Madam Chair, I will present the three reports at the same time and not one by one. They are for the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, the Northern Cape, the Free State and Sea Point in the Western Cape.
All that I am going to say is that this report, which we have submitted as a committee, appears in the Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports, ATCs, and is brief enough. I hope that members also went through this particular report.
I want to talk about a few issues which emanate from the reports, which, I think, are very important to highlight. The first issue is in relation to the community media in terms of which government took a decision that we must have these forms of community media so that, indeed, we diversify the views out there in our communities. However, we want to continue to make the appeal that that decision be followed by action.
We have noticed, as a committee, that government continues to use the mainstream media to advertise, even when these forms of mainstream media do not circulate, with community newspapers or the community radios. I hope that situation will improve as we move forward.
Parliament is not done with this challenge because as committees we are limited to advertising in two national newspapers - and that excludes the community media. I think that Parliament has to look at its policy and change it. We believe that community media need to be supported even by Parliament. We can no longer be confined to two national newspapers. Community media must be utilised. [Applause.]
The last issue I want to raise is the tariffs which are paid by community radio and community TV stations. We are dealing with the matter. We have recommended that we review the tariffs in terms of the legislation. This is because, currently, community TV and community radio stations are unfairly charged the same amount as the commercial broadcasters and so on.
We hope that this recommendation will go a long way towards the sustainability of community radio and community TV. Thanks very much, Chairperson. [Applause.]
There was no debate.