What impact will the Bill have on online publishing?
The section of the Amendment Bill governing online publishing is Amendment of section 1(i). It reads: “[A]ny message or communication, including a visual presentation, placed on any distributed network including, but not confined to, the Internet”. This provision is too broad and not practical in terms of regulation. This means that any message placed on a website will fall under the future Film and Publications Act. Although the definition of a newspaper does seem to show that online newspapers will need to be particularly scrutinised under the future act, it is uncertain how this will happen. The MMP is currently trying to get newspaper groups to self-regulate. Can you tell me more about this? Most responsible major media in South Africa already self regulate either through the Broadcasting Complaints Commission or else the Press Ombudsman. Sadly, not everyone knows about the mechanisms or how to engage with them. In the case of the press code, the protection of children receives lit
