Pluralism is a bigger priority than press ownership

by Guy Berger

 There's renewed focus on newspaper ownership by the ANC, even as the ruling party is becoming less hardline about the Media Appeals Tribunal and the Secrecy Bill.

Ownership by the ANC, even as the ruling party is becoming less hardline about the Media Appeals Tribunal and the Secrecy Bill.
Ownership was a prickly issue in parliament last week, when the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) presented its annual report for the 2009/10 year.


The new chair of the Portfolio Committee on Communications, Eric Kholwane, didn't mince his words.

Newspaper ownership, he said, was still dominated by the pre-1994 "Big Four" companies -- a description of Avusa, Independent Newspapers, Media24 and Caxton.

Kholwane accused them of throwing the MDDA a few "dry bones" to chew on, while retaining the juicy, meaty bits for themselves.
The four groups have renewed their contributions to the MDDA for another five years, but the amount remains static at a total of R4,8-million per annum, with a drop to R4-million during the last two years.


The MDDA report attributes this "to the financial challenges engulfing the print media industry at present".

However, Kholwane's concern was MDDA research that showed little advance in BEE stakes in the major press groups. He criticised the absence of a transformation charter in the industry.
Becoming representative

Echoing the sentiment during the parliamentary session, deputy minister in the Presidency, Dina Pule, said it could become necessary to compel the newspaper groups to make their ownership more representative. The committee agreed to ask the newspaper owners to address them on the issues[...]

Article sourced from the Mail&Guardian Online.  Click here to read full article:   http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-12-02-pluralism-is-a-bigger-priority-than-press-ownership