Michael Markovitz

Michael Markovitz is one of South Africa’s leading experts on governance, media and tech policy. He heads the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) Media Leadership Think Tank - an independent research and advocacy platform providing solutions for media in support of democracy. In 2022 Michael was recognised by Rhodes University's Journalism and Media Studies School as one of their top 50 alumni in the school’s first 50 years. Michael also worked at the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) where he served as special adviser to the chairperson. In October 2022 he completed a five-year term on the board of the public broadcaster, the SABC. Michael’s media activism goes back a long way. He played a central role in the “Free the Airwaves'' campaign during the early 1990s and was involved in high level negotiations with the apartheid regime to ensure SABC had its first independently appointed board in advance of the country’s first democratic elections. Michael was selected by civil society to serve on a technical committee at the Multiparty Negotiating Process in 1993 and co-drafted the Independent Broadcasting Authority Bill which became the foundational legislation for broadcasting regulation in a democratic South Africa.