The SABC's acting CEO James Aguma says the South African public broadcaster wants the news that it broadcast to be sponsored although the SABC is actually prohibited from doing this by the broadcasting regulator.
The SABC as South Africa's public broadcaster
is mandated, according to its editorial policy and according to its licence
conditions from the broadcasting regulator, the Independent Communications
Authority of South Africa (Icasa), to provide news that is fair, balanced and objective
and not commercially sponsored.
The SABC own editorial policy states that "we
do not allow advertising, commercial, political or personal considerations to
influence our editorial considerations" and that the SABC is required to "report
news truthfully, accurately and objectively".
"Sponsorship of television news and current
affairs has been prohibited by Icasa, and is therefore not allowed by the SABC," states the SABC’s editorial policy.
"Weather forecasts and sports bulletins that
form part of TV news bulletins may be sponsored. Any product placement within
news and current affairs programmes is strictly forbidden".
James Aguma told parliament's portfolio
committee on communications about "the serious problem" if SABC news isn't
sponsored, saying that "it implies that we are going to run an operation
without funds".
"That explains – and there's been a lot of
talk about the SABC MultiChoice channels contract – why SABC News (DStv 404) is
funded through a strategic partnership".
"Because it's those funds that we need to
cover that [news] operation. The SABC's normal news department is sustainable.
What we need to do, is to ensure that the revenue growth and the cost – the growth
is higher than the cost," said James Aguma.
"Unfortunately, if 85% of your revenue arises
from advertising, then you are open to market forces. And we know that market
forces are changing consumption patterns. People are consuming content now on
digital."
"Those are some of the reasons why certain
contracts were signed because we realised its time now to shift aggressively towards
the digital space. And that's something that we prefer to keep, you know, keep
under wraps. But the issue is it's a strategic choice because we are seeing a
funding gap on trying to sell content on this traditional platforms," he said.
In late December 2016 parliament's ad hoc
committee investigating maladministration at the SABC heard several allegations
of how the Gupta-owned The New Age
wanted to take over the running of the SABC's news operations.
The committee heard allegations of how the
SABC is bleeding cash on production costs to run the controversial The New Age sponsored "breakfast
briefings" broadcast on Morning Live
on the SABC2 and SABC News channels.
The inquiry's final report, adopted last week
Tuesday by parliament, found that all of the SABC's "questionable transactions" should be investigated and probed by forensic audit like the SABC MultiChoice
deal, and for a review of the feasibility of The
New Age breakfast briefings.
