Members of the public have until August 1 to comment on the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s new draft editorial policies.
The SABC said on Thursday that it would begin a second round of public consultations into a review of its 2004 Editorial Policy.
The latest round of public consultations are scheduled to take place from July 23 to 31.
The policies cover a multitude of topics‚ including how the broadcaster reports on news and current affairs‚ warns audiences about explicit content‚ approaches programming and deals with issues such as race‚ gender‚ violence and phone-in and discussion programmes - on both radio and television. It also deals with the partial or total sponsorship of programmes.
According to the draft policy document‚ “The policies are intended to help all staff make informed decisions on editorial issues so that distinctive and compelling - and sometimes controversial - programmes can be made‚ while maintaining the highest ethical and editorial standards.”
SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said the policy document played a pivotal role by providing a framework within which sound decisions regarding the SABC’s content offerings were made in order to meet its public service mandate.
The SABC will hold public hearings in KwaZulu-Natal‚ Mpumalanga and North West on Monday July 23‚ followed by Gauteng‚ Limpopo and Northern Cape on Tuesday July 24 and the Free State on Wednesday July 25. Hearings will be held in the Western Cape on Friday July 27. The final public hearings will be at the SABC’s M1 studios in Johannesburg on Tuesday July 31.
The draft policy can be found at www.sabc.co.za/editorialpolicy
Submissions and inputs on the draft policy can be sent via email to policy@sabc.co.za or submitted to the broadcaster’s provincial offices. The closing date is August 1.
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