A Colloquium hosted by Rhodes University

16 October 2010

You are invited to a colloquium on media, democracy and transformation since South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994.

You are invited to a colloquium on media, democracy and transformation since South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994. The intention of the colloquium is to provide space for critical reflection that moves beyond immediate responses to the recent threats to media freedom, and provides researched responses to the range of issues raised in this public debate. It will create a platform for academics, members of the industry, civil society and political parties to interact with one another on the basis of these research findings.

The main findings will be released in time for National Media Freedom Day on October 19.

The keynote speech will be given by Colin Sparks, from the University of Westminster, and his respondent will be Pallo Jordan, Chairperson of the Communications Sub-Committee of the African National Congress. This will be followed by a presentation of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung’s latest report on South African from its African Media Barometer.

The colloquium has panels on the following areas:

• The role(s) of the media in post-apartheid South Africa (speakers include Gabriel Bothma, Nicola Jones, Anthea Garman, Rod Amner and Bevelyn Dube)
• Normative theories of the media and their relevance to post-apartheid media, normative indicators and the performance of the media in this regard, and the media’s relationship to government and other centres of power.
• Media accountability and self-regulation (speakers include Guy Berger, Fanie Groenewald, Rod Amner, Vicky Bronstein, Ayesha Kajee, Robert Brand, Jane Duncan and respondents include Lumko Mtimde)
• The theory and practice of media accountability, the adequacy or otherwise of existing media accountability systems, the performance of the media self-regulatory bodies (the Broadcast Complaints Commission of South Africa and the Press Council of South Africa) and the ethical trends emerging from their judgments.
• Media ownership and content (speakers include Margeret Renn, Reg Rumney, Mahmood Sanglay, with Ismail Vadi as respondent)

The different models of ownership as indicators of media diversity, the extent of ownership transformation, the relationship(s) between ownership and content, and whether the print media represent the diversity of views in society.

Contact: Sibusiso Mtshali, Highway Africa, School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University, email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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