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SABC to launch 24h news channel
18/07/2007 11:38 - (SA)
Isaac Mangena
Johannesburg - South Africa's public broadcaster will this week launch a rolling news network which aims to provide a uniquely African perspective in a market previously dominated by Western broadcasters.
SABC News International will be officially launched by President Thabo Mbeki on July 20, broadcasting from the corporation's headquarters in Johannesburg with correspondents filing from both home and abroad.
In common with other players in an increasingly crowded market, the channel will have bureaus in major centres of power such as Washington, London and Brussels.
But for viewers who are fed up with the Western bias from English language broadcasters including BBC World and CNN, the new channel can also boast bureaux in less prominent capitals such as Nairobi, Kinshasa and Dakar.
"SABC News is sure to deliver news from an African perspective, not only regarding developments within our continent, but to international news as well," said Snuki Zikalala, SABC's head of news and current affairs.
Provide a more rounded picture
African governments frequently complain coverage of the continent by Western news organisations is too negative, concentrating on issues such as conflict and famine and failing to provide a more rounded picture.
Zikalala said he expected the new channel would attract commercial interest from other African broadcasters which currently rely heavily on feeds from the BBC.
The channel "will form part of a broader and long-term plan of selling content to other broadcasters in Africa and beyond," he added in a statement to AFP.
The July 20 launch comes only a month and a half after CNBC launched an African version of its network devoted to financial and stock market news, illustrating a growing demand for information tailored to African needs.
In a recent speech to international editors in Cape Town, Mbeki urged journalists to show greater interest in African affairs.
"We appreciate that there are limits to keeping many news bureaux running in a huge and geographically challenging continent such as ours," he said.
Negative type-casting
"Nevertheless, we would still appeal: 'Come and see as much as you can!' Get to the heart of issues?For too long we have seen a negative type-casting of the continent."
Qatar-based Al-Jazeera has also recently started being beamed into African homes with content that promises to eschew the traditional Western bias and give a greater focus on events in the southern hemisphere.
Anton Harber, a professor in journalism studies at Johannesburg's Witwatersrand University, said the new channels could only help in telling the "infinite array" of stories about Africa.
"I think these are very positive steps towards improving the way the African story is told, and having Africans tell it themselves," Harber said.
"My concern is not so much that the view of Africa is positive or negative as much as that it is often simplistic and stereotyped. The more we get the world to understand the complexity of Africa, the better.
"There is not one story, but many, an infinite array. The point is to get the world to see our complexity and diversity and encourage a journalism that is nuanced and in-depth and cuts through the clichés."
Huge demand for information
The veteran journalist Allister Sparks, a former SABC news chief, said there was a demand-driven improvement of coverage of the continent.
"With the likes of Al-Jazeera, which has bureaux (around Africa) and is going out of its way to make sure the south is covered, Africa is now becoming very much important," Sparks told AFP.
"There's a huge demand for information because of the growth and demand of its resources, oil, and stock markets capturing the attention of the international world."
Zikalala was confident the channel would ultimately become cost-effective as a result of increasing demand for on-the-spot African news. SABC did not reply to questions about the size of the budget or journalist numbers.
The channel's launch comes at a time when SABC has faced flak over its news coverage, with Zikalala himself criticised in an internal report late last year over his management style and orders to keep government critics off the air.
Some experts remain to be convinced that SABC, which was little more than a propaganda arm of the government during the apartheid era, has yet developed a culture of professionalism which can enable it to compete with CNN and the BBC.
"I think it is going to be hard for the SABC to compete," said Harber.
"It has never before gone outside of its regular half-hour news slots and is not known for speed or dexterity. "There will be a lot to be learnt."
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