Charter

1) The Corporation must comply with the Charter as outlined in this part.

(2) The Authority must monitor and enforce compliance with the Charter by the Corporation.

(3) In terms of this Charter, the Corporation, in pursuit of its objectives and in the exercise of its powers, enjoys freedom of expression and journalistic, creative and programming independence as enshrined in the Constitution.

(4) The Corporation must encourage the development of South African expression by providing, in South African official languages, a wide range of programming that-

(a) reflects South African attitudes, opinions, ideas, values and artistic creativity;

(b) displays South African talent in education and entertainment programmes;

(c) offers a plurality of views and a variety of news, information and analysis from a South African point of view;

(d) advances the national and public interest.

(5) (a) The Board must prepare and submit to the Authority not later than three months after the date of conversion, policies that will ensure compliance with the Authority’s Code of Conduct as prescribed and with the Corporation’s licence conditions and with the objectives contained in this Act, including:

(i) News editorial policy;

(ii) programming policy;

(iii) local content policy;

(iv) educational policy;

(v) universal service and access policy;

(vi) language policy; and

(vii) religious policy.

(b) The Corporation must notify the Authority in writing of any amendments to the policies referred to in paragraph (a) as soon as reasonably possible.

(6) The Board must ensure that there is public participation in the development of the policies referred to in subsection (5) by inviting and considering public comment on such draft policies and by other means.

(7) The Corporation must provide suitable means for regular inputs of public opinion on its services and ensure that such public opinion is given due consideration.

(8) The Corporation must develop a Code of Practice that ensures that the services and the personnel comply with-

(a) the constitutional principle of equality;

(b) the equitable treatment of all segments of the South African population;

(c) the constitutional requirement of equitable treatment of all official languages;

(d) the rights of all South Africans to receive and impart information and ideas;

(e) the mandate to provide for a wide range of audience interests, beliefs and perspectives; and

(f) a high standard of accuracy, fairness and impartiality in news and programmes that deal with matters of public interest.

[S. 6 substituted by s. 6 of Act 64/2002]

To view more information see the Broadcasting Act (Chapter 4), available for download in our ‘Downloadable Documents section.