Dr. Hopeton DunnAN IMPORTANT issue is the future of existing companies and agencies under the present information portfolio. On the face of it, there are two sets of agencies with related functions. There is the Creative Production and Training Centre (CPTC) and the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) on the one hand, and the Broadcasting Commission and the Cinematography Authority on the other. How these agencies ought to be structured in the future depends on how the 'Ministry' itself is organised.
CPTC and JIS
If its mission identifies its key focus in cultural development and public education, then CPTC becomes of central importance. If its focus identifies specifically with government information flow, then its front-line agency would be the JIS. It is tempting to see a merger of the two agencies as ideal for streamlining and resource reasons. But on closer examination, it may be recognised that the two carry out distinct and socially essential functions. The JIS is concerned with the dissemination of information about government's programmes and policies while the CPTC, as a limited liability company, addresses the historical, cultural and educational contexts, and showcases the creativity of the Jamaican people. When JIS was the Agency for Public Information and its role perceived as broader than government information, it operated at a closer level to the role of the CPTC. That it was restored to its present narrower focus, even while recently re-incorporating Jampress, suggests a more settled role in the service of government information flow. If the CPTC, as the smaller entity, is incorporated into JIS, its unique cultural role would be subsumed or a unique and vital social institution lost.
Maybe unity should continue to be in their common portfolio ministry and not in the combining of structures. At the same time, there are arguments in favour of the CPTC being again linked more closely to the portfolio of the Ministry of Education and Culture, particularly with educational broadcasting and cultural engagement with the youth. Of course, for the CPTC to survive under any portfolio it has to rigorously pursue its re-structuring and renewal in order to build a lean, fit and technically well equipped cultural unit for production and training. To do this, it needs to draw on its history of achievement, relevant linkages, strategic marketing both at home and abroad and the possibility of working with both the cable and broadcast sectors for public exposure of its productions and for increased income generation. Its survival, however, should not depend only on market forces, but should be buttressed by a permanent commitment of public resources towards achievement of its mandate.
Broadcasting Commission and the Cinematograph Authority
Currently, the Cinematograph Authority is concerned with classification and, in some cases, censorship of films before they are shown. The Broadcasting Commission oversees the observance of radio, TV and cable regulations, with breaches addressed after the transmission. The Commission and similar institutions around the world are keen not to be seen as censors but as regulators, working with licensees who are meant to be the first line of defence against breaches of regulations.
An important issue is whether cinema could be made to operate on the basis of regulation in the manner applied by the Commission, and broadcasting adopt an organised system of programme classification, as operates with cinema. On the basis of this prospect, the development of an integrated and independent Electronic Media Authority is envisaged, encompassing these two agencies. In the process, final decision-making about license applications, approvals and renewals as well as the application of sanctions for breaches of regulations by licensees would cease to reside with the Minister and be undertaken by the proposed independent authority, with an equally independent appeals process to the existing Appeals Tribunal. The role of the Minister should be in the provision of policy guidelines and legislation, and in the approval of recommendations for new regulations.
Broadcasting and Telecommunications
There are also issues relating to whether telecommunications and the electronic media should be regulated together, given convergence of technologies and services. At the moment, the basis for the separation of broadcasting from telecommunications appears unclear, except as a concession to tradition. It is sometimes argued that the separation is based on the roles of content distributors, as distinct from providers of the infrastructure for a wider range of signals. But Cable TV as it is evolving, is an excellent example of both content and carriage systems capable of distributing a wide range of telecommunications signals. Providers of cable TV as well as wireless subscriber TV are regulated in the Broadcasting Commission, and telecom providers are under the Office of Utilities Regulation (alongside water, electricity etc.) in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Technology.
As I have argued for a long time, the linkage of electronic media and telecommunications provides a better fit, than the latter's placement in the apparently heavily burdened OUR.
In less than three years time, cable TV providers will be empowered to offer their network for Internet-related services. Also, mobile video phones with Internet (the so-called WAP telephones), already carry content, some from traditional broadcasters (BBC in the UK, SABC in South Africa), leaving little room for separate institutional regulation, if required. It would seem reasonable if not inevitable, that the telecom functions of the OUR be integrated with the proposed new electronic media regulating body to create an expanded Electronic Media and Telecommunications Authority, as exists in Canada (the CRTC) and in the United States (the FCC).
