Peer review for African Public Broadcasters

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Peer review for African Public Broadcasters
Session Legitimacy, the public broadcaster and
the public agenda. How do public broadcasters
establish their identity?

• Guy Berger
• Conference Global media, culture and tomorrows
  challenges. PBI, Maputo, 21-22 September, 2006

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STAY TUNED

• Aping the APRM
• Whys and wherefores
• How to handle
• By whom?
• Anticipating objections and risks
• So what?

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1

• Africa APRM

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APRM African self-monitoring mechanism

• OAU?AU ended the taboo on sovereignity.
• APRM agreed by Nepad Heads of State, 2002.
• Voluntary Almost half African governments have
  signed up.
• Self-assessment with stakeholders, by African
  experts.
• Process is independent and professional.
• Produces a public report plus recommendations for
  improvements.

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Relevant features

• Accepts different baselines as starting points.
  Not 1 size all.
• Focuses on Nepad priority areas such as
• strengthening institutions of democracy and human
  rights,
• improving budgeting and financial performance,
• promotion of rights enshrined in African and
  International HR instruments.

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APRM wheres its value?

• Identifies areas for strengthening.
• Promotes best practice.
• Good for credibility.
• Can be used to persuade development partners to
  support recommendations.
• Builds African unity and pride.

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Limits from PBS p.o.v.

• APRM does not see media issues as part of good
  governance.
• Missing from its standards which include
  various international and African declarations
  is the 2002 Freedom of Expression declaration by
  African Commission on Human and Peoples rights.

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Declaration on Free Expression

• This standard says PSBs should
• account to the public through the legislature
  rather than government,
• be governed by a board protected against
  interference,
• have guaranteed editorial independence
• have adequate funding and in a manner that
  protects them from arbitrary interference
• strive to ensure that their transmission system
  covers the whole territory of the country and
• have a clear public service ambit including an
  obligation to ensure politically balanced
  information, particularly during election
  periods.

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APRM silence on PBS

• The APRM says its team should consult with,
  amongst others, civil society including media.
• And it mentions as one indicator the
  effectiveness of independent media in informing
  the public and providing freedom of expression.
• BUT it does not specifically deal with PBS, which
  is not civil society, nor is it exactly in the
  camp of independent media.
• There is thus a need and an opportunity!

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Significance in context

• Transition from GBS to PBS
• Some stranded in civil service mode
• Challenge of commercialisation
• Challenge of competition
• Ongoing needs for PSB democratic role
  (impartial), languages, health, imaging the
  continent.

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2

• Why an APRM for PBSs?

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Towards a normative consensus

• A Peer Review Mechanism would set out clear
  agreed standards for PBS in African conditions.
• Assessing would be against these standards
• NOT a beauty contest to be the best PBS in
  Africa. It is a sharing by peers, not a
  collaboration between competitors.
• A degree of benchmarking becomes possible,
  although each PBS ultimately is judged in terms
  of its own mandate.
• Comprehensive and helpful self-, social- and
  external- audit.

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Objective of an APRM

• Foreground uncontestable standards and elicit
  decent data.
• Should be no dispute objective process.
• Issue then is how to use this for improvements,
  and when to repeat.
• It builds upon, but is different to,
  International Benchmarking process, Certimedia,
  and other systems.

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Maputo Bdcast Reform Initiative

• 14 16 August 2006
• Attention should be given towards establishing an
  African Public Broadcasting Peer Review Mechanism
  (APPRM),
• This mechanism should be voluntary and with
  criteria and review team based on consensus
  amongst those public broadcasters that sign up.
• The process would, like the APRM, proceed with a
  national self-assessment that would draw in
  stakeholders like parliamentarians, NGOs,
  governments, public broadcasting bodies and
  journalists.

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3

• Heres how
• Generic points
• Broadcasters
• PBS
• African PBS

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GENERIC Drawing from APRM

• Good Corporate Governance has seven
  distinguishing characteristics discipline,
  transparency, independence, accountability,
  responsibility, fairness and social
  responsibility.
• APRM develops indicators accordingly.
• These are all relevant to PBSs.

