Parliament – Various media organisations including the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) were able to file their submissions on the Films and Publication Amendment Bill in Parliament last week.

This forms part of the public hearings process after the National Assembly approved the Bill designed to streamline processes within the Film and Publication Board (FPB) and provide media content to be incorporated under the FPB.

The amended Bill seeks to regulate producing and creating certain publications and providing consumer advice, to enable adults to make informed viewing decisions amongst other things.

Currently, the news media is exempted from having to submit content to the FPB for pre-publication scrutiny.

The Bill will also put in place structures for all content of media organisations to be placed before the FPB for classification or editing.
The South African National Editor’s Forum (SANEF), the Print Media SA (PMSA), National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), as well as a joint delegation of cellular network operators, recently submitted their concerns.

All the organisations shared the Committee’s concerns to protect children from accessing pornography but disagreed that the current wording of the Bill was adequate.

PMSA president, Trevor Ncube argued that exemptions were too narrow and excluded a lot of publishers who were not members of the National Advertising Standards body (NASA).

“This results in distributors and advertisers, for the first time, to be subjected to the classification provisions of the Bill and this will amount to a restrain of freedom of expression… and it is unconstitutional,” said Mr Ncube.

SANEF’s concerns with the bill included its wide application, the suppression of the Constitutional free speech, the effect of Clause 16 (2) and the criminal sanctions in the Bill.

However, South African Press Ombudsman Joe Thloloe, said SANEF already had regulatory mechanisms in place.

“There are worldwide examples of self regulation set out clearly in the website (www.mediaaccountability.org.za ) where they should look examples of how the system works,” said Mr Thloloe.

During the discussions, Advocate Steve Budlender, legal advisor of the NAB said his organisation felt that one of the aspects that fell out of the Constitution was Clause 21 of the Bill.

“Clause 21 proposes to subject the broadcasters to the jurisdiction of the FPB and the effect would be that the board would have to regulate broadcasting.

“This is apposed to the current situation, where broadcasters who have a broadcasting license were not subject to classification mechanism of the Film and Publication Board,” Mr Budlender said.

Representing the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), Attorney Simon Delaney said it was disturbing that the Bill removed exemptions for publications that amounted to the bona fide discussion.

“This is very serious, the Bill requires that all material that fell foul of the offending publications should be submitted for classification,” the attorney said.

Mr Delaney noted that the new Section 24b (2) was particularly troublesome as the subsection forces journalists to reveal their confidential sources of information.

Early in September SANEF met with government representatives in Tuynhuys to discuss the Bill.

In a joint statement released then SANEF raised concerns over the some of the clauses in the Film and Publication Bill which include pre-classification provisions, constitutionality of the Bill and criminal sanctions that the Bill proposes had raised concerns in the media.

The delegation, led by SANEF Chairperson, Jovial Rantao had agreed to meet with government's legal teams as a matter of urgency to consider all SANEF's reservations on the draft Bill. - BuaNews