Resolution on the Values, Role and Purpose of Community Media

Resolution on the Values, Role and Purpose of Community Media

1. The National Community Radio Forum has a Charter that is binding on all NCRF members. The NCRF Charter prescribes that NCRF members:

1. 1. reconfirm the South African community radio movement support for the definition of community broadcasting in the Windhoek Charter on Broadcasting in Africa (2001): "Community broadcasting is broadcasting which is for, by and about the community, and whose ownership and management is representative of the community, which pursues a social development agenda, and which is non-profit.

1. 2. are governed by the principle that all Members of the National Community Radio Forum, whether they be Stations, initiatives or service providers, are, or strive to be Initiated, developed, owned, managed, staffed, mandated, monitored and evaluated by communities and are

· Non-profit, non-discriminatory, non-aligned, non-partisan, non-exploitative

· Anti-poverty, anti-racist, anti-discriminatory

· Developmental, Plural, Sustainable, Accountable

· Active, Proactive, Creative, Innovative, Collaborative, Positive

· Affirming, Uplifting, Inspiring

· South African, African

· Local, Global

· Pro-people, pro-dignity, pro-freedom, pro-security, pro-shelter, pro-peace, pro- democracy, pro-empowerment, pro-redress, pro-solidarity, pro-fairness, pro-humility, pro-humanity.

1. 3. share a vision for the sector stating “the vision of the community radio sector is to advance participatory democracy towards sustainable development in communities. Participatory democracy encourages people to become involved in the decision-making process and to drive development. This means the station plays an active role in creating platforms for debate, discussion and the community is encouraged and empowered to shape their development and express their views freely”,
   4. play a role in the continuing history of media activism and advocacy in South Africa, Southern Africa, the African Continent and globally
   5. support and advocate the role that community media, and community radio in particular, can and must play in ensuring the protection of the rights of all people living in South Africa, as outlined in the Constitutional Bill of Rights.
   6. Supporting and advocating the role that community media, and community radio in particular, can and must play in ensuring the protection of the rights of all people living in South Africa, as outlined in the Constitutional Bill of Rights.
   7. promote and facilitate quality programming, underpinned by participatory research, which is informative, of good technical quality, and enhances people's development.
   8. collaborate with communities in ways that support the fight against discriminatory practices that threaten equality, such as discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, religious belief, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, poverty, HIV-AIDS status, or any other kind of discrimination that curtails a person's right to be treated equally by all other people living in South Africa.

2. The Public Service Broadcasting Bill:

a. Aligns the goal of stations should be aligned to the ‘development goals of the Republic” and the developmental state.

b. Aims to prescribe a Charter for Community Broadcasters which prescribes:

i. that the primary role of community radio is to provide information about the municipality and Government and what it is doing. This suggests a more passive role for stations – as the vehicle through information flows through to communities.

ii. that stations must forge partnerships with municipalities

3. For community media to fulfill its role in our participatory democracy – facilitating meaningful freedom of expression and access to information - it must be independent of the government and other powerful sections of society and accountable to the broad community that is serves

Believing that:

1. Community media plays an important role in deepening and strengthening democracy

2. The NCRF Charter remains relevant and contains shared and guiding principles for its members as do the resolutions adopted by the community media sector Reflection Conference on the 28^th and 29^th October 2009.

3. The concepts of a developmental state and the “development goals of the Republic” are contested by different interests in society

Therefore resolve to:

1. Reaffirm the values, and role, and purpose of the Sector contained in the NCRF Charter.

2. Continue to play a leading role in the struggle for social and economic justice by facilitating access to information and dialogues that equip communities to respond to the economic, social, and ecological crisis they face.

3. Launch and lead a “Campaign to Defend and Advance the Freedom of the Airwaves” to:
   1. Campaign to promote the sector’s vision contained in the NCRF Charter to develop a strong and sustainable independent community media sector that enables human rights, democracy, struggles for economic and social justice, and the Constitution by creating platforms for dialogue and debate.

