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MMA gives SABC thumbs up in elections coverage interim report

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Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) has given the SABC a thumbs up in its elections coverage leading up to the 2019 National and Provincial Elections. In its interim report released on Monday, MMA has noted an increase in fair reporting and more balanced representations of the demographics of the country.

It notes, “While some improvements are still needed, such as in the accessing of female sources, these interim results are highly encouraging for the SABC and for our impending elections.”

The interim report aims to give a brief overview of the type of coverage presented by SABC services during the 2019 elections period this far.

The report monitored all major news stations, including radio, television and SABC Online, across 10 of South Africa’s official languages.

A total of 983 elections items were assesses in compiling the report, which looked at whose voices where heard; which groups were accessed in the coverage; how political parties fared; gender and race breakdowns, as well as fairness coverage as opposed to bias, among other issues.

“The spread of coverage is a positive shift from the MMA’s analysis in 2016 where we found some services clearly favouring the ANC and clearly disfavouring the EFF and DA. These interim results for 2019 thus point to a clear effort by the SABC to afford equitable and diverse coverage to the political parties participating in the 2019 elections,” reads the report in part.

As far as racial representation is concerned in the SABC’s coverage thus far, the report notes while Black and White sources are fairly represented, the marginalisation of the Coloured people and their voices seems to be an ongoing anomaly.

“In this case, we can see that Black and White Sources are accessed largely in line with their size in South Africa’s populations sitting at 80% and 8%, according to StatsSA, respectively. Critically, thought, Coloured voices only comprise half as much as they should be accessed (population: 8%) and this speak to the ongoing marginalisation of Coloured people, their voices and their views. Repeated calls have been made across the country to recognise the rights of Coloured people.”

Interestingly, Indian voices were, however, over represented – although the report attributes this to sourcing current Minister of Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan – and the recurring mentions of the Gupta brothers, Aja, Tony, and Rajesh, at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture which is ongoing.

The SABC was, however, not spared for its patriarchal biases which seem to give priority to male voices as opposed to female ones.

Men, according to the report, comprised an overwhelming 83% of all sources, despite making up less than 49% of those living in the country, which is also a global trend.

The report has marked a decrease in systemic bias reporting towards the 2019 general elections as compared to the 2016 Municipal Elections, at a meagre 2%.

The next report will be released after elections day.

Read the full report below:



SABC InterimReport v2 (Text)

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