SECTOR 2

the presses for the various publications. It could also assist financially with the
maintenance of printing presses.
Broadcasting
Radio has the widest reach of any media in the country. According to All Media
Products Survey (AMPS) 90 per cent of South Africans listen to radio. The
broadcasting regulator ICASA says that as of March 2009, 96 community as well
as 13 commercial and 18 South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio
stations were licensed – with the SABC running stations in each of the official
languages. Commercial radio stations are centred in the major metropolitan areas
and broadcast primarily in English. Community radio stations are targeting both
geographic communities and/or special interest groups (e.g. faith communities)
and broadcast in a range of official and other local languages.
For their news services community radios too often rely on centralised sources
such as Newsflash, Media Online, SABC and the print media, while sometimes
all international news comes exclusively from Reuters. One panellist witnessed
a news reader logging on to the website of the Cape Times for the hourly news
service in a village in Limpopo province which is situated some 2000 km away
from Cape Town.
With a few exceptions, community radio stations cannot afford trained,
professional and experienced news teams. Instead they rely on young volunteers
who work at the station for short periods of time only, with each newcomer having
to be trained afresh. University and Technicon students doing a brief stint in the
newsrooms do not see the necessity of verifying information that is picked up in
other media.
According to Stats SA’s 2007 Community Service 65.6 per cent of households
owned a working television set. There are three national public television channels
(SABC), one national private free-to-air channel (e.tv), three community TV
stations and three subscription services.
Internet
Stats SA figures show that only 7.3 per cent of households had access to the
internet in 2007. Most newspapers and weeklies have online editions.
Access to the internet will increase substantially over the next few years with
more and more cell phones being capable to log into websites. Mobile phones
are very popular with 73 per cent of households owning such a device. Research
conducted in Grahamstown looked at household incomes and the amount spent
on cellphone airtime on a monthly basis. This was alarmingly high and often on
par with the monthly allocation for food.

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