19 Jun 2018

There are currently no plans to wean the state media (Btv, RB1 and RB2, DailyNews and Kutlwano) from government support, says Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Nonofo Molefhi.

Mr Molefhi said though not administered through boards like British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), the departments of Information and Broadcasting Services have clear public service mandates of promoting and publicising government policies and programmes, which they carry out without any interference  from government.

Mr Molefhi said the issue of whether or not the state media was impartial, accurate and trustworthy was a matter of perception that could not  be easily resolved without undertaking a comprehensive public opinion survey.

In the absence of a more detailed explanation, Mr Molefhi said he was constrained to say whether or not the kind of liberalisation envisaged was good for increasing revenue generation and job creation for the youth.

The minister was responding to a question from Selebi Phikwe West MP, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse, who had asked the Minister if there was any intentions to reform the state media (Btv, RB1 and RB2, DailyNews and Kutlwano) into a public media that was not financially and editorially controlled by the state and with an independent board such as BBC and SABC.

Further, Mr Keorapetse had asked if it concerns the government that the state media was seen as not impartial, accurate and trustworthy as shown in the recent Ombudsman report and whether its liberalisation would not be a good method of increasing revenue generation and job creation for the youth. ENDS