The new board replaces former Chairperson Sandra Williams, (Manger of Base FM) Gladwin Groenewaldt and Florence Haifene. Williams will stay on as ex-officio advisory member to the new board for a year.  

On stepping down, Williams thanked the new board for availing themselves for election and to serve on the board for the term of three years.
”We are all deeply indebted to you for declaring yourselves willing to further with processes the outgoing NGC has started, and serving MISA Namibia through its aims and objectives. I can assure you that after 15 years of fighting for media freedom in SADC, MISA is busy re-energising and re-aligning itself to cater to the needs and demands of the modern media practitioner at all levels”, she said.

Williams noted that in this process, MISA Namibia needed all members and interested persons to assist in growing and developing the organisation further.

On her part, National Director of MISA Namibia, Marbeline Mwashekele welcomes the newly elected board, adding that the NGC is very crucial to the attainment of MISA’s aims and objectives.

“The NGC is there to ensure that the Chapter is operating and functioning according to the MISA Namibia rules. The NGC will oversee all the Chapter’s plans and activities through the employment of the National Director and other staff.  The NGC’s effectiveness will have a major impact on the effectiveness of the Chapter, therefore, its commitment will add to the efficiency and public standing of the organization”, Mwashekele says.

The mission of MISA Namibia is to play a leading role in creating an environment of media freedom and free expression that promotes independence, pluralism and diversity of views and opinions, media sustainability, competency and professionalism in the southern African region.

END

Caption: The new boards consist of (L-R) Joseph Ailonga (Marketing Manager at Radio Energy) as Additional Member, Linda Baumann (Director of Outreach Namibia) as MISA Namibia Vice Chairperson, Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro, (Senior journalist at New Era) as MISA Namibia Chairperson, Manfred Isaacks (Radio Project coordinator at Namcol) as Additional Member and absent is Soini Negongo (Senior Producer at the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation) as Treasurer.
Pictures 069 and 068

Marbeline Mwashekele

National Director

-September 03, 2010 by MISA

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Source: www.misa.org  (received via e-mail alert on 03.09.10)

MISA-Malawi is also aware of threats on individual journalists as well as media houses, from people who claim to have been defamed in stories written by the concerned reporters or published by a particular media house.

Such actions can easily be construed as a deliberate and strategic crackdown by those in authority on media houses deemed to be critical of the government. We also feel that such actions instill fear in journalists and other media workers and the overall assumption would be that government is slowly but earnestly taking strategic steps at silencing the media.

In our view, the media in the country is fulfilling its rightful role as watchdog of society and taking a proactive role in alerting responsible authorities to put in place necessary measures to curb any impending crisis.

MISA-Malawi has always emphasized that it does not condone irresponsible reporting. We encourage journalists in the country to be factual and thorough when writing their stories. Irresponsible or mercenary reporting should have no place in the country, and indeed elsewhere.

Journalists in the country have in the past sounded the alarm and played the whistle blower role on corruption issues. The authorities acted on such news articles and arrested the culprits. The same media practitioners have in the past issued alerts on impending outbreaks of diseases and the authorities at the Ministry of Health acted accordingly. The media should therefore be allowed to watch and keep guard against any developments in society.  

We expect the authorities and indeed any other persons who have problems against journalists in the country, to channel their complaints through media bodies such as MISA-Malawi or the Media Council of Malawi which are mandated to guard against violations against media freedom and professional ethics, respectively.

Contact and dialogue are, in our view, the proper channels of addressing differences, other than issuing threats, especially in this age. Freedom of expression and the right to report and publish freely is enshrined in the Constitution which the president is supposed to protect. The Head of State should therefore not be seen to be in the forefront violating the constitution by denying members of the public, including the media, the freedom to report and publish.

MISA-Malawi is therefore appealing to the current administration to champion media freedom in Malawi and to regard the media as partners in development. Likewise, we would like to appeal to media practitioners to continue supporting the development agenda of the current administration, while at the same time keeping watch and alerting authorities when something goes wrong.

