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The
complexities of media regulation
Fackson Banda
August 31, 2006
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/books/36699
Book Review: Article
19. 2006. Broadcasting
pluralism and diversity: training manual for African regulators.
London: Article 19. 112 pp. ISBN: 1-902598-82-2.
The 1990s saw the unfolding of the
process of liberalisation, a facet of economic globalisation, across
sub-Saharan Africa. This process had significant, albeit differing,
implications for the broadcasting landscape. For one thing, there
was an emergence of commercial and community broadcasting projects,
posing a challenge to the hitherto monolithic broadcasting systems
extant in most countries. For another, the process of technological
convergence was tugging at telecommunications and broadcasting policy-makers,
presenting them with new problems and possibilities. Underpinning
all these developments was the value of democracy and democratisation.
Which is why the manual by Article
19, under the banner of the Global Campaign for Free Expression,
is a propitious contribution to the escalating debates about media
regulation and its desirability for the transitional democracies
of Africa.
Chapter 1 explores the principles underpinning
broadcast media regulation, not least freedom of expression, freedom
of information, diversity and pluralism, media access and editorial
independence. It also ratchets up the regulatory challenges posed
by digitalisation and convergence, arguing that this presents opportunities
for expanding the broadcasting-communicative space. Chapter 2 analyses
the structure and functionality of broadcasting regulatory bodies.
It emphasises the importance of independent and accountable regulators,
endowed with the necessary powers and funds to operate effectively.
Chapter 3 discusses regulatory aspects relating to the licensing
of broadcasters: the necessity of a licence; eligibility for a licence;
the three-tier broadcasting licensing system; the licensing process
itself; and the licence conditions that must apply.
Chapter 4 isolates the regulation of
content for specific discussion, giving the Broadcasting Complaints
Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) as a useful model in this regard.
Lastly, chapter 5 examines the nature of complaints and sanctions
meted out by regulatory agencies, noting that these must generally
be proportionate to the ‘offence’ committed (p. 80). The rest of
the manual is devoted to ‘further resources’, appendices and ‘notes
for trainers’ (pp. 93-112).
The manual is a decidedly easy read
-- this is its first striking feature, as soon as you start flipping
through the pages. It is a step-by-step training resource. Apart
from being a simplified read, the manual is didactic. This is evident
in three devices used to engage the reader. There are three types
of box, each focusing on one of the following: ‘brainstorm’; ‘discussion
point’ and ‘revision point.’ These serve as participatory tools,
engaging the reader in deeper and more critical reflection on the
subject. It is this simplicity of argumentation and exposition that
makes this training manual stand out from most of the other written
pierces of discourse on broadcast media regulation.
This very simplicity is also its major
weakness. Admittedly, this is not an academic treatise to bother
about ‘theorising’ broadcasting regulation. By definition, a manual
is essentially instructional. But the ‘instructions’ therein are
informed by some ‘theoretical’ principles evolved over time. Which
is why one is at liberty to ‘theoretically’ interrogate some of
the assumptions implicit in the manual, such as, for example, the
apparent dislocation of the regulators from their social and political
structures. Media regulation is a heavily politicised activity.
It is not surprising that Horwitz postulates six theories – ‘public
interest’, ‘regulatory failure’, ‘conspiracy’, ‘economic capture-conspiracy’,
‘organisational’ and ‘capitalist state’ theories -- to explain the
dynamics of media regulation (Horwitz, RB. 1997. Theories of media
regulation, in The political economy of the media edited by P. Golding
& G. Murdock. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar).
Examples abound in which some, or all,
of these theories are applicable. Only recently the South African
minister of communications attempted to introduce an amendment to
the ICASA Act 2000 that would make the state have a stronger say
in the appointment of councillors of the Independent Communications
Authority of South Africa (ICASA). Had this motion become law, the
regulatory authority would have been ‘captured’ by the state machinery.
Furthermore, human agency suggests that regulatory bureaucrats are
susceptible to even subtler controls than those alluded to by the
manual. Of course, we need not belabour the fact that the Broadcasting
Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) has resulted in a heavily regulated
media regime. In such a situation, broadcasting ‘deregulation’ would
be preferable to ‘regulation’. But, for understandable reasons,
it is beyond the scope of this manual to delve into the political
contextualisation of media regulation in Africa.
Apart from this substantive observation,
the other problematic aspects of the manual are editorial. Firstly,
many of the details in the map on page 18 are blurred. The explanatory
key is completely illegible. Secondly, page 69 has one glaring conceptual
error. In trying to explain the ‘quantitative’ definition of ‘local
content’, the author confuses it with the ‘qualitative’ aspect of
local content requirements. Thirdly, here and there, one notices
some typographical errors (for examples of this, see pages 29, 42
and 54).
These shortcomings do not, in any way,
derogate from the integrity of the manual as a resource worth reading
by all those who would understand the complexities of media regulation.
* Professor Fackson Banda is the
SABMiller Chair of Media & Democracy, School of Journalism &
Media Studies, Rhodes University.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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