regulation

Communications Minister, Roy Padayachie, has told civil society bodies and the Congress of South African Trade Unions that he is committed to scrapping the controversial Public Service Broadcasting Bill and initiating a review process which will start from scratch with public consultation.

Padayachie’s comments come after the Democratic Alliance’s appeal to the minister not to hold discussions on the existing bill, which never went through a white paper process or having involved any public consultation.

The Department of Communications, the South African Broadcasting Cooperation (SABC) and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) have presented strategy plans to Parliament's portfolio committee on communications to resolve outstanding issues ahead of a budget vote.
 
The DOC has a budget vote coming up and the portfolio committee wants to finalise their financial plans and organisational structures. But today's presentations did not go the way it had hoped.  The DOC added two more branches to its structure but did not present its financial plan.

The governor of Mozambique’s central province of Zambezia has threatened to expel foreign NGOs that are operating ‘illegally’ in the region.
 
Governor Itae Meque accuses these NGOs for failing to provide information to the relevant authorities concerning their activities.
 
Meque argues that most of these NGOs enter the country and begin working in communities, but fail to improve the living standards.
 

The United States of America has issued its annual Human Rights Report, voicing concern among other things, about an impending law to regulate NGOs.

US assistant secretary of state, Michael Posner, says the law will make it harder for civil society to operate and could run counter to the nation’s constitution.

Posner says Cambodia is among some 90 other countries that have adopted laws or regulations that will potentially curtail rights of civic organisations.

The Iranian parliament has been urged to scrap draft legislation that would place restrictions on the independence of NGOs.
 
According to Amnesty International, the law would require that all NGOs operating in the country register with ‘a new and unaccountable body’ that has links with the Intelligence Ministry and the Basij volunteer paramilitary force.
 

Former Constitutional Court, Judge Kate O'Regan, has warned that the media need to be reflexive in applying their important role in keeping society democratic, and that the judicial landscape is working to ensure their freedom.

Speaking at the opening of the Regulations and Rights conference at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, O'Regan warned that media needs to wield its power carefully.