The Film and Publication Board (FPB) is focused on adding more staff and technology capacity, to enable it to implement its expanded mandate that includes online regulation.
This is according to FPB interim CEO Dr Mashilo Boloka, speaking at the entity’s industry and stakeholder engagement on Friday.
The FPB’s high staff attrition rate and inadequate capacity is an area that was recently highlighted by Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications, with the entity’s leadership promising remedial action.
Boloka said the organisation has begun its transformation in preparation for the rigor of the new mandate, which has seen it advertise some positions.
Organisational transformation
The new FPB Amendment (FPA) Act of 2019, which was enacted on 1 March, seeks to transform the entity into a fully-fledged content regulator in the new online environment.
In line with the new structure, the FPB is on a new journey of transforming into a digital content regulator and educator, said Boloka, adding that it’s the entity’s job not only to regulate, but to educate the public and youth.
“In the last couple of months, the FPA Act came into force. We have put a lot of work in terms of changing the way the FPB used to do things, particularly focusing our energy, efforts and resources into this expanded mandate.
“We all know what the mandate is all about because in as much as we continue with classification, we’ve got a huge responsibility in terms of protecting the public against what we call harmful and inappropriate online content. We’re still focusing on the narrow classification, but this new area that we have to look at…we have started the process to do that.”
According to the interim CEO, the new mandate means the classification mandate the FPB had over the history of the organisation must now accommodate about 65% to 70% of a new area.
Speaking to ITWeb, Boloka further elaborated that the FPB decided on a phased approach to implement the new mandate, with organisational transformation and technological capacity as the first and second phase, respectively.
“Organisational transformation is through capacity and regulatory instruments; you build that by setting up structures – that’s the first part.
“The second part is what we call making the organisation a digitally-driven organisation. Most of the things that we do – because of our history – are still manual. So, you automate and make sure we have the necessary technology to assist you to execute your mandate. We’ll be focusing on this phase next year. That’s why we are recruiting people and developing all these things.
“The third phase will be full implementation, with lessons as we go along. We’re dealing with a rapidly-evolving industry, where you don’t know what’s going to happen this year or next year. Our idea is building more business intelligence to give us that predictive capability; to say this industry is going in this fashion but how can we deal with this change.
“One of the issues we have to deal with is classification. However, moving forward, the question is should we continue to classify, given the volumes of material that we are going to get, particularly from online.”
Content considerations
Boloka pointed out the FPB is being built to be the content regulator of the future.
“If you want the future, the FPB is the future. If you want a cul-de-sac, then we’re looking at all the other regulators.”
In building a regulator of the future, the FPB on Friday announced the members appointed to the Enforcement Committee and Appeals Tribunal.
In addition, more people will come in and develop part of the instruments, monitor compliance and review the industry codes because some of the industries work through codes, noted Boloka.
“We also need a lot of online monitors, to check the kind of content that is distributed and raise awareness with the platform owners whether for takedown or to find a solution.
“You also need people to deal with public education. We are more than just a regulator; we are also a digital educator. Children protection and public education are the biggest area of our work moving forward, in addition to regulatory capacity that we want to develop, as well as the technological capacity. The kind of people we need is more young people who understand how technology works.
“For us, we want to build technological and intellectual capacity. We want young people who can communicate with their peers.”
Boloka reiterated communications minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni’s assertions that SA needs a single content regulatory system – done by the FPB.
“That’s the way to the future. Whether you are SABC, it doesn’t matter which platform you operate. Before you get the licence, you must obtain a content licence from FPB.
“Our regulatory posture won’t be a heavy-handed approach but more to say that at first: let’s engage and correct certain things. However, if you do not correct, that’s when we’ll go the enforcement route,” he concluded.
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