Lastly, MISA-Malawi commends government for taking note of the appeal to change its stand on advertising in some private media outlets such as the Nation Publications Limited (NPL). We have noted that some government departments and institutions that had stopped advertising with NPL have resumed doing so, albeit on a small scale.  We encourage government to start advertising in NPL newspapers on a full scale. Advertising is the life blood of the private media and we strongly support this initiative. We appeal to government to continue supporting NPL and all private media outlets. //End//

Signed                                                                                     Signed

Aubrey Chikungwa                                                                 Brian Ligomeka

MISA MALAWI NATIONAL DIRECTOR                     MISA MALAWI CHAIRPERSON

-September 03, 2010 by MISA

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Source: www.misa.org  (received via e-mail alert on 03.09.10)

But the media reported a decline in cases of rights abuses stemming from the outreach exercise. See Fig 1.

Fig 1: Top stories in the media

What they said...

“The political developments in this country will never be the same again after the formation of the MDC but the saddest thing in my life is the split of the MDC. It represents the saddest part of my relationship with (MDC-M Deputy President Gibson) Sibanda”– Prime Minister Morgan (The Standard 29/8)

“So we reject lock, stock and barrel the decision by ZANU PF politburo that Gibson Sibanda is not a national hero, they have no locus standi, no jurisdiction in this country in terms of determining who is a hero”– MDC-M President Arthur Mutambara (The Financial Gazette 26/8)

Ends

The MEDIA REVIEW was produced and circulated by the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe, 9 Knight Bruce Road, Milton Park, Harare, Tel: 263 4 741816/ 778115, E-mail: monitors@mmpz.org.zw

Feel free to write to MMPZ. We may not able to respond to everything but we will look at each message. For previous MMPZ reports, and more information about the Project, please visit our website at www.mmpz.org

In a government gazette published on 27 August 2010, Home Affairs Secretary Melusi Matshiya announced that it was an offence in terms of the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act (Cinematography and Publications, Production of Pictures and Statutes) for anyone to show the Gukurahundi material. According to Matshiya the Board of Censors had in terms of Sections 12, 13 of the Act prohibited “the exhibition at the Bulawayo Art Gallery of effigies, words and paintings on the walls portraying the Gukurahundi era as a tribal biased event”.

In banning media or artistic expression of the Gukurahundi atrocities the government is simply trying to suppress unpleasant elements of Zimbabwe’s history that should be openly debated, among other issues, if the much touted national healing programme is to bear meaningful results.

Further, the ban does not only impinge on citizens’ right to freedom of expression but disregards the African Commission on Human and People Rights’ Banjul Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa. It guarantees freedom of expression and information, “including the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other form of communication” as a “fundamental and inalienable human right and an indispensable component of democracy”.

Background

Maseko was arrested on 26 March 2010 initially on charges of violating Section 30 of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act which alludes to insulting or undermining the authority of the president; the charges have since been changed to Section 31 which deals with the publication of false statements prejudicial to the state.

In addition to Maseko’s exhibition independent film producer, Zenzele Ndebele who in 2007 launched a documentary Gukurahundi- A moment of madness, was on 10 April 2010 allegedly confronted by state security agents over his documentary in Bulawayo’s city centre. //End//

-September 03, 2010 by MISA

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Source: www.misa.org  (received via e-mail alert on 03.09.10)

The SOS: Support Public Broadcasting Coalition

SOS welcomes the Board’s decision to suspend the SABC’s GCEO, Solly Mokoetle
 
27 August 2010

The “SOS: Support Public Broadcasting” Campaign representing a number of trade unions including COSATU, COSATU affiliates CWU and CWUSA, FEDUSA and BEMAWU; independent film and TV production sector organisations including the South African Screen Federation (SASFED); and a host of NGOs and CBOs including the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-SA) and the National Community Radio Forum (NCRF); as well as a number of academics and freedom of expression activists welcome the SABC Board’s decision to suspend the SABC’s CEO, Solly Mokoetle.
 

Mr. Mokoetle has strongly backed and supported the Chair of the SABC, Dr Ben Ngubane’s serious breaches of corporate governance at the broadcaster. He has implemented the Chair’s illegal unilateral appointment of the Head of News thus throwing the SABC into a serious, an entirely unnecessary, corporate governance crisis.
 

