content we should not mistake development for diversity.
We have a long way to go in ensuring that the media sector transforms in the same way that sectors such as construction, mining, agriculture or legal services have done, or attempted, in nearly 20 Years of Freedom.
Media ownership remains highly concentrated, creating enormous opportunities, economies of scale and influence for those at the pinnacle of the sector, while setting up barriers to entry for others or precipitating anti-competitive conditions.
It is against this backdrop that media landscape 2012 was conceptualised as a contribution to sectoral and public discourse on the importance, transformation and future of media in South Africa all this, with a view to sustained and equitable growth in opportunities and content for media owners, producers and consumers alike.
This first edition covers topical issues, from the impact of social media, to an argument for why SA needs government-owned media, and factsheets with important insights into changing broadcasting policies and freedom of expression protocols in Africa.
Media landscape 2012 is an information resource for the general public and the media sector itself, which so often comments on and pokes around other sectors that it barely records its own dynamics, challenges and achievements.
This book is designed to induce reflection and stimulate debates in our society. Indeed, this book was inspired by our exposure two years ago exactly to the Indian government’s proud and energetic production of publications of record on key sectors in that country.
Media Landscape 2012 is a positive contribution to an important discussion in our society. More precisely, it is a constructive series of written contributions by widely respected, independently-minded media owners, commentators and government communicators.
We owe a great debt of gratitude to the contributors, their names you will encounter in the book, who worked tirelessly on this project in return for token gratuities and treated their submissions as a public service. We thank them for the generosity and integrity with which they undertook this commission.
We owe our gratitude to the reference team members for their guidance in the production of this book. In particular Libby Lloyd, Dimakatso Qocha from the NAB, Ingrid Louw from PDMSA, Nkopane Maphiri from the MDDA, Phil Mtimkulu from Unisa, Joe Thloloe, the Press Ombudman, as well as Vusi Mona, former GCIS Deputy CEO, who served as the chairperson.
We also acknowledge the role of the GCIS team in coordinating this project and giving contributors the freedom to document their reflections and assessments as they saw it.
This book presents a range of perspectives that will hopefully guide our thoughts and actions towards building a media sector with its powerful influence on the national psyche that embraces and gives a role and voice to all South Africans. A vital and equitable media sector stands to make a significant economic and social contribution to the South Africa envisioned in the National Development Plan.
Government is committed to working closely with news and information media to ensure that South Africans are fully informed and motivated to help make South Africa an even better place. At the same time, government has an interest in helping this sector transform and become truly representative of all sectors of our society. What we have produced here is a valuable reference work to inform future discussion and debate, and we look forward to future iterations of this publication.
I am proud to present media landscape 2012 and look forward to your feedback and future contributions.
In conclusion, you are all aware that South Africa will be celebrating 20 years of freedom. This will be a period of reflection and celebration of what we have achieved working together as South Africans. We expect that all sectors of society will also do the same, to reflect on the journey they have travel and the media will not be an exception.
The 2013 edition of the media landscape book will be a reflection on the 20 years of the media. We are now in the process of commissioning chapters, which should assist the country to reflect on what progress we have made to ensure that more have voices and that we managed to achieve the diversity we had committed ourselves to.
I look forward to a fulfilling debate in the public discourse which should inform and educate the country better about our “fourth estate”.
Enquiries:
Harold Maloka
Cell: 082 847 9799
