OPINION: BRICS TV is a multi-genre television channel now found on StarSat, channel 509. It has been described as ‘a versatile broadcasting platform catering to a wide range of viewers’ interests and preferences’.
THIS week, BRICS TV was launched in Sandton amid much fanfare and excitement. The event was made up of an intimate crowd of individuals from the BRICS nations.
And the crowd’s modest size was misleading – it belied the very significance of the entrance into the global mainstream media of a true multinational broadcaster that will certainly impact the flow and form of geopolitical news.
In fact, as the ANC’s bigwig Nomvula Mokonyane later said: “BRICS TV will add momentum to a (rapidly) changing world order based on equality, mutual benefit, and reciprocal growth.”
BRICS TV is a multi-genre television channel now found on StarSat, channel 509. It has been described as “a versatile broadcasting platform catering to a wide range of viewers’ interests and preferences”. The launch was done through logistical collaboration with the National Radio and Television Administration of China.
Ayanda Hollow, the president of the television station described in full as “BRICS Africa Channel”, addressed the launch gathering and had the following to say about the new venture: “BRICS Africa Channel intentions are clear: to cascade the resolutions and benefits of the BRICS summits to our audiences, to narrate compelling stories that impact the lives of citizens from the BRICS-Plus nations and to the world.”
He continued: “As we see it, as we question it, as we develop culturally together, we will take responsibility for our BRICS TV.”
The advent of BRICS TV also brings with it ample opportunities for industry stakeholders – from journalists to producers, scriptwriters, documentary producers, and even filmmakers – the channel is on the lookout for compelling content.
Hollow said: “I want to share a fantastic opportunity available to all African television producers and storytellers: Our partnership with China’s TV Theatre and New Vision and New Image, allows you to co-produce with China and the BRICS nations. We must create our future, create jobs for the creative industries, and champion BRICS narratives of development, shaping the world we want for a better Africa and multipolar world order.”
As part of an aggressive content development Hollow, who is also the outgoing communications director at the Government Communication and Information Services (GCIS), elaborated as follows: “We plan to commission work in Sepedi, Zulu, and Kiswahili to be dubbed into Mandarin, ensuring all BRICS nations enjoy our African-originated stories. We will deepen our people’s understanding of each other and celebrate our inheritance in cultural and historical moments, activating the stories of women’s liberation movements that are well exhibited at Freedom Park Wall of Names (in Pretoria).”
BRICS TV is headed by Nyana Molete (editor-in-chief), formerly national television editor with the SABC. Also on board is Nothando Maseko (managing editor). She is also the former executive producer of the SABC’s Morning Live show and head of news. Peter Ndoro, also formerly with the SABC, is a lead news anchor at BRICS TV.
There can be no doubt, therefore, the channel is led by seasoned, highly professional media practitioners who will bring in major editorial experience, collectively.
Also speaking at the BRICS TV launch, the ANC’s first deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane, who is also the party’s head of its sub-committee on international relations, touched on the impact of globalisation.
“The world is changing at a faster pace than before. To adapt, we need to build a new paradigm of a shared value system,” she said, before adding: “In this instance, television plays an important role as a conveyor belt in the value chain, each sharing and benefiting from culture as change instrument.”
She acknowledged that BRICS exists within the framework of “a global environment with increased connectedness and interdependence of world cultures and economies”.
The ANC heavyweight said: “China and South Africa are thousands of miles apart, yet we remain connected through an interwoven value system appreciative of our different cultures, each enhanced towards a common agenda of development that will contribute towards the advancement of a new global order.”
Mokonyane further said: “Globalisation has its own challenges, so are BRICS, multilateralism, intra-trade and intra-party, and party-to-party relations. As the world gravitates towards a new order, enemies of global change would – as an act of resistance and failure to adapt to a geo-economic shift and a shift in power relations – often define these developments as a new form of colonialism.”
She quoted Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent words: “Countries need to keep an open mind in appreciating the perceptions of values by different civilizations, and refrain from imposing their own values or models on others and from stoking ideological confrontation.”
Now, it is my considered view that the entrance of BRICS TV into the global arena must be welcomed by all. First and foremost, consumers of news deserve a plurality of voices, just as is desirable in democracies across the world.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) does a heck of a good job advancing – without fail – the geopolitical agenda of the UK regardless of which party is in office. In all corners of the globe, the BBC either has offices or stringers feeding their London HQ with news packages aligned to the national interest and foreign policy objectives of Great Britain.
In fact, in the US the ABC (American Broadcasting Corporation) does an excellent domestic job of projecting a purely pro-American standpoint. It is aided by an avalanche of other news networks, notably CNN, which excels in pushing the US foreign policy objectives in virtually every country on Earth.
As they say, until the hunted tell their story, the tales of hunting will always be told from the perspective of the lions (hunters).
Thus the emergence of BRICS TV is revolutionary in its own way. It basically brings together the national interest of all the five members of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa).
As Hollow noted, the intentions are clear: “To cascade the resolutions and benefits of the BRICS summits to our audiences”.
The BRICS bloc is a hugely important organisation in global affairs. It serves as an antithesis to the powerful Western-oriented organisations such as the G7, or the EU.
It stands to reason, therefore, that its critics would want to see BRICS fail. So far, BRICS has continued to thrive. In fact, there are more than two dozen applications for BRICS membership from countries in the global south that include Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, Egypt, Kenya, Argentina, and Indonesia, among others.
The pending BRICS heads of state summit scheduled to take place here in South Africa from August 22-24 is a case in point. A confirmed total of 40 foreign heads of state are expected to attend the summit. The growing stature of BRICS in geopolitics, and the bloc’s open campaign for a multipolar world as opposed to the Western-led unipolar world, poses a major headache to the US-led Western hegemony in international affairs.
The determination of public discourse and the opinions of Afrocentric scholars and decision-makers will find an enthusiastic home on BRICS TV.
So, too, will be the standpoint of the global south in geopolitics, and the timeous communication of pro-BRICS messages.
Without the ownership of the means of communication platforms, it is practically difficult and impossible at times to share one’s views.
BRICS TV will therefore pose a major challenge to the one-sided Western-led news reporting that way too often peddles the national agenda of their governments and report adversely about BRICS-Plus countries. Hence, in my view, the expected major turnout of the heads of state confirmed to attend the summit.
It is it my sincerest hope that the Western nations in the EU and Nato will not ban BRICS TV for its clear stance in support of the agenda of the BRICS bloc. I raise this concern following the sudden banning of RT (Russia Today) by the powerful European authorities, removing a popular television channel that many news consumers tuned in to hear the “other side of the story”.
The plurality of voices and the proliferation of news networks and airwaves are fundamentally beneficial to global citizens. No authority, no matter how powerful, should get away with apportioning to itself the power to decide what the citizens of the world should be told, or not.
That’s not democracy in any form or shape. It smacks of dictatorship, in spite of attempts to mask it as “protection from propaganda”. BRICS TV will hopefully become a long-desired game changer in a unipolar media world order.
* The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the DFA.
