Act No. 4, 1999
BROADCASTING ACT, 1999
(l) establish a strong and committed public broadcasting service which will
service the needs of all South African society;
(m) ensure that the commercial and community licences, viewed collectively,
are controlled by persons or groups of persons from a diverse range of
communities in South Africa;
(n) ensure that broadcasting services are effectively controlled by South
Africans;
(o) integrate multi-channel distribution systems into the broadcasting
framework;
(p) provide access to signal distribution services for content providers;
(q) provide access to signal distribution services for broadcast content
receivers;
(r) encourage the development of local programming content
CHAPTER II
SOUTH AFRICAN BROADCASTING SYSTEM
This Chapter is of central significance to the Act, as it lays the basis that the South
African broadcasting system is owned and controlled by South Africans. The National
Government, acting through the Minister, is responsible for the achievement of this
purpose and the constitutional mandate of broadcasting policy development. Being
empowered to act on behalf of the nation, the Minister has the ultimate responsibility to
fulfil certain obligations relating to use, protection and access to broadcasting resources.
South African broadcasting system
3.
(1) The South African broadcasting system(a) serves to safeguard, enrich and strengthen the cultural, political, social
and economic fabric of South Africa;
(b) operates in the public interest and strengthens the spiritual and moral
fibre of society;
(c) ensures that the broadcasting system is controlled by persons or groups
of persons from a diverse range of communities in South Africa and
within each element promotes ownership, control and management of
broadcasting services by persons from historically disadvantaged groups;
(d) encourages fair competition in the provision of programmes and services
(2) Subject to subsection (l), the Minister is ultimately responsible to develop
policy that is required from time to time.
(3) Public and commercial broadcasting services must comply with
international technical standards and the broadcasting system must be readily
adaptable to scientific and technological advances.
(4) The broadcasting system, as a whole, must provide educational
programming, and where such programming is provided by a dedicated
education service, must be extended throughout the Republic within the
financial resources.
(5) The programming provided by the South African broadcasting system must
(a) be varied and comprehensive, providing a balance of information,
education and entertainment meeting the broadcasting needs of the entire
South African population in terms of age, race, gender, religion, interests
and backgrounds;
[Paragraph (a) substituted by Section 3(a) of Act No. 64 of 2002]