Workshops
Public Service Broadcasting
 Organized by UNESCO
11 December 2003.
In today's interplay of changing technological, commercial,
political and cultural factors, editorially independent Public Service
Broadcasting is more relevant than ever. In developing countries,
PSB has a key mission in promoting access to education and culture, developing
knowledge and fostering interaction among citizens.
Content
- Programme
- Report
- Recommendations
- Statement
- Notes for a Broadcasters' Action Plan
- Resources
-
Speech
Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO Assistant Director General for Communication
and Information
- Speech
Elizabeth Smith, Secretary-General, Commonwealth Broadcasting Association
- Speech
Claude Robinson, Senior Research Fellow, University of the West Indies
- Speech
Karol Jakubowicz, Vice-Chairman, Steering Committee on the Mass Media, Council of Europe
- Speech
Ihron Rensburg, South African Broadcasting Corporation
- Speech
Sidiki N'Fa Konate, Directeur Général de l'Office de RadioTélévision du Mali
- Speech
Ian Morrison, spokesman, Canadian Friends of Broadcasting
Programme
-
Opening remarks by Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO's Assistant Director General for communication and information
-
Chair: Elizabeth Smith, Secretary-General, Commonwealth Broadcasting Association
1. Public Service Broadcasting: Challenges and perspectives/Promoting PSB in digital age: Principles, best practices and guidelines
Moderator:
-
Vladimir Gaï, Communication Development Division, UNESCO
Speakers:
- Karol Jakubowicz, Council of Europe
- Sidiki N'Fa Konaté, Director General, Radiodiffusion Television du Mali
- Elizabeth Smith, CBA
- Ihron Rensburg, South Africa Broadcasting Corporation
2. Public Service Broadcasting for education, cultural diversity and social inclusion/Public Service Broadcasting and citizenship in
the Information Society
Moderator:
Speakers:
-
Javad Mottaghi, Director, Asia-Pacific Institute of Broadcasting Development
-
Claude Robinson, researcher, University of the West Indies
-
Ian Morrison, spokesman, Canadian Friends of Broadcasting
^top
Report
In the framework of the World Electronic Media Forum, UNESCO organized a workshop on Public Service Broadcasting.
Elizabeth SMITH, Secretary General of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, chaired the workshop, which was
attended by almost 150 media professionals and representatives of the civil society. Claude ROBINSON, researcher,
University of the West Indies, acted as rapporteur. It was decided to merge four initially planned panels into two.
Vladimir GAI, Chief of Section, Communication Development Division, UNESCO was moderator of the first panel dealing
with challenges and prospects for PSB in digital age as well as principles, best practices and guidelines and Ihron
RENSBURG, Managing Director- SABC Education and Regulatory Affairs, representing also Southern African Broadcasting
Association (SABA) was moderator of the second panel, which dealt with the issues related to PSB for education,
cultural diversity and social inclusion as well as PSB and Citizenship in the Information Society.
A common theme running though the workshop was that strong, politically independent, competitive and universally available
Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) was essential to addressing the needs of audiences as citizens and the disparities in
access to information within and between societies.
An observation by Waheed Abdul KHAN, UNESCO Assistant Director General for Communication and Information, at the
start of the workshop that PSB was under threat from both commercial interests and political interference or
indifference was supported by participants, although the nature and intensity of the threat varied in different
regions of the world. PSB was said to be in a state of crisis, at least for the past decade.
Elizabeth Smith noted that - broadly speaking - the crisis in developing countries was a manifestation of state
control as well as poverty and weak advertising markets that cannot sustain viable broadcasting systems.
 Karol JAKUBOWICZ, Vice-chairman, Steering Committee on the Mass Media, Council of Europe noted that in Europe the
commercial broadcasting sector was at the vanguard of a campaign to isolate PSB "into an analogue ghetto", undermine
its financial viability and relegate it to content that the commercial sector found unrewarding. If PSB was undermined
in Western Europe, he said, its development "will be fatally weakened" in the rest of the world that has drawn motivation
and standards from the Western Europe model.
Sidiki N'fa KONATE, of Radiodiffusion Television du Mali, emphasised Africa's particular institutional challenge
where plurality and freedom and democracy were not widely practised values and so public authorities do not have
"a real will" to develop independent PSB. There was the related "challenge of mentalities" as journalists who are
poorly paid and trained and who have worked only in the context of the single party and centralised state were
unlikely practitioners of PSB.
