Militancy and pragmatism

The African National Congress (ANC) has been working towards establishing a blueprint for transition to a post-apartheid South Africa since the drawing up of the 'constitutional guidelines' in Lusaka in 1988. In all these deliberations, the political, land and economic policies have taken precedence, while In the area of social reform, housing, education and welfare have featured prominently. Detailed attention to the media has been a later development. Even so, media remains something of a poor cousin relegated to a lower order of priority while other areas of concern are better articulated. On 23/24th November, 1991, the Department of Information and Publicity (DIP) of the ANC convened a meeting of approximately 300 delegates to discuss the drafting of a media policy. The outcome of this gathering was a document entitled, Resolutions adopted at the DIP National Seminar (ANC, 1991). The Resolutions were prefaced by a 'Draft Media Charter' which was also the result of the November deliberations. The Resolutions and the Charter were adopted by the ANC's National Executive Committee on 13th January, 1992, and remain the key expositions of ANC media policy. This paper examines that policy in light of the potential and powerful impact of the broadcast media.