3. 2. Campaign to limit the prescriptive nature of the Public Service Broadcast Bill regarding alignment of the sector to the ‘development goals of the Republic’ and to defend members’ rights to pursue the goals of the NCRF Charter and protect their freedom of expression and access to information.

 

4. Review the NCRF Charter :

a. Re-assert the primary of the NCRF’s Charter which negates the need for a new Charter for the sector as prescribed by the PSB Bill

b. Amend the NCRF Charter to address the current context though a participatory and consultative process

5. Promote programming/editorial that enables community media to achieve its vision and purpose and which for provides significant coverage of developments locally, nationally and internationally, and in other communities that focuses on the implications for the community of developments beyond the community and promotes solidarity people across South Africa and the world.

a. Support and enable the exchange of content between community media projects;

b. Develop partnerships with other non-profits organizations – nationally and internationally – to produce and distribute programming/editorial.

Resolution on Governance and Participation

Noting that

1. The Right to Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Association and the Right to Access Information are protected in the South African Bill of Rights.

2. The National Community Radio Forum has a Charter that is binding on all NCRF members. The NCRF Charter prescribes that NCRF members:
   1. Support and advocate the role that community media, and community radio in particular, can and must play in ensuring the protection of the rights of all people living in South Africa, as outlined in the Constitutional Bill of Rights.

1. 1. Set an example for other civil society organisations by working with the community to establish and nurture legitimate and transparent structures for governance, management and operations, including a Board, a Management Team, and clear operational structures.

3. The Public Service Broadcasting Bill:
   1. Aims to prescribe a Charter for Community Broadcasters which prescribes:

i. that the primary role of community radio is to provide information about the municipality and Government and what it is doing. This suggests a more passive role for stations – as the vehicle through information flows through to communities.

ii. suggests that municipal officials can sit on Governing Councils.

iii. that stations must forge partnerships with municipalities

iv. that stations must be located in municipal offices

b. Aims to prescribe a Charter for Community Broadcasters which prescribes:

i. the size, composition and terms for governance structures, limiting the size of Councils/Boards to 9 people.

ii. that stations must comply with the Public Finances Management Act

iii. the size, composition and terms for governance structures, limiting the size of Councils/Boards to 9 people.

c. Gives the Minister of Communications powers to issue directives to the SABC and community media on “any matter connected to public service broadcasting” if the entity is unable to “perform its functions as prescribed in this Act”.

Believing that

1. The right to Freedom of Expression is of great importance in any democracy – more so in a participatory democracy.

2. For community media to fulfill its role in our participatory democracy – facilitating meaningful freedom of expression and access to information - it must be independent of the government and other powerful sections of society and accountable to the broad community that is serves:

a. Resources from the state and other powerful sections of society should be mediated by bodies independent of the Executive arm of government and appointed through a public transparent and participatory process.

b. The state and political parties should have no role in the governance of projects. This should include individuals that hold senior or elected positions in the state or political parties.

c. Meaningful community participation in project’s governance can best be achieved through a Sector Based Governance model that enables only civil society organizations to nominate prospective Board/Council to be elected at AGMs to represent agreed sectors in the community. This model will bring stability and organizational resources and accountability to media projects.

d. Projects should be free to determine their means of media production and distribution – including radio’s means of signal distribution

Therefore resolve to:

1. Campaign to ensure community media projects are independent of all powerful sectors of society including government and commercial interests and accountable to the broader community they serve.

2. Campaign to ensure resources from the state and other powerful sections of society should be mediated by bodies independent of the Executive arm of government and appointed through a public transparent and participatory process

3. Campaign to limit the prescriptive nature of the Public Service Broadcast Bill regarding the relationship with local government:

i. Government should not be represented on project Boards/Councils.

ii. Senior government officials and elected representatives of political parties should be barred from serving on Boards/Councils;

iii. Station should be free to choose their locations and not be obligated to broadcast from local government offices;

iv. Stations should be free to negotiate the terms of partnerships with local municipalities if these extend beyond access municipal information.

