Uhuru since the 1980s

Democratizing Southern African Media:The Power Of Research
By Marlan Padayachee
In the wake of the South African Human Rights Commission's scathing spotlight report on "racism in the media," media academics, experts and practitioners from southern Africa and other parts of the world gathered in Durban between April 24 and 29. The conference attendees came together to tackle new issues, such as the globalization and ownership of the print and electronic media, particularly as they relate to black empowerment. Titled "The Political Economy of the Media in Southern Africa," the seminar was hosted by the Graduate Programme in Cultural and Media Studies, University of Natal, South Africa.
This was the first time that South Africa has hosted an international seminar on press freedom and the state of the media in Southern African Development Community (SADC) nations. Delegates came from South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Israel, Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, Jamaica, Norway, the U.K., the U.S., Nigeria and Cameroon. Sponsors included the World Association for Christian Communication (London), the South African National Research Foundation and Independent Newspapers KwaZulu Natal. The Media Institute of Southern Africa was one of the endorsing organizations.
According to conference chairman Professor Keyan Tomaselli of the University of Natal, "The time is now ripe for a critical and regionally integrated discussion on issues relating to the political economy of the Southern African media and on methods of analysis, theory and transnationalism. The 1990s have seen significant shifts in the political economy of the Southern African media in newspapers, broadcasting, cinema and telecommunications. These dynamics need to be examined in terms of public interest, not just in terms of market interests."
Independent Newspapers KwaZulu-Natal managing director Graeme King said, "Independent Newspapers believes this seminar will contribute enormously to the debate on the freedom of expression within the South African Development Community context. In the future, we hope to be able to expand our involvement from this seminar to a more regular interaction which will include our journalists spending time at the academic institution and students and graduates benefiting from practical experience in our newsrooms."
The seminar focused on several critical issues for the media in the SADC region:
Globalization of ownership and control, with foreign interests purchasing shares in the local media and local media gaining international interests. South African companies are becoming major media investors in Africa, Asia and Europe.
Black empowerment of the media, especially in South Africa, where union-owned investment companies are buying shares in a variety of major media industries. This has been occurring since 1996.
The question of state-controlled media coming into conflict with privately run media, which have become more critical of government and which are highlighting freedom of speech issues.
The privatization process, through which governments have sold blocs of shares in media companies to local and international commercial investors.
South African Broadcasting Corporation board member and Natal University media academic, Dr Ruth Teer-Tomaselli explained the history of the conference: "The seminar aims to build on an earlier meeting which brought together media studies scholars from South Africa, Zimbabwe, the U.K. and Norway. This earlier meeting in Durban in 1996 established a research network informally linking the Universities of Natal, Zimbabwe, Westminster and Oslo. We aim to establish active working links between SADC, especially Southern African universities and academics, media firms and development NGOs to facilitate capacity building with regard to southern African media research, for the first time encouraging transnational analysis within SADC, African and global contexts."
The topic of press freedom sparked many debates, as some countries are progressive beacons in comparison to the regressive processes and curbing of the media in other countries in the SADC belt.
These issues were brought into stark relief by the current situation in Zimbabwe where often violent invasions of white-owned farms by landless black youngsters claiming to be war "vets" have led to the death of two white farmers and the systematic assault of their black laborers. The killing of opposition party members by gangs claiming allegiance to the ruling government has taken another 12 lives in recent weeks. At the seminar, the microscope focused sharply on the way the media is handling the current crisis. The international delegates discussed the media's coverage of and role in the situation in Zimbabwe within the context of how regulation, deregulation, privatization and globalization are impacting democratic processes across the region.
Three of the 26 visiting media experts concentrated on the state of the media in Zimbabwe, South Africa's leading trading partner. "This is a testing time for the media in Harare and the newly launched Zimbabwe Media Monitoring project, which for the first time in the 20 year history of this country is providing a baseline against which the Zimbabwean public is able to gauge the accuracy of reports on the current issues unfolding in that country," said Professor Tomaselli.