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Link to TQM principles

• Customer focus
• Leadership
• Empowerment
• Process approach
• Systemic approach
• Continuous improvement
• Decisions based on facts
• Relationship with suppliers mutually beneficiary

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Self- Assessment Tool Management system (sample)
Not At All /Never
Very Strong / Always
Strong / Often
Small / Sometimes
1- Have you defined in writing the Mission of
your company?
2- Is it appropriately deployed in operational
objectives and action plans?
3- Are there meetings between the personnel and
the management on a regular basis?
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Self- Assessment Tool Human Resources (sample)
Not At All /Never
Very Strong / Always
Strong / Often
Small / Sometimes
1- Is there job descriptions in place for all the
personnel?
2- Is there a formal system in place for the
yearly evaluation of performance?
3- Is the training of the personnel well adapted
to the needs?
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BROADCASTING Certimedia

• This review standard does not judge actual
  content but what lies behind the output i.e. a
  broadcasters systems and processes.
• How each broadcaster organises itself to meet the
  standards of such systems is up to each
  institution to decide.

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Certimedias ISAS BC 9001

• Inspired by ISO 90012000

• 152 questions in total

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It measures how you meet

• Universal access
• Audience and citizen participation
• Avoidance of one-sided reporting and programming
  in regard to religion, politics, culture, race
  and gender.
• If there is a code for programmes and an
  editorial charter, a code for advertising and a
  code of ethics.
• How the broadcaster secures its independence from
  economic or political interests
• Commitment to promoting local, regional and
  national cultures
• Mechanisms to promote respect of minorities and
  pluralistic information.

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SOUTH AFRICA ...
Providers
Users
TOTAL
Experts
92
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1- Social Relevance
30
40
59
2- Quality of Information
22
37
3- Audience Satisfaction
33
11
9
13
29
4- Independence Transparency
29
17
5- Proximity to Cultural Identities
9
5
3
15
6- Diversity of Contents
15
15
7- Accessibility to the Media
12
3
8
8- Competence of Broadcaster Staff
8
7
9- Vision, Values, Mission
0
7
7
10- Creation Innovation
7
11- Ethics Policies
6
1
5
0
12- Corporate Social Investment
6
6
13- Participation Interactivity
6
6
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Some Certimedia indicators
1- Independence Transparency
12- Education
2- Ethics Policies
13- Participation Interactivity
3- Minority Representation Proximity
14- Pluralism
15- World Perspective
4- Audience Satisfaction
16- Competence of Staff
5- Accessibility to the Media
17- Corporate Social Investment
6- Innovation Creation
7- Quality of Information
18- Religion
8- Social Relevance
19- Programmes Scheduling
9- Diversity of Contents
20- Women Empowerment
10- Quality of Contents
21- Quality of Equipment
11- Citizen Empowerment
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Mix of generic bdcast specific

• Section 4.1 of ISO 90012000 shall be applied.
• Specific requirements for broadcasters
• The broadcaster shall identify and document all
  the critical processes having a direct impact on
• The quality of the contents of the broadcast
  programs (from design to audience feed-back)
• The relationship with the National Regulation
  Authority and/or the Government
• The relationship with advertisers
• The relationship with suppliers
• The measurement of audience numbers and
  satisfaction
• The management of human resources

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7.5.1 Control of production and service
provision

• Section 7.5.1 of ISO 90012000 shall be applied.
• Specific requirements for broadcasters
• The broadcasting company shall establish and
  maintain quality dash-boards giving a clear
  picture of the evolution of the following KPIs
• Diversity of programs contents sorted in three
  main categories information, education and
  entertainment
• National Regulation Authority complaints
• Quality of technical equipment
• Participation rate of citizens and civil society,
  level of interactivity and citizen empowerment
  efforts in the broadcast programs
• Social usefulness including women empowerment,
  cultural promotion, cultural diversity, religion,
  etc. of broadcast programmes.

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PBS as a particular broadcaster

• We must design evaluation mechanisms for the
  public broadcaster suited to its obligations,
  which are not those of commercial broadcasters.
  This leads us to question ratings as a means of
  evaluation.
• World Radio Television Council

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PBS International Bench-marking (8 countries
2001-2)

• KPIs comparable across each broadcaster
• measurable and reliable with data available for
  each broadcaster
• relevant to each broadcasters activities.
• 4 categories of benchmarks for broadcast
• Quality
• Distinctiveness
• Efficiency
• Universality

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ABC performance irt the International
Benchmarking Group.
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CBC Special Examination report

• By the Office of the Auditor General into
• Strategic planning risk management
• Service to Canadians
• People management
• Capital assets
• Support services

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Results of the OAG review

• There are shortcomings in the Corporations
  external accountability structure, its governance
  relationships and its performance information.
• It is feasible to measure the distinctiveness,
  and CBC should develop such a measurement
  framework.
• Internal culture needs attention.

