Cape Town - The government is considering pooling its media assets to support the creation of a black-owned media house as part of prioritising a media transformation policy, Communications Minister Faith Muthambi said on Wednesday.
And the government intends approaching Parliament to hold an inquiry towards a media transformation charter, similar to the one governing, for example, the mining sector.
“Transformation of the media remains at the apex of our priorities for this current financial year. Work is currently under way to finalise the media transformation policy. As part of finalising this policy, we will also investigate the possibility of pooling government media assets with a view to support the creation of a black-owned media house in the country,” Muthambi said during her budget vote in Parliament.
Earlier she criticised the dominance of four big media houses, arguing nothing had changed in the past 21 years of democracy - and steps now needed to be taken.
However, Caxton Professor of Journalism at Wits University Anton Harber said the minister got her basic facts “just plain wrong” and her views were myopic. “There is a lot to criticise in our printed media, but Minister Muthambi misses the mark comprehensively. Her basic facts are just plain wrong: for example, saying that the same big four companies which dominated print in 1994 still do. She has forgotten about Perskor and the fact that Caxton did not even own a major paper then.”
“One can argue that the newspapers need to transform further, but to suggest that they are the same as in 1994 is to be suffering from serious myopia.
“Her views are broad, generalised and unsubstantiated and she fails to recognise, for example, some of the world-class investigative reporting which we have seen in our newspapers.
“Or maybe her hostility towards the press is because of this kind of reporting. Either way, her view is crude, badly informed and reveals a deep antipathy towards a free and critical media,” said Harber, who is also the chairman of the Freedom of Expression Institute.
The South African National Editors’ Forum’s Mathatha Tsedu said there was “nothing new” in the minister’s statements.
Cape Argus