Delegates had a first-hand account of concerns in that country by Susan Manhando Makore of the Zimbabwe Open University in her address entitled: "Free for All: Myth or Reality." Zimbabwe's efforts to nationalize the media came to the fore in retired academic Tim Nyahunzvi's talk on the "Zimbabwean Mass Media Trust — An Experiment that Failed." James Zaffiro, of Central College, Iowa, while focusing on the state of State Broadcasting in Botswana, also examined how to learn some lessons from Zimbabwe in his tabled paper, "Mass Media and Democratization of Politics and Society". This was followed by Helge Ronning of the University of Oslo, examining the alternative press in Zimbabwe. It was Ronning who emphasized that the international media had wrongly reported the current violence in Zimbabwe as a racial conflict, when in fact the conflict is between a "corrupt government and an emerging opposition."
A different perspective on the serious problems in Zimbabwe came from Paddy Scannell of the University of Westminister, London, from his investigation into the music, radio and recording business in Zimbabwe today. His case studies were pessimistic and revealed failure on the part of the country's press and alternative media.
The highlight of the seminar was a public keynote address by Jane Duncan, research director of the Johannesburg-based Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI). Her lecture, entitled "Talk Left, Act Right: What Constitutes 'Transformation' in Southern African Media", was attended by 300 people and very widely reported in the Durban press. The meeting was also carried on the SA Broadcasting Corporation's Channel Africa.
Conference chairman Tomaselli said he believed the seminar would assist the "media industry and institutions in mapping a new road forward for the media in SADC countries. Duncan's electrifying lecture was uncompromising in its critique of post-apartheid developments and took the critical debate about the relationship between transformation and ownership on the one hand, and democratization of the South African media on the other, to new heights of analysis. This lecture will set the research and public agenda for years to come."
Tomaselli was elected by the Seminar's 26 delegates to head up a Working Group on Cultural, Media and Communication Studies. The international research team includes MediaChannel advisors Helge Ronning, Fackson Banda, Guy Berger, and Tomaselli himself, along with other leading international scholars such as Paddy Scannell and Francis Nyamnjo. One of the group's aims is to strengthen research networks and to improve the capacity of lesser-funded universities across the SADC region.
After the formation of the Working Group Dr. Ruth Teer-Tomaselli concluded, "All over the country, institutions, media companies and parastatals [fully or partially government-owned companies] are struggling with 'Visions,' 'Missions' and other declarations of intent. Transformation, however, is more than changing the discourse and demographics of an organization: it is about changing the ethos of the way we go about our business. This Working Group will have a direct impact on media issues in Southern Africa."
Speaking from London, Pradip Thomas, Director of Studies and Publications at the World Association for Christian Association, reflected on the weekend's events, commenting that media ownership that was once bounded by the geographical limitations of the nation-state has since become transnational. "Media barons and corporations now control huge swathes of the media market, across sectors and regions." He went on to say that "The global mapping of media ownership and control is a central objective of the World Association of Christian Communication's programmatic thrust."
As international sponsors of the Durban media seminar, WACC had previously promoted five media-ownership workshops in Cameroon, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Slovenia and Fiji. "These workshops have generated much data, conceptual and factual, and we are fairly certain that the workshop in Durban will make a huge contribution to this global mapping," added Thomas.
He said the massive transformations in the media sector, brought about by technological convergence, economic liberalization and globalized manufacturing processes, had resulted in major changes to media ownership patterns throughout the world. "These developments have, more often than not, caught national media monopolies, both state and private sector, off guard. It is only of late that these sectors have begun to assess the full impact of this new media world in the making and to make appropriate national policies in the light of changed communications environments and to position themselves and take advantage of new market opportunities. However this revisioning is still an incomplete process in many parts of the world."
The seminar ended with the Working Group in place, and commitments from all present to establish a managerial and research infrastructure. Researchers with an interest in Southern African long-term projects to be developed over the next six months are invited to communicate with Keyan Tomaselli.
- Marlan Padayachee is a political reporter and correspondent for the Post Newspaper and the Independent Newspapers, South Africa. He is active in the Media Workers Association for South Africa and has studied at the City University of London. He serves on the advisory board of the ML Sultan Technikon's Journalism Department, and was seconded by Independent Newspapers to the University of Natal for the month of April to work on the seminar.