Further, it is alleged that Mr Mokoetle has operated unilaterally (with only the authority of the Chair) and without accounting to the rest of the Board on a number of important occasions. For instance, in a leaked memo from Board members to the Minister of Communications on 8 June 2010 it appears that Mr. Mokoetle attended a conference in China on behalf of the Chair of the Board, days before the opening of the World Cup, on an issue not vital to the SABC’s core mandate, and without appointing anyone to act in his absence.
 


Further to these specific allegations it appears that Mr Mokoetle has failed overall to deliver on his detailed performance targets clearly laid out in his performance contract with the SABC Board. To date the SABC still does not have a “turn around” strategy in place. Further, he does not appear to have implemented any cost cutting measures at the cash-strapped broadcaster – in fact it appears that there was significant fruitless and wasteful expenditure at the SABC over the period of the FIFA World Cup. This is in terms of the purchase of World Cup tickets, without ensuring direct benefits to the SABC, and the hiring of the Sandton Convention Centre, at excessively high rates, as a broadcast venue.
 

If these various allegations are in fact proved to be correct then we believe Mr Mokoetle should be fired for both actively supporting and implementing illegal decisions taken by the Chair and further for not fulfilling the clear targets of his performance contract.
 
 
The swift conclusion of Parliamentary processes

Further to this action around the CEO we believe that Parliament needs to conclude its hearings into the SABC governance crises in an open session. SOS supports the calls by IDASA, SANEF, MISA-SA and others to ensure that Parliamentary sessions are held in the open to ensure maximum public accountability and transparency. We therefore do not believe that Parliament should wait to hear the conclusion of the court case that forced them to adjourn their closed session. The Parliamentary hearing should be held in the open as soon as possible.
 

The Coalition notes that to date only one side of the story has been tabled and reported on – the evidence of the Chair Dr. Ben Ngubane.  We urgently need to hear the evidence from the rest of the Board.
 

SOS believes that Parliament must then investigate this evidence before them and take appropriate and swift action against those guilty of violating good corporate governance practices, processes and protocols at the SABC. If it is found that the Chair of the Board, Dr Ben Ngubane has in fact violated good corporate governance practices at the SABC, which it certainly appears he has, then he should be removed as Chair of the Board.
 

For more information please contact:

Kate Skinner – Coordinator – SOS: Support Public Broadcasting – (082) 926-6404
Rehad Desai – Executive Member – South African Screen Federation – (083) 997-9204
William Bird – Director – Media Monitoring Africa – (082) 887-1370

-August 27, 2010 by MISA

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Source: www.misa.org  (received via e-mail alert on 03.09.10)

Further, it is alleged that Mokoetle has operated unilaterally (with only the authority of the Chair) and without accounting to the rest of the Board on a number of important occasions. In a leaked memo from Board members to the Minister of Communications on 8 June 2010, it appears that Mokoetle attended a conference in China on behalf of the Chair of the Board, days before the opening of the World Cup, on an issue not vital to the SABC’s core mandate, and without appointing anyone to act in his absence.

In addition to these specific allegations it appears that Mokoetle has failed overall to deliver on his detailed performance targets clearly laid out in his performance contract with the SABC Board. To date, the SABC still does not have a “turn around” strategy in place. Further, he does not appear to have implemented any cost cutting measures at the cash-strapped broadcaster – and it appears that there was significant fruitless and wasteful expenditure at the SABC over the period of the FIFA World Cup. This is in terms of the purchase of World Cup tickets, without ensuring direct benefits to the SABC, the hiring of the Sandton Convention Centre, at excessively high rates, as a broadcast venue and bonuses awarded to staff. //End//

-September 03, 2010 by MISA

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Source: www.misa.org (received via e-mail alert on 03.09.10)

Its provisions will seriously harm freedom of the press by providing hefty prison sentences for those who publish classified information.

Chief government spokesman Themba Maseko told a post-Cabinet media briefing yesterday that the ongoing debate around the bill had been noted by the government.

