Object of Act

The object of this Act is to establish and develop a broadcasting policy in the Republic in the public interest and for that purpose to –

(a) contribute to democracy, development of society, gender equality, nation building, provision of education and strengthening the spiritual and moral fibre of society;

(b) safeguard, enrich and strengthen the cultural, political, social and economic fabric of South Africa;

(c) encourage ownership and control of broadcasting services through participation by persons from historically disadvantaged groups;

(d) ensure plurality of news, views and information and provide a wide range of entertainment and education programmes;

(e) cater for a broad range of services and specifically for the programming needs in respect of children, women, the youth and the disabled;

(f) encourage the development of human resources and training, and capacity building within the broadcasting sector especially amongst historically disadvantaged groups;

(g) encourage investment in the broadcasting sector;

(h) ensure fair competition in the broadcasting sector;

(i) ensure efficient use of the broadcasting frequency spectrum;

(j) provide a clear allocation of roles and assignment of tasks between policy formulation, regulation and service provision as well as articulation of longterm and intermediate-term goals;

(k) provide for a three tier system of public, commercial and community broadcasting services;

(l) establish a strong and committed public broadcasting service which will service the needs of all South African society;

(m) ensure that the commercial and community licences, viewed collectively, are controlled by persons or groups of persons from a diverse range of communities in South Africa;

(n) ensure that broadcasting services are effectively controlled by South Africans;

(o) integrate multi-channel distribution systems into the broadcasting framework;

(p) provide access to signal distribution services for content providers;

(q) provide access to signal distribution services for broadcast content receivers;

(r) encourage the development of local programming content.

The SOUTH AFRICAN BROADCASTING SYSTEM lays the basis that the South African broadcasting system is owned and controlled by South Africans. The National Government, acting through the Minister, is responsible for the achievement of this purpose and the constitutional mandate of broadcasting policy development. Being empowered to act on behalf of the nation, the Minister has the ultimate responsibility to fulfil certain obligations relating to use, protection and access to broadcasting resources.

(1) The South African broadcasting system –

(a) serves to safeguard, enrich and strengthen the cultural, political, social and economic fabric of South Africa;

(b) operates in the public interest and strengthens the spiritual and moral fibre of society;

(c) ensures that the broadcasting system is controlled by persons or groups of persons from a diverse range of communities in South Africa and within each element promotes ownership, control and management of broadcasting services by persons from historically disadvantaged groups;

(d) encourages fair competition in the provision of programmes and services.

(2) Subject to subsection (1), the Minister is ultimately responsible to develop policy that is required from time to time.

(3) Public and commercial broadcasting services must comply with international technical standards and the broadcasting system must be readily adaptable to scientific and technological advances.

(4) The broadcasting system, as a whole, must provide educational programming, and where such programming is provided by a dedicated education service, must be extended throughout the Republic within the financial resources.

(5) The programming provided by the South African broadcasting system must –

(a) be varied and comprehensive, providing a balance of information, education and entertainment meeting the broadcasting needs of the entire South African population in terms of age, race, gender, religion, interests and backgrounds;

(b) be varied and offer a range of South African content and analysis from a South African perspective;

(c) must be drawn from local, regional, national and international sources;

(d) provide a reasonable, balanced opportunity for the public to receive a variety of points of view on matters of public concern;

(e) provide a significant place for programmes produced by the independent production sector;

(f) comply with a code of conduct for broadcasting services as prescribed in terms of the IBA Act.

(6) A range of programming in the Republic’s official languages must be extended to all South Africans as circumstances permit.

(7) The human resources development strategy for the broadcasting sector must be viewed holistically in terms of qualification standards, skills development, teaching, inter-relationships with the complementary sectors and the funding of the training system.

The full Act as well as the amendments of 2002 and 2009 are available for download in our ‘Documents‘ section.

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.

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

The main object of the Corporation is to supply broadcasting and information services and services that are ancillary thereto, to the general public in the Republic of South Africa and beyond its borders and to achieve the objectives as set out in the Broadcasting Act 4 of 1999, as amended, (‘Broadcasting Act’) in accordance with the objectives set out in the Independent Broadcasting Authority Act 153 of 1993, as amended, that are directly relevant to the Corporation.

The objectives of the Corporation are –

(a) to make its services available throughout the Republic;

(b) to provide sound and television broadcasting services, whether by analogue or digital means, and to provide sound and television programmes of information, education and entertainment funded by advertisements, subscription, sponsorship, licence fees or any other means of finance;

(c) to acquire from time to time a licence or licences for such period and subject to such regulations, provisions and licence conditions as may be prescribed by the Authority;

(d) to provide, in its public broadcasting services, radio and television programming that informs, educates and entertains;

(e) to be responsive to audience needs, including the needs of the deaf and the blind and account on how to meet those needs;

(f) to provide other services, whether or not broadcasting or programme supply services, such services being ancillary services;

(g) to provide television and radio programmes and any other material to be transmitted or distributed by the common carrier for free to air reception by the public subject to section 33 of this Act;

(h) to provide to other bodies by such means and methods as may be convenient, services, programmes and materials to be transmitted or distributed by such bodies and to receive from such other bodies services, programmes and materials to be transmitted by stations of the Corporation for reception as above;

(i) to commission, compile, prepare, edit, make, print, publish, issue, circulate and distribute, with or without charge, such books, magazines, periodicals, journals, printed matter, records, cassettes, compact disks, video tapes, audiovisual and interactive material, whether analogue or digital and whether on media now known or hereafter invented, as may be conducive to any of the

objects of the Corporation;

(j) to establish and maintain libraries and archives containing materials relevant to the objects of the Corporation and to make available to the public such libraries and archives with or without charge;

(k) to organise, present, produce, provide or subsidise concerts, shows, variety performances, revues, musical and other productions and performances and other entertainment whether live or recorded in connection with the broadcasting and programme supply services of the Corporation or for any purpose incidental thereto;

(l) to collect news and information in any part of the world and in any manner that may be thought fit and to establish and subscribe to news agencies;

(m) to carry out research and development work in relation to any technology relevant to the objects of the Corporation and to acquire by operation of law, registration, purchase, assignment, licence or otherwise copyright and designs, trade marks, trade names and any other intellectual, industrial and commercial property rights;

(n) to nurture South African talent and train people in production skills and carry out research and development for the benefit of audiences;

(o) to develop, produce, manufacture, purchase, acquire, use, display, sell, rent or dispose of sound recordings and films and materials and apparatus for use in connection with such sound recordings and films;

(p) to develop and extend the services of the Corporation beyond the borders of South Africa.

The full Act is available for download in our Downloadable Documents section