Roundup: ANCWL calls for dismantling of print media oligopolies in S. Africa

The print media cannot be allowed to continue being a wholly white-owned subjective determiner of the public agenda and opinion, the African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL) said on Friday.

As an integral part of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the ANCWL acknowledged the fact that the ANC has remained resolute on media transformation in terms of ownership and the content to be reflective of the South African democratic dispensation, ANCWL Secretary-General Meokgo Matuba said in a statement emailed to Xinhua.

Facts reflect that after 22 years of democracy, the print media in South Africa is still dominated by four big players. These white-owned companies also dominate the entire value chain of the market, especially the printing, distribution and advertising. They own almost all the mainstream newspapers and community newspapers, most of the consumer magazine titles, some of specialist magazines and online news platforms.

"The ANCWL affirms the position of the ANC that South Africans must enjoy the freedom of expression in the context of a diverse media environment that is reflective of their situations and daily experiences," said Matuba.

However, the ANCWL is still to be convinced that with the media sector which is still dominated by those who for many years have been the allies of the apartheid super structure, providing rationale and intellectual support to the apartheid system, South Africans will get objective reporting from these media houses, she said.

These allies of apartheid regime will be easily co-opted by the apartheid beneficiaries to advance regime change agenda and undermine the democratic decision of over 62 percent of voters who in 2014, chose the ANC as political party to lead in South Africa, Matuba said.

These apartheid allies will collude with forces of darkness to peddle propaganda against the ANC and its government for the purpose of advancing regime change, she claimed.

The print media, which is at the center of the battle of ideas, a contested terrain that reflects the ideological battles and power relations based on race, class and gender in the South African society, needs to be transformed for it to be an unbiased platform, Matuba said.

"It cannot be allowed to continue being a wholly white-owned subjective determiner of the public agenda and opinion," she said.

The ANCWL, she said, will condemn any media house used for subjective criticism of the ANC and its government and will expose any forces of darkness co-opting media into regime change agenda.

The ANCWL is not calling for media to be the praise singers of the ANC and its government but calls for media to produce reliable, accurate and credible information, Matuba added.

The ANCWL appeals to the ANC-led government to provide comprehensive support to encourage ownership, control of, and access to media by historically disadvantaged communities as well as by historically diminished indigenous language and cultural groups, she said.

The government must ensure that it assists in developing black-owned print media houses of which 50 percent of that must be women-owned, the ANCWL suggested.

The ANCWL also appeals to the government from the national to the local level to channel all its advertising to community media and small commercial media which are black-owned.

"The dismantling of white owned print media oligopoly in South Africa is long overdue," Matuba noted. Endit