government, says that the minister has to agree to the appointment of the CEO – thus giving the executive arm of government the final say on the person who will also be responsible for editorial decisions. Journalists within SABC seem to enjoy a considerable degree of independence but there is the perception that many of them “have internalised what politicians think” and practise self-censorship: “There are journalists caught up in the problematic history of poor governance and poor management of the SABC. They had been caught in the crossfire of faction fighting within the ruling party [which led to the resignation of Thabo Mbeki as president in 2008]. They are still recovering from that period so the remnants of that has a knock-on effect,” pointed out a panellist. There seems to be a shared vision amongst decision makers in the management of the SABC that the mandate of the public broadcaster is nation building and that “bad news” always have to be balanced with “good news”. This feeds into the perception that the SABC is not a broadcaster serving the public at large but a corporation which is biased towards the government. News bulletins and current affairs coverage on radio and on television are remarkably different. While the radio newsroom staff obviously seeks to follow professional standards of journalism, their television counterpart seems to be influenced by political considerations as well. There is a tendency to look for a positive spin on many stories especially when government is involved. The SABC’s news coverage is narrow in terms of topics and more so in terms of geographical location, with the majority of stories focused on issues and events in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The broadcaster’s poor performance in this area is aggravated by a lack of professionalism, skill and capacity. There is a perception that English television news bulletins are more ‘critical’ while the same news in African languages is more ‘moderate’. Bulletins in African languages cover more community and labour topics while international news are accorded more (though still very little) airtime in English bulletins. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER SOUTH AFRICA 2010 49