South Africa Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
April 9, 2012
About the MSI
IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country's media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and began studying Africa in 2006.
MSI Overview | Africa | Asia | Europe & Eurasia | Middle East & North Africa
Download Complete South Africa Chapter (PDF): 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7
MSI South Africa - 2010 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 3.01
South Africa did not emerge unscathed from the global economic meltdown. Despite the country’s prudent banking regulations and tight lending conditions imposed by the National Credit Act, manufacturing declined 22 percent and mining output plunged by 33 percent, leading to the loss of more than one million jobs. With a jobless rate above 25 percent (some estimates put it above 40 percent), unemployment is one of the major challenges to South Africa’s economic growth, along with poverty, large wealth disparities, and a high incidence of HIV/AIDS.
However, as the country prepared for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the economic outlook was brighter and the psychological spirit of the nation was elevated. Amidst the depressed conditions, patriotic flags flew high as South Africans set the stage to host the tournament. Whether there will be a post-World Cup momentum, and whether the South African people will really benefit, is yet to be seen. But at the time of the MSI panel, attitudes were positive.
Simultaneously, the period from May 2009 to May 2010 witnessed political rumblings within and outside the ruling bloc. In a very hotly contested election, a new party, the Congress of the People (Cope), challenged the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party. Cope draws most of its support from ANC defectors that left the party after forcing then-president Thabo Mbeki from office. In the recent election, Cope came in third, and it threatens to drive wedges into the ruling party. So far, though, Cope has amounted to little, as the new party struggles with paralyzing internal difficulties. The strength of opposition parties is lukewarm across a political terrain where the ruling bloc’s power remains essentially unchallenged outside ANC.
While ANC won the 2009 elections, it narrowly lost its two-thirds majority that would allow it to rewrite the constitution. Some believe that this may be a positive development, as it serves to check the ruling party from muscling in legislation that might violate South Africa’s democratic system. At the time this report was prepared, the ruling party was attempting to ram through legislation that would threaten the freedom of expression and media freedoms, and the opposition was rising in defense.
Of the five objectives for this year’s MSI, Objective 5 (supporting institutions) scored the highest, followed by Objective 4 (business management); both fell within the sustainable category. Objectives 1 (freedom of speech), 2 (professional standards of journalism) and 3 (plurality of news sources) remain a fraction below the sustainability range. Objective 2 (professional journalism) drew the lowest scores, but at 2.88 it is not far from being in the sustainable score category.