4. Oppose proposals in the Bill giving the Minister of Communications powers to issue directives to community media on “any matter connected to public service broadcasting” if the entity is unable to “perform its functions as prescribed in this Act”.

i. Campaign to ensure that ICASA has the necessary capacity to monitor compliance with the Act and make necessary corrective interventions when non-compliance occurs

ii. Work to ensure that NCRF has the necessary capacity to monitor compliance with the NCRF Charter and make necessary corrective interventions when non-compliance occurs

5. Campaign to ensure all government and public institutions comply with the Promotion of Access to Information Act and provide journalists with information to inform communities.

 

6. Promote and support meaningful community participation in project’s governance and programming:

i. Ensure stations adopt a Sector Based Governance model that enables only civil society organizations to nominate prospective Board/Council to be elected at AGMs to represent agreed sectors in the community.

ii. Ensure stations are free to develop, and do have, policies and transparent mechanisms to enable community members to shape the overall programming and editorial policy of the station

iii. Ensure stations are free to - and - develop clear policies and transparent mechanisms to enable community members access the airwaves – including producing and hosting shows

Resolution on Community Media Sustainability

Noting that

1. Community radio stations are unsustainable in the current regulatory environment.
   1. The limited resources available to the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) and therefore to stations, compels them to adopt commercial operating models where advertisers and sponsors have an inappropriate influence on programming
   2. Community radio has a listenership of 20% but on receives xxx% of adspend
   3. Stations do not have the resources to produce programming for the developmental needs of their communities
   4. Stations do not have the resources to facilitate the meaningful community participation that community media requires.
   5. The NCRF is an organised formation representing the majority of community radio stations whic plays a critical role in co-ordination, lobbying and advocacy for the sector and enables the sector to have one voice and is recognised as such

2. The National Community Radio Forum has a Charter that is binding on all NCRF members. The NCRF Charter prescribes that NCRF members:

6. 2. Reconfirm the South African community radio movement support for the definition of community broadcasting in the Windhoek Charter on Broadcasting in Africa (2001): "Community broadcasting is broadcasting which is for, by and about the community, and whose ownership and management is representative of the community, which pursues a social development agenda, and which is non-profit.
   3. Uphold the sustainable development values that underlie the NGO/CBO/non-profit/civil society movement in South Africa and internationally.
   4. Develop and maintaining accurate, efficient and transparent financial management systems, so as to prevent financial mismanagement and fraud and adhere to standards for best practice in community radio development in South Africa and internationally.

3. The Public Service Broadcasting Bill:

 

a. Introduces a new centralized Public Service Broadcast Fund to fund broadcasting to be administered by the Media Development and Diversity Agency, with the mandate to fund finance a wide-ranging set of functions, including the public service division of the SABC (together with regional television and international broadcasting services), content development, community broadcasting services, and signal distribution.

b. Says that stations must comply with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA)

c. The Public Service Broadcast Bill’s proposed Public Broadcast Fund (PSB Fund) has been developed without sufficient research.

4. Sustainability is hugely affected by the high transmission rates charged by Sentech and other prohibitively high costs like SAMRO charges.
   1. Sentech charges community media the same transmission as commercial media
   2. SAMRO wants payment on the basis of the amount of revenue generated by a station whereas there is no link between the revenue that comes in and local music content

 

5. In 2008 the NCRF developed the Community Media Index (CMI)
   1. The CMI is a participatory assessment and action planning tool for community media projects to enhance their ability to reflect and grow. The CMI offers a framework of four key dimensions of sustainability to be monitored, evaluated, and developed. These dimensions are:

i. Purpose & Impact

ii. Community Participation

iii. Organizational and Financial Sustainability

iv. Quality Content.

5. 2. The CMI provides both a framework as well as a set of tools and indicators for monitoring and assessing media projects’ sustainability and producing an action plan to enhance sustainability.