Advertising on cable
The current policy of restricting Jamaican-produced advertising to the traditional broadcasting sector is in need of review. The basis of present policy is that cable should not be allowed two revenue sources, subscription and advertising, while broadcasting services just one: advertising. The analysis has to get more sophisticated than that. A study is needed in cost benefit balance for each sector and for the wider public. Foreign advertising is allowed on cable and STV services, but not Jamaican advertising. This puts the local advertisers and advertising agencies at a disadvantage, while giving an advantage to global level advertisers with products to market in Jamaica. The potential for the development of a local community cable sector, with local level programming is being stifled, as there is a demand and a need for these local programmes to be produced using the additional local level advertising resources. How far this would draw from the national level advertising for broadcast TV and radio is a basis for further study. Maybe the broadcasters ought to be encouraged to again apply for cable licenses either individually or collectively. If their applications were successful, as they were not in the past, this would help to level the playing field as far as revenue sources are concerned.
In any event, the existing policy of banning local advertising on cable is unsustainable for several other reasons:
What happens when cable providers start becoming Internet providers, with local Internet sites benefiting from local advertising?
What happens when an STV (cable) provider begins hosting a local marketing channel, selling Jamaican goods to a Jamaican audience, with the obvious need to advertise and promote these products?
What happens when advertising hits the WAP mobile phones carrying the Internet service provided by STV companies? Moreover, there is as yet no unambiguous definition of advertising. It runs the gamut from 'sponsorship', 'advertorials', promotions, outright product or service marketing to pornography. Technically, it may be difficult to verify what is 'advertising' in the present multimedia environment, until a test case establishes a likely definition.
Foreign ownership
This area remains in need of policy review and research. Whereas there is a basis to increase the level of foreign ownership in local media beyond the conventional 10 per cent, the idea of opening up ownership of local media to a possible 100 per cent foreign ownership is inappropriate and could represent a threat to local media businesses and public information flows. Although, with existing local ownership, local TV still carries mainly foreign content, there is a basis for expecting incremental growth in the local content as a business objective, given competition on cable for foreign content.
The local ownership of newspapers and radio already reflects in their character and content. Media, under this portfolio, should not go the way of telecommunications in the past, when dominant foreign ownership and monopoly control were officially allowed and now have to be reversed at great cost to the country. Foreign ownership of local media of up to 49 per cent is an acceptable level for attracting overseas investment to help re-capitalise the local media businesses.
Other issues and questions
There are many other issues, some of which I will simply identify for consideration.
What is the status of implementation of the RJR/GOJ Heads of Agreement on the sale of the JBC?
What is being done with the transmitters of the old JBC Radio 1?
What are the storage conditions and future of the JBC TV archives and record/-sound library?
What of the future of the South Odeon property?
What of the proceeds of the JBC sale, starting with interest payments now due?
Has the old JBC been wound up?
And what is the role envisages for the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica (PBCJ) given existing agencies with similar mandates? The answers to these questions are important components of the framework, within which the information portfolio operates, and are crucial to its future success.
Conclusion
In the short term, the Minister may wish to focus on strengthening and consolidation of the Division's budget and infrastructure support, while looking to refine the mission and core objectives of the portfolio. In the longer term, for sustainability, the focus should be on re-evaluating the functions of some existing government departments to see if they offer real and natural synergies, towards creating a more broad-based, culturally focused Ministry, with communication, culture and public education as key activities.
The CPTC and JIS, which should be kept separate, are important instruments in the public domain, while the Broadcasting Commission and the Cinematograph Authority could be merged to create an independent and effective Electronic Media (and Telecommunications) Authority.
The consequences of convergence need to be factored into policy decision-making affecting the telecommunication and electronic media sectors, which will inevitably integrate whether or not regulatory systems remain dispersed.
Policies relating to advertising on cable and to foreign ownership of Local Media need urgently to be reviewed, and the implementation status of the RJR /Government of Jamaica Heads of Agreement regarding the JBC divestment should be assessed and publicly disclosed.
Dr. Hopeton Dunn is a communications policy analyst and senior lecturer, CARIMAC, UWI, Mona. He is also Deputy Chairman of the CPTC and a member of the Broadcasting Commission. This article is a revised version of his presentation as a guest speaker at the Policy and Planning Retreat hosted recently by Minister of Information, Senator Maxine Henry-Wilson.