Ihron Rensburg, of the SABC, noting that many state broadcasting systems in Africa were ready for "capture by private
sector interests'', raised the fundamental question: Are traditional values and standards for PSB too burdensome in an
environment of aggressive and robust competition? SABC, for instance, was being required by regulators to increase
significantly its local content in a context of less public funding and new competition through convergence.
Javad MOTTAGHI of the Asia-Pacific Institute of Broadcasting Development reported that the Asian region was uniquely
characterized by hyper-commercialisation: Advertising rate was growing at a galloping 60% (compared to 2% in Western
Europe and 0.5% in North America). And while technology was offering unlimited number of channels there was growing
concern about choice of content because of market consolidation. The number of media companies has plunged from 700
in 1960 to 80 in 1980 and 10 in 2000 and by 2010 "there might be just three left".
Claude Robinson, media researcher at the University of the West Indies, reported that in the Caribbean government-owned
stations have historically lacked political independence, editorial autonomy, public accountability and financial
stability which weakened their capacity to contribute to public education, cultural diversity and social inclusion.
Ian MORRISON of Friends of Canadian broadcasting, focused on the "citizenship role" of PSB, arguing that a way to evaluate
the health of democracy in our various societies was to measure the "balance" between public service and private broadcasting:
Weak PSB is an indicator of lower participation by citizens in "shaping the forces that influence their lives".
^top
Conclusions, Solutions
Despite the challenges, the panellists and participants in the workshop insisted that there was an important continuing role
for PSB as the only broadcast model not predicated on the basic principle of delivering audience to advertiser. PSB was also
seen as important to ensuring access to networks and services, setting standards, promoting quality and diversity.
To meet the challenges, PSB supporters must first reject the view that its marginalisation was inevitable, while recognizing
that most governments and regulators seem to have a presumption in favour of private broadcasting. So a first requirement,
nationally and internationally, was to "make the case" for public resource and institutional protection for PSB through a
robust public debate.
Another big challenge was to create awareness in policy makers that there was a place for genuine public broadcasting.
And here, there were some hopeful signs. In Asia, for instance, policy makers are now discussing PSB models, a complete
reversal from the prevailing view only four years ago.
Institutionally, there is UNESCO's strategy of support for PSB which includes strengthening editorial independence,
sensitising governments to the role and value of PSB and assisting PSB entities acquire and use information and communications
technology. And Elizabeth Smith outlined programmes of the CBA that can help developing countries make the transition from state
to public broadcasting, and disentangle media from government. The road map includes guidelines for editorial independence
designed to assist public service broadcasting organisations.
It was recognised that in countries that cannot afford PSB, or where the commercial sector was engaged in public service
programming, it was important to develop public-private partnerships. But there are limits to this 'distributive public
service model'. What makes PSB unique was the overall program schedule, not the occasional public service offering.
In any event, a private broadcaster with the fundamental remit to maximise profit, may choose-at any time-to opt out of
public broadcasting.
It is only the public service broadcaster that is obliged to guarantee programming around information, culture, education
and social inclusion that is easily and universally available.
The participants to the Workshop approved Recommendations and a Statement.
^top
Recommendations
adopted by the participants to the workshop on Public Service Broadcasting organized by UNESCO in the framework of the
World Electronic Media Forum Geneva, 11 December 2003
Public service broadcasting - one of the key socio-political and media institutions developed in the 20th century - should be
preserved in a form suited to the conditions of the 21st century. Civil societies should be supported in their quest to turn PSB
into a civil society institution for all citizens, independent from both political ties and commercial bias, rather than an adjunct
to the political elite. Editorial freedom, universality of content and access, high quality, accountability and distinctiveness
should be fostered. National and international policy, legal, institutional and financial frameworks for PSB should be modernized.
New ways should be explored to attract social funding into PSB organizations, now often severely under-financed.
PSB should reflect the multi-ethnic and multicultural nature of contemporary societies and spread awareness of multi-dimensional
political citizenship. They should provide universal access to information and knowledge through quality and diverse content,
particularly creative local content, reflecting the needs, concerns and expectations of the various target audiences, help develop
the global public sphere as a forum for debate on policy issues; promote cultural diversity, as well as to enhance its educational function.
PSB should retain generalist terrestrial channels to maintain their relationship with the audience and to perform a cultural and social role.
These could be complemented by 'free-to-air' specialised channels offering thematic services or relevant to minority and social groups. PSB
should be present on all significant digital platforms and offer the audience an online "personalized public service". PSB should assume
responsibility for promoting digital inclusion by offering their content through the Internet and other interactive media to attract users to
them; promoting cultural and linguistic diversity in the on-line environment, as well as digital media literacy.
