Three out of five ain’t bad but..

The following article was published online at ScreenAfrica.com

Three out of five ain’t bad but...
All in all, not too bad a week for the South African media industry. Firstly, the ruling ANC party announced some (gratefully received albeit with reservation) concessions to the hugely contentious Protection of Information Bill (aka the Secrecy Bill).

Three of the clauses that the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) and civil society vehemently objected to (with good reason) have been dropped: mandatory jail terms for possessing or publishing secret information have been done away with; the definitions of what can be classified have been narrowed; and the bill now only applies to the intelligence and security services of the government (as opposed to civil servants and state institutions). Furthermore, an independent appeal mechanism to resolve disputes under the provisions of the Bill has been included.

Unfortunately, there is still no all-important ‘in the public interest clause” in the Bill to protect journalists and whistleblowers reporting on the security services – a fact which remains extremely worrying. Still, it’s at least encouraging to see that the ANC did take some heed of the huge public outcry around the bill. The Right2Know campaign, the Freedom of Expression Institute, the SOS: Support Public Broadcasting Coalition, Cosatu and all the other organisations and individuals who so proactively opposed the bill are to be congratulated for their efforts. We should all be extremely grateful to them. I know I am. As the Right2Know campaign, which welcomes the concessions says, now the real work on the Bill can begin…

Then there was the encouraging news this week that the SABC and the unions (finally) reached an agreement for the salary and substantive negotiations for the 2011/12 financial year. These negotiations have been going on for months, with the unions walking out of meetings on more than one occasion because of the SABC’s alleged uncooperative attitude. But now, at least for a year, the negotiations are settled so let’s hope the SABC can move on with its turnaround strategy and start clawing its way out of the years-long financial and managerial crisis. Perhaps now all the senior executives who are currently designated as ‘Acting’ can be properly instated into their positions and maybe some much needed, serious commissioning of local content can at last commence.

Talking of commissioning, it is heartening to see that local content pay-TV channel Mzansi Magic has issued a call for proposals for its low budget local Bubblegum movies – a definite boost to a commission-starved independent production sector. Bubblegum movies have proved immensely popular on Mzansi Magic, which celebrates its first birthday in July.

It is also good to see free to air channel e.tv calling for proposals for documentaries by independent producers from the Eastern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and North West provinces. This important genre is often neglected on commercial channels and good on e.tv for giving producers outside of South Africa’s main production centres – Johannesburg and Cape Town – a chance.

Like I said before, an ok week for the industry.