TRC Final Report

Volume 1

Chapter 11

Part OtherDepts

Subsection 17

Management and Operational Reports

MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT

■ INTRODUCTION

1 From the outset, the Commission identified the mass media as critical in drawing all South Africans into the Commission process. It resolved, in particular, that one way of helping to restore the dignity of victims of violations of human rights and of reporting to the nation such violations and victims - would be to promote maximum publicity for the Commission’s activities, and in particular its hearings, by opening them fully to both broadcast and print media.

2 In addition, advance publicity was given in the media of workshops, public meetings, and opportunities for victims to make statements and of hearings (both human rights violations and amnesty hearings) which victims and members of the public could attend.

3 Particular attention was also paid to the use of radio to ensure that the proceedings and activities of the Commission were covered in all the country’s official languages.

4 The Commission drew a distinction between the communication of its own messages, which it controlled (and usually paid for), and the distribution of news and information through journalists in the print and broadcast media which, by definition, resulted in publicity over which the Commission had no final control. This was reflected in a distinction in the structural operation of the media and communications functions during the first year of operation.

5 The Commission’s communications work was summarised in an article written by Archbishop Tutu for the Sunday Times in December 1996:

One of our most substantial achievements, however, has been to bring events known until now only to the immediately affected communities – and sometimes to the small readership of alternative newspapers – into the centre of national life. Millions of South Africans have heard the truth about the apartheid years for the first time, some through daily newspapers but many more through television and, especially, radio.... Black South Africans, of course, knew what was happening in their own local communities, but they often did not know the detail of what was happening to others across the country. White South Africans, kept in ignorance by the SABC and some of their printed media, cannot now say they do not know what happened.