Over 80 community media activists and stakeholders gathered at the Community Media Reflection Conference in Johannesburg from 8 to 9 October 2009 to take stock of the community media sector in South Africa. After various inputs, they sat in commissions and developed resolutions on critical issues impacting the success of community media. Download the full conference report here.

Conference Resolution #1: Governance and Community participation

Noting that 

• The ECA sets out the basic principles in law for defining community broadcasting as fully non-profit; serves a community and encourages participation in programming / editorial

• Communities themselves should define the mandate of the radio station as mandates that can never be uniform given the different challenges each community faces

• There are different governance models ranging from organisational representativity (as in the CCTV model) and individual representivity

• Individual representivity has tended to lead to conflicts of interest and instability

• Many community broadcasters have board members who stay for a long time leading to the phenomenon of ‘owning positions’ resulting in no opportunities for other community members 

• The lack of clarity about the roles of the Board and various staff members causes conflict

• There are a number of community radio stations that are off air as a result of non-compliance.  A common factor is the lack of audited financial statements or minutes of board meetings

• Each community is unique and therefore should identify who its stakeholders and partners are without doing away with an individual’s right to be involved

• There is a need to define community participation and to get the community more involved in the activities of the station including through participation in training and programming

Resolve to / that: 

• There cannot have a one-size-fits all approach because each community differs but the model adopted by a community radio station needs to be based on  common principles and processes

• Projects should adopt the sector based representation model where a project defines key sectors in the community and Board members are nominated by organisations in the respective sectors

• Emphasis should be on marginalised groups in communities

• Tenure must be defined in the constitution of community radio station. One year is insufficient but a maximum of 4 years with the option of resignation is a proposal

• Rotation of membership with at least of 50% of outgoing members staying on the  board to orientate and ensure continuity

• The roles of all staff members – management, administrative staff, volunteers - must be described in terms of an outcomes based approach

• There should be a project planning and project management to ensure compliance

• Community participation needs to take greater account of how to deal with people with disabilities – accessibility of the station for people with disabilities, equipment designed for people with disabilities and appropriate and relevant training

• Community radio stations should drive their own monitoring and compliance. The sector should explore methods of self-regulation

• The sector should lobby to ensure that ICASA has the capacity (staffing and resources) to ensure more effective monitoring of community radio stations

• Annual General Meetings must continue and be open to the wider community

• Constitutions of the radio station are key and will need to be re-aligned given the proposed new laws and this is an opportunity to strengthen compliance issues in the constitutions 

Conference Resolution #2: Independence and Interdependence with Advertisers and Government

Noting that:

• Programming / editorial must not be driven by sponsors – government or advertisers

• For a small community radio that is dependent on the local municipality it is harder to expose councillors and corruption

• Independence does not necessarily imply antagonistic relations but could include cooperation with space for constructive criticism

• There is a need to create understanding on role of community radio with stakeholders like government and advertisers 

• One of the weaknesses of the sector is that it is isolated and dispersed all over the country 

Resolve to / that:

• The sector needs editorial codes of good practice and individual projects need codes

• The sector needs to input into ICASA’s process of drafting advertising and sponsorship policies

• Community radio needs diversified news sources and cannot be dependent on GCIS

• The DoC Charter needs to clearly spell out the relationship between the station and the municipality to give community radio a sense of security that will protect them and their revenue while ensuring that projects can criticise government and expose corruption and mismanagement

• The NCRF should undertake political education about what independence means and then building the capacity to monitor the independence of its members. Political education in this sense is not party political 

• Multiple sources of funding are important and funding from the community is ideal

• Sales and marketing should be separate from editorial

• Contracts and Service Level Agreements are needed in defining relationships and expectations with sponsors

Conference Resolution #3: Financial Sustainability of Community Media

Noting that:

• Projects are not really sustainable currently as they do not have the resources to deliver their mandate

• Current conditions are quite hostile – statutory regulatory frameworks, recession, etc.

• Print sector is not regulated and it faces competition from big media conglomerates that can cross fund their small projects to kill independent competition 

• Community media gets approximately 10% of advertising spend and many of the intermediaries get the bulk of the revenue generated

• Projects are part of the NGO sector and donor funding is available for health, housing, gendered violence etc. 

• DoC does not fund print and television because of limited policy frameworks

• DoC is looking at capping advertising income for SABC and setting up a public fund that community broadcasters can tap into

• Community print faces huge printing costs. Currently community print has to print with competitors and has to deal with Caxton monopolization of the printing industry

Resolve to / that:

• Projects should secure complimentary streams of income including advertising, sponsorship, donor support, local community contributions, and funding from government

• There should be an annual state subsidy for radio stations that comply with all regulations and requirements on the basis of the ‘public good’ of the media

• Funding from government should be administered by an independent body like the MDDA to ensure editorial freedom 

• A local municipal levy should be established to enhance community ownership and control over the radio station by contributing financially

• MDDA is under funded and ECA money should flow to MDDA

• Media projects need to position themselves as part of the development sector and access donor funding. This could involve joint fundraising between community media projects and other NGOs

• There is a need to get organised so as to source a greater slice of adspend. NCRF should have an advertising / marketing wing so that it can approach large companies on behalf of the sector – particularly remote and rural radio stations

• Community print needs greater support and should be protected from unfair competition by anti-trust law 

• Where possible projects should own their own infrastructure. This will provide more security to projects

• There is a there is a need to reduce printing costs by developing infrastructure that is owned by the sector