Believing that

1. Community media is a public good and should therefore be publically funded

2. Community media should have access to sufficient resources to produce programming and facilitate participatory process that ensure meaningful freedom of expression, access to information and community ownership and control of projects.

3. While resources should be sourced from within local communities (through partnerships with other non-profit organizations, public fundraising, and contributions in-kind) the primary source of funding for the sector should come from government though a dedicated annual subsidy to stations that comply with the requirements and

4. The Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) is not appropriate to institutions of the size, capacity, and complexity of community radio stations and it does not represent a standard for best practice in community radio development in South Africa and internationally.

5. A well capacitated and resourced NCRF is crucial to the sustainability and effectiveness of the sector as an agent of change

6. NCRF’s Community Media Index (CMI) offers a holistic framework within which to assess a stations current sustainability and develop action plans to enhance sustainability.

Therefore resolve to:

1. Welcome the proposed Public Broadcasting Fund and to:

 

5. 3. Call on the Department of Communications (DOC) to conduct research establishing the amount of money required to support an independent community media sector. This research should be made public.
   4. Call on the DoC to ensure the regulations of the Fund allocate sufficient resources to support an independent community media sector to ensure that the sector does not have to compete with the SABC, Sentech, and others for access to a common pool of resources;
   5. Campaign to ensure the Treasury allocates sufficient revenue to the Fund. This revenue should be raised through a dedicated and progressive public broadcasting tax
   6. Support the need for accountability within community media and campaign for the requirement that projects comply with the onerous Public Finance Management Act to be dropped and insist that the DoC rather develop financial and other management standards based on best practice in community radio development in South Africa and internationally

 

7. Campaign to ensure community media projects are independent of all powerful sectors of society including government and commercial interests and accountable to the broader community they serve.

8. Campaign to ensure resources from the state and other powerful sections of society should be mediated by bodies independent of the Executive arm of government and appointed through a public transparent and participatory process

9. Campaign to ensure a greater share of adspend for community media through either:

9. 1. The NCRF setting up an advertising and marketing wing to source and negotiate advertising on behalf of the sector, or
   2. Buying shares in an advertising company

10. Campaign to ensure preferential rates from Sentech and SAMRO and others like Telkom, ESKOM and mobile telecommunication companies

 

11. To fund the NCRF through a percentage of adspend from each member station which also serves to enhance ownership of the NCRF by its membership

11. 1. The contribution will be based on categories of adspend received and will not be based on a blanket approach

12. The NCRF should be funded through an annual subsidy from the PSB Fund / MDDA as long as its complies with all regulations and requirements

 

13. Promote the values and practices contained in the Community Media Index and the principle of self-regulation:

1. 1. Ensure community media projects conduct a holistic assessment of their sustainability
   2. Ensure community media projects derive an action plan to enhance their sustainability from their holistic assessment.

Resolution on Training and Capacity Building

1. Skilled, competent, and creative staffing is critical to an effective and impactful community radio sector

2. There has been a huge amount of investment in building the sector’s capacity in various skill areas but the impact has not been felt, partly due to high staff turnover and lack of skills transfer

3. Training needs to be more flexible and needs to be orientated to needs. 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

4. Training lags behind industry standards and is not delivered through a formalised unit

based approach

 

1. The sector is a training base that feeds skilled and experienced people into mainstream media

2. This that skilled and experience staff is a crucial component of the effective performance and sustainability of the sector

3. There are current structures and resources that are in place to support capacity building in the sector like the MAPPPSETA

 

1. There is a need for a holistic and wide ranging plan for the sector that is needs driven and relevant to current development and needs.

2. The training plan should start with a skills audit and development plan in the radio station, which gets rolled up into a provincial and then a national plan

3. NCRF needs to have a training and capacity programme as a project on its own and to rollout the sector skills plan

4. NCRF should

5. There is a need for more evaluation of the impact of training to establish whether it is

having an impact

6. 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

7. NCRF should convene a forum for training and capacity building service providers to

come together on a regular basis (possibly quarterly