🚀 go-pugleaf

The following article is from the October issue of Videazimut's
publication CLIPS.  The theme of the issue is "Fighting for the
Right to Communicate."  CLIPS is published three times a year in
separate English, French and Spanish editions.  If you would like
a sample copy, please contact Videazimut with your surface mail
address.

SOUTH AFRICA:  FROM MISCOMMUNICATION TO MASS COMMUNICATION

After years of resistance struggle and a subsequent focus in
public policy work, community media activists are having to come
to grips with the real and far more challenging realities of
working within a developmental context in the building of
community access television in South Africa. This challenge has
been taken on by the newly formed Open Window Network (OWN), a
national network of twenty-two community based video/television
initiatives as well as service organisations working in training,
production, distribution and exhibition. OWN is advancing a
national program aimed at promoting community access to television
in South Africa.

Redressing the imbalance of the legacy of apartheid has to be the
first consideration in any movement toward the development of
community television in South Africa. This will include human
resource development for the broadcasting sector as a whole in a
way that promotes an upward flow from communities to the public
and private sector. Equally important will be the provision of
access to training, production, distribution, exhibition and
broadcast facilities in the development of an independent
community tier of broadcasting in South Africa.

Community television stands to play an important role in a broader
developmental sense. The Government's Reconstruction and
Development Program recognises that information and an informed
population will be vital to the success of the program. Equally
important will be peoples ability to engage in dialogue about
community approaches and solutions to the fundamental challenges
still confronting the majority of South Africans. If people don't
have effective means to express their needs, they won't have
effective control of the development process. In a largely
illiterate society, broadcasting has a critical role to play in
the development of a participatory democracy.

There is no guarantee that access to video and broadcast
technologies contributes to a participatory democracy. If
community television is to play this role effectively then we need
to take the notion of access a step further. South Africa's unique
history has given South Africans a deep sense of participation and
ownership of the political process. Communities, or at least
sectors of communities, are well organised and coherent. The
social foundations for the success of community television have
been sown. Community television can contribute to this by
enhancing communities ability to communicate with itself and the
world. Communities as well as NGOs and CBOs (community based
organisations) need to be trained as effective communicators. The
focus should be on the message and not simply on access to the
medium. Community participation must go beyond that of access to
community control.

In order to make this possible, community television needs to be
developed from the bottom up over a period of time through
distinct developmental phases. The first priority is to build
production capacity in historically marginalised communities. This
will be achieved through the coordination of a national training
program involving numerous training institutions around the
country and the building of Video Access Centres (VAC) in areas
where no such production capacity exists. Training will be
integrated with, and partially financed by, production. OWN
intends to leverage government funds through the offering of
services to the South African Communications Services as well as
seeking contract work from the NGO sector. OWN is also building a
strong relationship of cooperation with the national public
broadcaster where a mechanism for the showing or commissioning of
community originated programming is presently being negotiated.

When VACs build up sufficient capacity they will apply to the
Independent Broadcasting Authority for a community television
licence to broadcast. The network is presently debating various
signal distribution options, looking into ways in which community
television stations can share programming material over the long
term. Serious attention is being given to the Consortium model.
This model has already been through two test transmissions in the
Durban and Cape Town metropolitan areas. Satellites are also being
looked into as a future means of redistributing community
programming nationally.

OWN's aims and objectives with regard to community broadcasting
complements the efforts of community radio and print. Hence the
organisation works in close collaboration with fraternal
organisations in these related spheres through formal links and
structures aimed at joint advocacy. This relationship has been
formalised through the establishment of the National Community
Media Forum. Together we are advancing a vision of community
broadcasting during a time in which the future telecommunications
policy and regulatory environment is being shaped. Now is the time
to enshrine the notion of community access and participation
within the new South Africa by linking it permanently to
information and communication technologies.

Karen Thorne is the General Secretary of the:

	Open Window Network, Centre for Democratic Communications,
	P.O. Box 32022, Braamfontein, Johannesburg 2107, South
	Africa Tel.: (27 11) 403 2750 Fax: (27 11) 403 1510

**********************************************************
Videazimut  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
3680, rue Jeanne-Mance, bureau 430  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
Montreal, Quebec  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
Canada H2X 2K5   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
telephone 1 514 982 6660   fax 1 514 982 6122  .  .  .  .  .
email: videaz@web.apc.org
**********************************************************