PSB should be supported legally, technically and financially in the context of digitalization. Funding arrangements should take
into account that migration of production infrastructure and equipment from analog to digital is expensive.
Professional organizations should promote internationally recognized PSB principles, guidelines and best practices.
In a time of fast, all-encompassing change, PSB is necessary for public debate, to ensure social and democratic cohesion and solidarity
in dealing with new challenges, to reinforce existing identities and project emerging new national or regional identities.
PSB should actively seek to involve everyone in the Information Society. It should be strengthened as a counterweight to globalisation
and concentration of media markets and assisted in developing forms of international cooperation.
PSB should actively seek and encourage the advice of civil society associations in the determination of policies and
priorities for programming.
^top
"Public Service Broadcasting Today and Tomorrow"
Statement adopted by the participants to the workshop on Public Service Broadcasting, organized by UNESCO in the framework of
the World Electronic Media Forum, Geneva, 11 December 2003
The participants to the Workshop on Public Service Broadcasting, having exchanged their views and experiences on a number
of highly significant topics, have decided to supplement their Recommendations to the World Summit on Information Society
with the following Statement on Public Service Broadcasting Today and Tomorrow:
Decision makers should be encouraged to transform state broadcasting into an open public service broadcasting;
Where PSB has been established but has been surrounded with obstacles from meeting its objectives, its independence should
be safeguarded and its performance upgraded;
PSB should be made adaptable to the technological, social and cultural changes constantly developing within the information society.
A public broadcasting system detached from state influence is absolutely essential to disseminate impartial and diverse information.
An independent and well-performing public broadcasting system examines public issues with an incisively critical eye by providing
programmes that include public debate, cultural expressions and educational programming aside from entertainment.
PSB should unfailingly render service to individuals, communities and societies in order to contribute to a shared political,
social and cultural frame of reference and bring about social cohesion among different peoples. This form of PSB, which meets
its audience not only as consumers but as citizens, binds democratic societies and develops national identity and cultural preservation.
PSB must be taken as an indispensable force in the enlightenment and education of the general public and therefore, it should contain a
high proportion of original domestic production boasting of local content, be adequately funded and publicly accountable.
Radio and television at the service of the public are the nation's largest educational, societal and cultural institutions
and their reliability should be maintained at all costs. With this in mind, it is compulsory for PSB to appeal to both mass
audiences and special interest groups, to serve national interest while keeping its institutional independence and integrity.
It is important for PSB to be flexible and adaptable to the new demands of the rapidly-evolving information society. This includes
dealing with the future of the electronic media and the various changes it presents in the fields of technology, market and consumer
behaviours and regulation. New audiovisual and information technologies should be integrated in any PSB system, particularly in this
era of digitalisation. If PSB remains static in the midst of the digital revolution, it will cease to exist not only in its form but
most importantly, in its function as a public service. Public service broadcasters need to reorganise themselves to suit the emerging
environment and adjust to the new ways of working in their productions, especially in the growing use of multimedia. It is rather
imperative that public service broadcasters be strongly supported in this context by endowing them with legal, technical and
financial security to remain stable against competitive pressures from private broadcasters. PSB should not, however, use public
funding to distort competition, from which it also reaps substantial profits.
At present there is the urgent need for a futuristic media policy, especially in freeing PSB from market isolation. Commercial
entities dominate more and more information delivery networks and digital gateways. It is only pragmatic for PSB organizations to
commence alliances and cooperation with them for the sake of holding important segments of the audience, without compromising its
own entity of being a non-commercial institution.
Although PSB should be adjusted to the media environment today, it remains crucial for it to retain its identity and distinctiveness
of rendering public service. This should be the most essential cause of our fight for the continuous existence of public service
broadcasting tomorrow.
Notes for a Broadcasters' Action Plan
- Public Service Broadcasting (PSB) must be recognized as an indispensable force in the Information Society, contributing to a shared political, social and cultural frame of reference and bringing about social cohesion as well as public debate of central issues.
- Multi-ethnicity and cultural diversity are among the principal elements of the PSB remit in the 21st century.
- Decision makers should transform state broadcasting into editorially independent PSB.
- PSB, while remaining true to its identity and distinctiveness, must be allowed the flexibility to adapt to new demands ; it must not be barred from thematic channels and new media complementing its all-purpose offer.
- Media policies should establish an appropriate and secure funding framework which guarantees PSB the means necessary to accomplish its remit, with the necessary safeguards to ensure that public funds are not used to distort competition.
Guillaume Chenevière, Executive Director of the WEMF
Resources
^top
|
