Despite a raft of objections to the government’s “secrecy bill” in last week’s public hearings, chief state law adviser Enver Daniels has declared the bill fully constitutional and has dismissed some of the submissions as “emotional and hysterical”. Significantly, Mr Daniels also emphatically rejected the numerous calls for a public interest defence for journalists and whistle-blowers exposing wrongdoing by the state. [more]

The Plateau Criminal Court in Abidjan, the commercial capital of Cote d'Ivoire, has convicted three detained editors of the privately-owned Le Nouveau Courrier newspaper over a charge of an "administrative theft".[more]

The Press Association of Zambia (PAZA) has objected to the removal of the appointments committee from the amended Independent Broadcasting Authority Act on grounds that it allows excessive powers to the minister of Information and Broadcasting Services.[more]

OnThursday, July 22, I woke up to news that Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, a Paris-based organisation, had called on Rwanda’s development partners to withdraw their financial support, particularly for the upcoming presidential elections. Of course RSF is as ignorant on the proportion of donor contribution towards the August 9 election budget, as it always is or pretends to be on Rwandan media, which it claims to speak for.[more]

The Big Read: The breadth, meaning and scope of what "the national interest" entails have been in the news of late. The topic comes up when clipping the wings of freedom of expression of the media - a new media tribunal is being discussed - and in the debate raging around the propriety and constitutionality of the draft Protection of Information Bill. [more]

The outcry over ZANU PF jingles being played twice every hour on state radio and television continues to rumble on, with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) vowing it will continue running them. Last Tuesday Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai used a cabinet meeting to protest the continued airing of the jingles, describing them as offensive and against the ‘spirit’ of the inclusive government. [more]

We will never be able to understand how or where these hapless people get their income until we understand their work conditions. In most cases, the journalist provides his own work tools – his computer, flash drives, and in a rare case that I know of, personal printer.[more]

SWAZI JOURNALISTS have been warned not to write bad stories about their country, and if they ignore a member of the Royal Family says they will die, writes Dennis Itumbi for jocoza.[more]

Chief state law advisor Enver Daniels on Tuesday dismissed an avalanche of criticism of the Protection of Information Bill as largely "emotional and hysterical" and insisted the draft act was constitutional. "In looking at these submissions, some of them are quite emotional and hysterical," he told Parliament's ad hoc committee scrutinising the bill, adding that very few of the objections aired have swayed the legislature's legal advisors.[more]

A NEW RESEARCH REPORT paints a gloomy picture of the African continent's move to digital broadcasting, saying over half of the continent's countries would not make the switch ahead of the deadline, writes Dennis Itumbi for jocoza. The report by Balancing Act reveals over half of Africa’s 52 countries are unlikely to make the 2015 deadline set by the ITU for the transition to digital broadcasting.[more]