"Government welcomes representations received from interested parties and appreciates the public's dedication and participation in the consultative processes enshrined in our constitution. We reiterate that this process has not been completed and the bill is yet to be finalised.

"Government, through the m inister of s tate s ecurity, is considering the valuable submissions and representations made during the public hearings and is committed to accommodating the views expressed as far as practicable and reasonable," Mr Maseko said.

He explained that State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele is focusing on areas of the bill that have been described as too broad or vague and which have the potential to infringe on constitutionally enshrined rights.

"Following this involved and detailed process, the m inister will table a comprehensive response to Parliament, when the committee working on the b ill sits for its next meeting," Mr Maseko said.

However, in response to questions, Mr Maseko said there were no indications at this stage which of the problematic clauses in the bill would be addressed.

The bill's definitions of "national interest" and "national security" have been criticised as being so wide that virtually any information could be classified as secret. Media organisations have also argued strongly for the specific inclusion of a public-interest defence for either whistle-blowers or journalists who make classified information public.

At the same briefing, Mr Maseko said it has been decided to "regularise" the situation of undocumented Zimbabweans in SA. The "special dispensation" for Zimbabweans will end on December 31.

There will also be an amnesty for Zimbabweans who have illegally obtained South African identity documents "on condition that such documents are returned to the Department of Home Affairs with immediate effect", he said.

-September 03, 2010 by Wyndham Hartley

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Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201009030019.html (accessed on 03.09.10)

Since its inception in 2002, the meetings have developed into an annual high-level forum for strategy formulation, networking and sharing by senior executives of print, broadcast, online and converged media on the African continent.

The conference is co-hosted by Rhodes University’s Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership (SPI) and Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), and was convened to promote high-level interaction among Africa’s media chiefs.

“This year we switch focus from a broad look at understanding and doing digital media in Africa to specifics of what works and what does not work under African conditions,” said SPI Director Francis Mdlongwa.

Frank Windeck, the director of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung’s Sub-Sahara Africa Media Programme, the sponsor of the AMLC series, said: “These meetings provide Africa’s top media people with a unique opportunity to network at the highest level, debating key industry challenges, while seeking practical solutions by examining case studies drawn from Africa.”

The conference meets annually in an African country, and past AMLC summits have debated timely topics such as “Managing Media in a Recession” (Mauritius, 2002); “South Meets East: Strategic Challenges for African Media” (Nairobi, Kenya, 2006); and “Learning from the Future: Africa’s Media Map in 2029” (Accra, Ghana, 2009).

-September 02, 2010 by Afrik-News

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Source: http://www.afrik-news.com/article18178.html (accessed on 03.09.2010)

Last June, members of the Nigerian House of Representatives engaged themselves in a free-for-all fight. Within minutes, clips of the fight appeared on Facebook and this generated a debate across the globe on the quality of representation we have.

The new media has silently but steadily become a force to be reckoned with in today’s world. But the question remains: what percentage of African journalists and editors are conversant with it? The answer is shocking.

Josiah Akor, a journalist with a newspaper in Abuja, is not aware of what new media is. For him, Facebook or Twitter is an avenue to link up with friends, schoolmates and make new friends. He has never contemplated using any of these tools to report news or engage readers. Just like Akor, Vivian Mensah with a private radio station in Ghana, has never heard of Twitter; but she is on Facebook and uses it to connect friends and family. Ms Mensah says Facebook is a social network platform and shouldn’t be mixed with work.

“Facebook is for connecting with colleagues, keep abreast with daily gossip, using it for news reporting to me is not proper and should not be encouraged,” she says.

In Zambia, journalists are of the view that access to the Internet is expensive while connection is slow. Opening sites such as Facebook, that have pictures, takes several hours; so they usually avoid such sites.

Violet Mengo, a science correspondent with Zambia Daily, one of the national newspapers in Lusaka, said she is aware of only one journalist in the country who is into blogging, while few others actually use skype and Facebook.

In Zimbabwe, new media was made popular among freelance journalists, as a result of the crackdown on the mainstream media by the government, but access to the Internet is restricting its usage.