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AFRICAN PBSs

• A peer review is not a certification system, a
  benchmarking, nor an OAG audit.
• But it can profitably draw from these.
• Need to add African specifics
• Contribution to languages
• HiV-Aids policies
• Xenophobia policies
• Educative-developmental
• Training and tech policies

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And refer to African Standards

• African Charter on Freedom of Expression
• African Charter on Broadcasting
• SADC election standards ( Misa-SABA declaration)

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Africa Media Barometer (FES)

• African Commission Declaration
• Standard The public broadcaster accounts to the
  public through a board representative of society
  at large and selected in an independent, open and
  transparent manner.
• Indicators
• Persons who have vested interests of a political
  or commercial nature are excluded from possible
  membership in the board, i.e. office bearers with
  the state and political parties as well as those
  with a financial interest in the broadcasting
  industry.
• Editorial independence guaranteed by law and
  practised.

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4

• By whom?

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UNESCO/WRTVC/FES/ AIBD International Workshop on
PSB best practices evaluation, monitoring and
standards. 2005

• Monitoring and evaluation should cover the way
  PSB is actually implementing its mission as
  defined in the legal texts.
• Evaluation should be done by the broadcasters
  themselves and/or by external bodies.
• There should be explicit rules and institutions
  both for internal and external evaluation.
• A code of conduct should exist both for internal
  and external evaluations.

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UNESCO/WRTVC/FES/ AIBD Workshop cntd.

• The membership of the external bodies should be
  made up of independent persons serving the public
  interest, including experts and representatives
  of civil society.
• The instruments of monitoring and evaluation
  should be manifold, professional and valid. They
  may include the voices of the viewers and
  listeners, staff, public hearings, expert
  judgments, and benchmark tests.

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APRMs people

• Committee of participating countries
• Panel of Eminent Persons
• Secretariat
• Country review team
• Not consultants
• Not foreign
• Involves public transparent process

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APRM stages

• Secretariat visits country, MoU agreed.
• Two entities collect info and exchange.
• Country review team visits.
• Then report and govt response.
• Both go to APR Forum, which discusses and gives
  results to the country concerned.
• Report will recommend follow up and dates for
  checking progress.
• Report then made public.
• Secretariat holds workshops on best practice
• Baseline data for subsequent APRM

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Legitimacy irt PSB

• Take into consideration the needs and
  expectations of all the stakeholders
• Audience /Viewers
• Personnel of the broadcasting company
• Shareholders
• Advertisers
• Sub-contractors
• Citizens, Civil Society
• National Regulation Authority
• Government
• Parliament
• Judiciary

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5

• no!
• what if

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Possible problems

• Objections
• this is outside interference
• bias is likely
• fear of criticism
• something to hide
• Risk of report legitimising poor practices
• the politics of how it is played can defeat
  objectives.
• whether there is good faith, or whether PBSs see
  this as mainly a PR exercise

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6

• So what?

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Historic chance

• A unique credible process.
• Can leapfrog for progress.
• Homegrown definitions control.
• Help identify how to deal with environment of
  deregulation and pluralism.
• Enabling rather than prescriptive.
• Help give better public service.

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AIBD Seminar, Bangkok, 2004Recommendations
regarding Legal, Ethical, Financial and
Administrative Aspects of PSB

• Recommendation
• The international community should be requested
  to take into account whether the above conditions
  (independence and editorial independence GB)
  are met when considering providing assistance to
  public broadcasters.
• Peer review can do!

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Bold steps needed

• To develop or improve a legitimate identity as a
  valued PBS in each country.
• This is a window of opportunity but it will not
  stay open forever.
• PBS leadership need to champion it.
• Too busy? Save yourself time in the longterm!
• Too doubtful? Do it for the interests of PSB!

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• Thank you!