Since Anita Khanna moved to South Africa and joined Uhuru Productions she has earned the company critical acclaim as scriptwriter and producer, respectively, for the company's two multiaward- winning documentaries: Born into Struggle and Bushman's Secret (Rehad Desai, 2006). She has also written and co-directed several social justice documentaries, including Looting the Nation (2004) and You Chuse (2008). She is writer and producer of The Mating Game (2010), an awardwinning feminist drama series created for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). In 2011 Anita Khanna was the Outreach Director of Africa's first Good Pitch, a joint initiative of the Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and the Sundance Documentary Film Programme, and supported by the Ford Foundation. She is currently the director of the Tri Continental Film Festival which takes place each year in Johannesburg and Cape Town, as well as a producer on the documentary film Miners Shot Down (Rehad Desai, 2014).

JYOTI MISTRY: As a person involved in the development and creation of content on the continent, how would you describe the key challenges in the production of content? What are some of the drivers of content and what is the perceived audience for this content?

ANITA KHANNA: Freedom of expression in South Africa is facing its toughest days since the end of apartheid. This is taking place on a number of levels, but the most tangible is the Secrecy Bill that is being challenged (in 2014) by civil society, led by the Right2Know Campaign. The bill that was signed into law in April 2013 by parliament allows for the prosecution of whistle blowers, journalists or activists who disclose information that is ‘classified’. This includes revealing corruption and other criminal activity, and it doesn't take a leap of the imagination to see how this would worry filmmakers who are motivated in their craft by stories that expose injustices or the deep economic fault-lines in our society.

One way that the threat to freedom of expression is playing out is in the way that the state has repeatedly interfered with the role of the SABC. I am of the belief that it is the responsibility of a public broadcaster to provide content that is exemplary and challenging.