South Africa: New bills will undermine independence of ICASA

A new bill proposing substantial changes to how the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, (ICASA) functions has been criticised by industry players as an attempt by the communications minister to erode its independence. The ICASA Amendment Bill is the second bill — the first being the controversial Public Service Broadcasting Bill — which has prompted an outcry from the industry. It is argued that it gives too much power to the minister.

But the Department of Communications has said both bills are only in their beginning stages and their contents could be influenced by public input. A variety of interest groups made submissions which advocate the same thing. While they believe an overhaul of ICASA is long overdue, they feel the new legislation seriously undermines its independence and is therefore unconstitutional. They say what is needed before either the ICASA Amendment Bill or the Public Service Broadcast Bill are formally introduced to Parliament is a comprehensive communications policy review process undertaken by the Department of Communications with the appropriate stakeholders.

On the issue of the ICASA Amendment Bill, the regulator has long been accused of being toothless and inefficient, and not without reason. The organisation has failed in many ways to satisfy its mandate which, as the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) puts it, is: “to balance the competing demands of promoting fair competition, protecting and serving the public interest ... and to regulate the electronic communications industry”.

To name two examples, ICASA appeared to be at a loss as to how to protect the public from high cellular interconnection fees, leaving the minister to intervene in the end, and it has failed to probe claims that the SABC is not meeting its local content mandate. Encouraging local content in broadcasting is an important part of the SABC’s function.
The ICASA Amendment Bill, which was released last month for public comment, sparked immediate concern in the broadcast and media sector. The Support Public Broadcasting coalition said in its submission that it is seriously worried about threats to ICASA’s independence.

 
“In attempting to ensure greater efficiencies the bill brings ICASA directly under government’s wing, but ICASA needs to operate at arm’s length from government, as at times it will be required to rule against government and at times against the industry,” it said.

 
The coalition also said the ICASA Amendment Bill fails to strengthen ICASA’s structure or concerns that its under funded.

 
In his personal submission, Guy Berger,  the head of the school of journalism at Rhodes University, commended the bill’s attempts to clarify functions at ICASA.
But he argued it places “too much burden on the minister” in that it requires the chairman of the council “perform such other functions the minister may determine, subject to prior notification being given to the National Assembly” without defining “notification”. He said the ability of the minister to assign tasks, such as licensing and monitoring and compliance, to individual councillors, amounts to “micromanagement” of a supposedly independent body.

  
The FXI said that without an independent ICASA, the SABC might be “vulnerable to political interference” as it was during apartheid.
 

- August 09, 2010 by Business Day

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Source: www.misa.org  (received via email alert on 09.08.2010)