ELECTIONS VII: Free MBC!
25.10.2014
As well as a Freedom of Information Act, so that ordinary people can get access to any data on themselves held by the State, there is also a need to free the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation, itself. When we say “free” the MBC, we mean that people should get less biased access to information, and that different political currents should all get fair coverage. As LALIT member Roland Fozoo put it in the Lalit “YouTube Channel”, working people contribute enormously every month to the MBC: Rs150 by some 360,000 households (according to the last Census) of which at least 300,000 are working families. That means the working class contributes a monthly sum of Rs45 million per month or half a billion rupees per year. And yet working class politics and social organizations are marginalized terribly. The language spoken by 9 out of 10 people, is also marginalized.
Every month the CEB makes everyone pay the MBC Rs150 for the right to have a television. Even if people do not look at the MBC, we all have to pay. It is like a tax. And it is a regressive tax, in that poor people pay a larger proportion of their earnings to the MBC than the rich. And yet the voice of the bosses is very strong on TV. The bosses gain additional control by contributing in terms of paid commercial advertisements on TV. And the regime runs the “political line” of the MBC as if it were part of the party in power. There is absolutely no democratic control whatsoever.
MBC News broadcasts are a total disaster. It is propaganda, a-la-Nazi Germany for the party in power. This tendency has, if anything, got worse since Dan Callikan took over as head of the MBC.
When Labour and the MMM signed their political agreement, for example the MBC actually did a “montage” with jingle and symbols and all.
It is the Prime Minister, as Minister of Information, who names the Director General and the Chairman and other Board Members. Under the new “Second Republic” that Ramgoolam and Bérenger are threatening us with, it will be one of the new powers of the unchecked “President” who will nominate them. So, they will continue, perhaps even more so, to be accountable to the Executive and not to the public. The projected President will not even be accountable to Parliament, as the Prime Minister, despite everything, is.
Not only does the MBC impose pro-regime blinkers on the eyes of all TV audiences, but it also prevents the proper intellectual and creative functioning of the MBC staff, who are always scared of the internal censor. Guests on TV also live in fear of this constant censorship.
LALIT proposes the transformation of the MBC into a number of independent TV Stations. Even the BBC has regional Audience Councils. We propose that 3/4 of the Board of the MBC be elected by all those who pay their Rs150 for TV every month. And this must be introduced with the right of recall of Board Members, including the Chairman.
This Board will then choose a Director, who will be responsible for maintaining the fair representation of different political currents that exist at the grass roots, on the basis of objective measures. This more democratic Board will also take complains and suggestions from the audience.
