SECTOR 3 Incorporation, which dealt with the Minister’s ability to appoint or remove the SABC’s top executives. While the Minister of Communication used to exercise a veto over the top candidates of the board (Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operations Officer, Chief Financial Officer), it has been established now that the SABC board itself will appoint these executive directors. ‘The current board is looking good, but it is early days.’ Panellists were not in agreement about paying board members and some felt that the payment compromised their role. It was noted that during 2017, 3.2 million ZAR (200,000 USD) was spent on paying interim board members at the SABC for 99 meetings they held over six months. While this was felt to be high by some, it was noted by another panellist that the board ‘worked its tail off to resolve the Hlaudi [Motsoeneng] mess and massive amounts of work were done by the interim board’. The current board is also, apparently, working ‘around the clock to try to resolve the situation’. ‘The SABC, with 21 radio stations and three television stations, is a multi-billionrand operation. If you don’t offer to pay board members, you won’t get good people who often don’t have the time to put themselves forward for work such as this.’ Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: ✓✓ ✓✓✓ ✓✓ ✓✓ ✓✓ ✓ 3.6 (2013: 2.1; 2010: 3.1; 2008: 2.9; 2006: 4.6) 3.5 The editorial independence of the state/public broadcaster from political influence is guaranteed by law and practised to ensure balanced and fair news and current affairs programmes The editorial independence of the SABC is guaranteed by law; Section 6 of the Broadcasting Act provides for the SABC to enjoy ‘freedom of expression and journalistic, creative and programming independence as enshrined in the constitution’, but panellists felt this was not practised and that news and current affairs programmes, in particular, tended to be biased towards the ruling party. The protest issue was mentioned as a case in point, in which former COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng attempted to ban all reporting on violent protests. 40 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER SOUTH AFRICA 2018