Last week on 1st March, the Films and Publication Amendment Act was signed into effect by President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies.
Following up on a piece we published in 2019 we sent a number of questions through to the Film and Publications Board (FPB) in order to get clarity on certain aspects of the law. One of our main questions was about distributors, specifically, which online content distributors had already registered with the FPB.
In order to distribute content in South Africa without falling foul of the FPB, platforms must comply with the law and the FPB’s guidelines.
Part of complying with the law involves making use of online content distributors who have registered with the FPB. While you can make use of other platforms that aren’t registered with the FPB, those platforms may not last all that long because people may report them to the FPB.
As such we asked the FPB what platforms have registered with its and we were told 17 had registered, but that the FPB can’t share that list.
“In the 2020/21 financial year, the FPB had 17 online distributors on its books, in various stages of compliance. It would be important to note that in certain instances the FPB has entered into non-disclosure agreements with distributors and is not at liberty to share details of these agreements,” the FPB told Hypertext.
South Africans then are left to guess which platforms comply with the FPB and which don’t. This is going to present a massive headache for the FPB further down the line.
We say this because the FPB will have to investigate every report that comes its way as regards non-compliance and violation of the law. This could mean that legitimate platforms are reported for non-compliance effectively wasting the FPB’s time.
The FPB entering into non-disclosure agreements that prevent it from stating which platforms are compliant is silly and only further confuses South Africans who have built their livelihood online.
We wish we had clearer answers for our readers but this legislation is only set to become more complex, especially as the legal challenges begin.
[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]
