Karl Marx famously said the first time history repeats itself is tragic; the second is farce. He wasn’t exactly referring to broadcast licensing in South Africa, but his aphorism may apply.

This issue of who owns broadcasting is important for industry growth, for transformation and for democratic pluralism. But South Africa is in danger of missing the boat of legal reforms that balance these three issues.

Way back in 1993, the Independent Broadcast Authority Act set down limits on who may own radio and TV stations. We still have them today:

- No station can have more than 20% of its shares in foreign hands. - Concentration of radio ownership is limited to no more than four stations, and only two operating in a single broadcast area. - No company can control radio and television licences if it also controls a newspaper with 20 percent or more of its circulation in the broadcast area. [more]

A worldwide movement to promote people’s rights of access to information came to Africa this week. A centre set up by former US president Jimmy Carter (see www.cartercenter.org/accesstoinformation.html) convened a big-guns conference in Ghana to advance the cause across the continent. You might think: “Enough already”. There’s already too much information out there. You’re buckling under the pressures of email, the World Wide Web, Facebook, Twitter, satellite TV bouquets, etc. But “overload” is relative. Lots of people are still outside the information loop. And even in South Africa we still have authoritarian and corrupt officials who rely on information scarcity to resist accountability. Meanwhile, there are probably some facts that you personally would really like to know about...[more]

President Jacob Zuma’s believe in polygamy has become the subject of a heated debate in the South African media. Zuma, who is married to three wives and father of so far 19 marital children and now one extramarital, regularly hits the headlines with his sexual affairs. Journalists, opposition parties and women rights groups accuse the political leader of being a bad role model for the country and argue that his behaviour contradicts his government’s HIV-Campaign, which advocates the use of condoms and faithfulness to one partner . Zuma and his supporters on the other hand see the criticism as “cultural intolerance” and inacceptable interference in private matters.

As reaction to the latest revelations of the president’s fatherhood read Oliver Meth’s thoughts about the impact of the “world’s most famous polygamist” snubbing safe sex on the South African society.

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