FROM "THE HERALD", HARARE, ZIMBABWE- SEPT. 25, 1996
'LOCAL CONTENT IN PROGRAMMES VITAL'
African governments were yesterday urged to introduce regulations to
determine local content in programmes of broadcasting stations in order to
support productions of the continent's film-makers.
International private television station M-Net, which also broadcasts to a
number of African countries, says it has been forced to change its corporate
policy on supporting African films because of political pressure in some
countries.
Addressing a financial workshop at the seven-day Southern African Film
Festival, which ends tomorrow, the network's South African manager in charge
of African productions, Veronica Motsepe, said it was up to governments to
ensure broadcasters used local productions.
The workshop was discussing institutional factors affecting the film
industry in the South African region.
Motsepe cited South Africa and Nigeria as countries where governments had
set regulations which supported the local film industry and required all
foreign broadcasters to show a defined percentage of local productions.
"Because of this, we have a new director at M-Net. We are a bit conservative
in the way we are getting into co-productions with African film-makers," she
said.
During the apartheid era, M-Net in South Africa only showed American movies
or those produced in the West because that was what was selling, Motsepe
said. "But during the post-apartheid period, M-Net's corporate policy had
to change because of political pressure," Motsepe said.
M-Net South Africa has started investing into black-run film institutions,
sponsoring film productions by the students which are to be screened on the
network.
Motsepe said it was worthwhile to invest and co-produce with African
film-makers but studies were still being done to ensure profitably and that
viewers would continue to be interested in the product.
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