Yet, in Africa, the need for deploying these tools for instantaneous news coverage has never been felt like now. Think about covering police brutality, which is a daily occurrence on our streets, accidents on the pothole ravaged roads or abuse of privileges by elected leaders. With these tools, a journalist can operate without fear of being manhandled.

In war-torn Sudan or Somalia, how best do you equip a reporter than by giving him the basic lesson on how to use the tools? Jack Hamidu, a military photographer covering the crisis in Sudan, says if half of what happens in the areas were made known to the world through the Internet, efforts to mobilise troops for peacekeeping will no longer be taken for granted.

Tools are available

The technology to back the new media tools is available. Recent statistics from the International Telecommunication Union says nearly two billion additional mobile telephone connections were recorded across the world between 2006 and last year, the vast majority of them in developing countries.

In many developing countries, more than half of rural households now have a mobile phone, while access to the Internet is also on the increase. Already, leading global news networks replay clips of non-professional eyewitness account of events taken from either You Tube or Twitter.

Newspapers in Nigeria are far behind, asking readers to send their pictures or news stories to them.

Peter Croll, director of the Bonn International Centre for Conversion, said recently: “we live in turbulent times. New interactive technologies for information exchange are rapidly transforming the traditional media landscape in many parts of the world.” Twitter is gaining currency among the populace and is ranked number five among the social networking platforms in overall minute spent by users, according to Jack Brown, a South African based IT consultant.

“One gets content while it happens, which is a major boost for reporters,” he said.

Brown said it is easier for journalists in one environment to follow developments in another location and get instantaneous quotes and interview via twitter.

Some media houses still acquire camera and digital voice recorders for their staff. A simple training on how to turn their mobile phones into a weapon of professional news reporting is what is needed.

-September 03, 2010 by Alex Abutu

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Source: http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5614104-146/enhancing_journalism_in_africa_with_new.csp  (accessed on 03.09.10)

The protection of information bill is already at the committee stage in parliament. It would set rules for those who reveal state secrets — and leave it up to politicians to decide what should be defined as a secret.

Anton Harber, a former newspaper editor and the current director of the journalism program at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, says the measures are opposed by journalists and other writers throughout South Africa.

"The implications are that there's a clampdown on the extraordinary freedom of expression we've had in this country since 1994," Harber said in an interview with CBC's Q cultural affairs show. "[There's] fear of giving that kind of power to parliament and to politicians to oversee media conduct."

'The media are playing a very strong watchdog role and exposing a number of cases of bad government and misuse of funds.'— Anton Harber

Harber concedes that some journalists have gone too far and written scandalous information about members of Jacob Zuma's government without verifying the information. Erroneous stories have appeared, and editors have been reluctant to recant, he said.

Proposed law aimed at protecting politicians

However, the government has also been embarrassed by a series of revelations of corruption by ethical, crusading journalists, he said.

"It comes in the context of we have a very strong ruling party that doesn't get much criticism from the opposition, and the media are playing a very strong watchdog role and exposing a number of cases of bad government and misuse of funds," Harber said.

"There's a fear that they're trying to stop exposés."

The ANC says it is trying to protect the public good.

Political cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, who draws under the name Zapiro and has been sued twice by President Zuma, is skeptical.

"I cannot see how they can make the point that there is any merit for the public," he told CBC.

"The protection of information bill is designed to protect people whose noses are at the trough and doing wrong things."

South African journalists established a Press Council 18 months ago in an effort to encourage a code of ethics among members.

It has been thrown into turmoil by the laws proposed by Zuma's government and now hesitates to investigate complaints against reporters for fear it will bolster the ANC's case against the media.

Harber said the measures proposed do not come close to the control imposed by the former apartheid-era governments.

"I don't think comparison with apartheid-level persecution is helpful," he said. "We now have bill of rights and constitutional court. So we have tools to protect ourselves."

Prominent South African writer Nadine Gordimer and supporters such as Andre Brink are circulating a petition against Zuma's policies.

-September 02, 2010 by CBC News

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Source: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2010/09/02/south-africa-press-freedom.html  (accessed on 03.09.10)