By Irshad Lallmahomed [email protected]

The ?Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC)?, our national TV . . . our national shame? mediocrity in all its? glory! Watching the MBC nowadays is as if you are watching 1970?s Television programmes, so much lack of imagination, so much lack of inspiration and vision, everybody can see it. I decided to take a look at their ?MBC ACT?. First thing was to get a copy of it which was very hard indeed. What I found out left me even more frustrated than before. The MBC is basically breaching the law! Section 3 (iii) of the ?Mauritius Broadcasting Act 1982? provides that, ?The Corporation shall be a principal medium for the dissemination of information, education and entertainment and shall, subject to this Act and the ?Independent Broadcasting Authority Act 2000? be independent in the conduct of its day to day business and other activities?. Independent in the dictionary clearly says: not depending on authority or control; self-governing. Therefore, the daily programme ?one-man Prime Minister Show? 19.30 Journal broadcast is definitely wrong according to the law. Section 4(a) says that it should ?provide independent and impartial broadcasting services which cater for the aspirations, needs and tastes of the Population in matters of information, education, culture and entertainment?. Therefore, the lack of English football which is gradually being replaced by German and African Football is not catering for the tastes of the Mauritians whose favorite teams are Manchester United, Liverpool or Arsenal and till now, these teams are still English and not German! The MBC is defending itself by saying that it is expensive to buy those broadcasting rights. What are they doing with the loads of profits that they are deriving from day to day advertisements? In the same instance, Section 4(b) talks about ?ensure that its broadcasting services help towards the development of the knowledge, sense of initiative, civic rights?.

Nowadays, when we watch the news journal, it gives a resume (broadcasted live) of where each Minister, (with our Prime Minister in the lead), has gone for a small chit-chat for the day, as if we really care who they have visited and why!! This is wrong if you compare it with Section 4 (c) which clearly says that it should, ? (i) maintain a high general standard both in respect of content and quality; (ii) cover a wide range of subject matter?. Showing where our Ministers have gone for the day and giving only a small piece of international information where there are usually lots more of interesting things happening around the World makes me ask myself why they are talking about quality and wide range when obviously the MBC is only at the feet of our Ministers. This view is enhanced by the fact that Section 4 (e) clearly says that it should, ?give adequate coverage in its broadcasting programmes to news items, both local and foreign?.

Moving on, this week National Assembly is another example of the partiality of the MBC towards a certain political party. Our leader of the Opposition asked something and in return we had to listen to the monologue of our Prime Minister who has a bad habit of replying long but completely out of tune and out of context answers. This infringed Section 4 (g) & (h) where it is provided amongst others that the MBC should, ?observe neutrality and impartiality? as well as, ?refrain from giving publicity to any person, product or service?. What are the guys at the ?Independent Broadcasting Authority? doing? Maybe they have forgotten about their job. Instead of regulating our private radios (doing a fantastic job by acting as a media watchdog by the way), the IBA should perhaps make a self-assessment of itself first!

And oh, I almost forgot, there is an interesting section in the MBC Act, namely Section 10, where it provides that, ?The Minister may, on good cause shown, exempt form payment of the licence fee any person who makes an application to that effect?. Guess it is high time that we seriously put into question our fidelity to our national television.