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ICASA warns journalists over Mandela funeral

Telecoms regulator ICASA has issued a warning to international media that journalists intend to broadcast live from Mandela’s funeral, they’d better license up. In a communiqué sent out this afternoon, it told broadcasters that unless their equipment is pre-approved and spectrum sorted out before the event, they’d be shut down by inspectors and prohibited from using it.

Labels must, apparently, be attached to kit used to broadcast on the day.

While the timing may seem a bit tasteless – insert comment about waiting until he’s cold here – ICASA is right to move fast. The actual date of the funeral hasn’t been set yet, but the amount of attention that’s expected to get is phenomenal. A glance around Twitter shows that Mandela’s spirit reverberates around the world, and we already know that Mthatha airport in the Eastern Cape was upgraded earlier in the year specifically to cope with the expected media tide. I think it’s fair to say that no other living leader today will spark the same level of international interest when they pass.

It may be macabre, and no doubt a nice revenue spinner for ICASA, but the there’s going to be a lot of cameras beaming images through a tight radius of spectrum on the day, and that is – after all – what a regulator is for.

(Image – Mandela’s house in the Eastern Cape, CC Mark Turner)

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