Let all hear Radio Veritas

South Africa’s Catholic Church received a proverbial kick in the teeth when the Independent Communications Authority (ICASA) refused permission for Radio Veritas broadcasts to Durban and Cape Town.

Aggravating the affront was the regulatory body’s obdurate negligence in notifying Radio Veritas until only three days before the scheduled start of its broadcasts. The short notice undid carefully laid plans, at a cost to Radio Veritas. The timing was callous and dismissive of the hard work done by Veritas small staff and its volunteers.

ICASA’s decision appears to have been arbitrary, since a precedent had been set in March/April this year when Radio Veritas enjoyed a hugely successful run in the three centres.

While Veritas has permission to broadcast to Catholics in Johannesburg, ICASA has deliberately marginalised the Catholic community in two of South Africa’s most populous centres and discouraged whatever plans Veritas might have entertained of broadcasting to other regions in South Africa.

ICASA has been steadfast in declining Radio Veritas’ applications for a permanent and national broadcast licence. In this, the authority has been bound by legislation which dictates that non-commercial radio stations must serve a specific community, and defines communities in geographic terms. The Catholic Church obviously is not a geographically defined community. Nevertheless it is a community one of common and mutual interest, possibly more immediately recognisable as a community than those served by many regional or local radio stations.

It is a good time now for the Church to assemble a high-powered episcopal delegation to communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri to present her with the reasons why Radio Veritas should be permitted if necessary by special ministerial dispensation to broadcast to all of South Africa.

Catholics will be struck by the irony that the government should ask churches to lead the process of moral regeneration in South Africa, but at the same time insist on legislation that deprives the Catholic Church of the most effective tool in communicating this renewal.

The law and ICASA’s decision to limit Veritas’ reach also undermines nation building. It is difficult to understand how defining communities of interest in geographical terms only should assist in healing polarisation in South Africa.

Radio Veritas has worked hard towards bringing together a pan-South African listenership, with promising results. This deserves reward, not punitive and arbitrary measures against it.

National Catholic radio stations are operating fruitfully in many African countries. They purposefully promote a culture of volunteerism an element of good citizenship explicitly promoted by President Thabo Mbeki. Radio Veritas was planning to do just that, as summarised in its theme I am my brother’s keeper.

South African Catholics are becoming weary of being sidelined. It is therefore right that Radio Veritas station director, Fr Emil Blaser Blaser OP, has called on the Catholic community to inundate ICASA with communications demanding an explanation for its refusal to allow the station’s air outside Johannesburg, and calling for a permanent broadcast licence.

The only national weekly Christian newspaper in South Africa serves the Catholic Church. This suggests that there is a demand for Catholic media.

It is only right that the Catholic community should have the benefit of a national Catholic radio station, and that this station should be allowed to play a role in uplifting this nation.