• The DoC needs to upgrade equipment and deal with signal issues

• The NCRF needs to lobby for differential transmission rates

• The sector needs more discussions with relevant SETAs and the National Skills Fund to ensure payment of  stipends for learners 

• The sector needs to look at how to take forward NCRF’s work on the provincial skills plan that started in Limpopo and how to cover print

• MDDA should provide policy support and training, especially on sustainability/business models 

Conference Resolution #4: Networks and Partnerships for collaboration

Noting that 

• No project can realise its goal without collaborating with other institutions through forming partnerships

• Radio stations have partnered to form the strongest network of community media in Africa – the NCRF

• Some challenges with partnerships include lack of transparency, opportunism and patronising approach to community media

• There is a need for monitoring and evaluation of partnerships

Resolve to / that: 

• All partnerships should have clear terms of reference

• All partnerships should be documented with clear goals, roles and accountabilities

• Partnership should be regularly evaluated to assess if they are worthwhile and to identify the challenges.

• There is also a need to move away from the ‘top down’ approach to dealing with community media

• Community radio stations are unique and have individual needs. Government and other stakeholders should not use a blanket approach when dealing with radio stations. There should be a strategy to categorise stations as not all stations are at the same stage of development; and then provide appropriate assistance based on each category

• The NCRF Hub mandate has to be defined by member stations in each province

• NCRF Hubs need to be transparent and well-managed and governed by a format that all community radio stations buy into

• NCRF should facilitate content sharing between media projects

• The sector needs to build NCRF as the ‘voice’. This will mean strengthening representativity as well as strengthening NCRF at national and provincial levels to close the gaps that enable individuals to claim to speak on behalf of the sector

• Community print and television need to get organised into networks

• There is a need to find common ground across all community media platforms – radio, print and television – and to work together based on an identification of the benefits for each

Conference Resolution #5: Capacity Building and Training

Noting that:

• Retaining skilled people is very important. This is one of the biggest causes why training is not effective in the industry 

• Training needs to be more flexible and needs to be orientated. Training is currently more driven by the availability of funding rather than the station identifying its training needs so there is a disconnect between stations’ needs and donors’ needs

• There is the Open Society Foundation report titled “first footprints of the African renaissance - an evaluation of community radio training 1997-2001” that looks at training in the sector 

• Training lags behind industry standards and is not delivered through a formalised unit based approach

• Succession planning and retention planning is very important

Resolve to / that:

• There is a need for a holistic plan for the sector starting with a skills development plan in the radio station, then across radio stations in a province which gets rolled up into a provincial and then national plan

• NCRF needs to have a separate session on retention in the sector and needs to treat it as a project on its own

• There is a need for more evaluation of the impact of training to establish whether it is making a difference

• There needs to be a strong network for training service providers to assist in avoiding replication and duplication; stations will know who provides what training and service providers can work together to assist each other to provide quality training to the sector 

• NCRF should convene a forum for training and capacity building service providers to come together on a regular basis (possibly quarterly) 

• Projects need to see the workplace as a place of learning

• There is a need for a wide range of capacity building throughout the station; not just technical training but training in some of the fundamental aspects to improve professionalism. People need to be trained in their roles

• Training cannot be generic and not contextualised. Too much training is too generic

• There is a need for more shadowing and coaching and succession planning

• There is a need to expand who goes for training. It cannot be the same people who get to attend all the training

• There is a need for management support when people go for training. Often there is insecurity about competition or that people will leave

• Training must enable stations to develop content and programming

• There is a need for intensive and experiential training. Theoretical training is good but it also needs to be practical and experiential

• There is a need to recognise that capacity building is beyond training

• There is a need for a student exchange programme; find new entrants, give them training and then base them at a community radio station

• Individuals within media projects need to be trained on topical issues to produce quality content

• NCRF capacity building framework needs to be updated 

• Accreditation of training is important, though it is acknowledged that not all training needs to be accredited

• The OSF report should be reviewed to assess implementation and progress thereof

Conference Resolution #6: Producing Quality Content

Noting that: 

• Community media has a critical role to play in producing content that offers alternative views and information to commercial media

• Community media should promote constitutional values and the goals outlined in the NCRF charter though their content

• There is a need to promote good production values like good technical quality

• Barriers to producing quality content include funding, time and costs

• Content should also be interesting and entertaining; and should support the developmental purpose of the station and the sector as well as enabling the constitutional rights of freedom of expression and access to information

• Diversity of language is important to ensure accessibility for the community.

• People are not properly trained on producing content

• Programmes are syndicated with little benefit accruing to the project

• Community media is there to raise consciousness. Community media content must be designed and delivered in ways that raise consciousness in the community

• Quality content is critical for sustainability 

Resolve to / that: 

• Projects should improve accuracy, distinguish fact from opinion

• Radio projects should comply with the talk/music, and other content prescriptions of their license agreements

• Print projects should adhere to the Press Code and good practice in terms of graphics and layout, depth and balance of coverage 

• Projects should also use existing NAB and ASA guidelines

• Projects should produce content that promotes awareness of constitutional rights and values as well as promoting alternatives for social justice

• Projects should use language resources within the community and to develop programmes whereby students and young people can gain experience and training 

• Projects need to be trained in new methods of doing business as the advertising industry is moving from generic placement to branded content. Editorial independence should be maintained at all times. 

• Local content must be prioritised. However, there is also a need to develop international and national linkages

• Syndicated content should be assessed on its relevance to local communities

• Projects should link and customise content that is brought in so that it is relevant to the community

• Projects should use cell phone technology promote community participation in developing content