The cock that crows in the morning belongs to one household, but his voice is the property of the neighbourhood. This proverb, cited by the author Chinua Achebe, applies perfectly to the press. For South Africa right now, it resonates with the way that our elected “neighbourhood” officials feel themselves to be justified in trying to regulate the rooster. Private property (the newspapers) and unfettered free speech have a public character, fooling the ruling party into feeling that it is entitled to intrude into those spaces. Worse, with the Protection of Information and the Media Appeals Tribunal, the ANC seems to want to shut the bird up entirely. The party evidently regards raucous crowing as an unwelcome noise that disturbs the public and distracts from their projects. Yet its control-oriented steps have unleashed an even greater cacophony. So where to from here for the ruling party?[more]

Let us not pretend that state control of the media is something new to the region, or that South Africa has a history of defending press freedom and shouting down the villains, writes GEOFF HILL. If a government nationalised the press or introduced the death penalty for writers who criticised the ruling party, there’d be an outcry. Correct? Well not always. At least not in South Africa. Let me explain. In 1975, the MPLA government in Angola, which had wrested independence from Portugal a year earlier, took control of the press and made it a capital offence for journalists to “commit crimes against the revolution”, or endanger the good name of the state. The African National Congress (ANC) in exile was dependent on the charity of regional leaders, so would have found it hard to comment, though given their current stance on Zimbabwe, and solidarity with oppressive regimes like Cuba or Libya, it is doubtful they would have said much anyway.[more]

Pinch me, somebody! Are the unprecedented protests by newspaper editors unnecessary hysteria? Is the press watchdog crying wolf? How could relationships crash so quickly from the “Team South Africa” ethos of the World Cup? Earlier this year, City Press newspaper discerned – in regard to the threats by Julius Malema and his bullyboys – that journalism in this country is not for sissies. But when the same paper stood its ground and exposed Malema as a liar, and when the ANC itself reprimanded the proto-fascist for BBC-bashing, the bad stuff seemed to have been a temporary cloud darkening the sky. Instead, things really seem to have become much worse for press freedom. Daylight has been replaced by twilight.[more]

If the ANC should have learnt anything from the dampening of debate during the Thabo Mbeki era, it is this: South Africa needs a free media. Everyone, each ANC tendency included, needs a space where news that is officially out-of-favour is free to try its luck within the arena of public opinion. Yet with some ANC people resurrecting the idea of a statutory Media Tribunal to control the press, it seems this lesson is not yet internalised. So, let’s put it baldly: whichever political tendency rules will use a Tribunal to halt bad publicity about it – including anything that benefits rival tendencies within the same party. You’d be naïve to think that politics doesn’t work like that. [more]

Africans with a sense of history will thank South Africa for the honour done to the continent by the successful hosting of the World Cup. This interesting remark was attributed to the columnist Charles Onyango-Obbo in this weekend’s Sunday Times. The newspaper got it right – this is how he assessed the football experience. But the man being quoted was also incorrectly described by the Sunday Times as being editor of Uganda’s Monitor newspaper. That’s wrong. He is a former editor of that paper, but left as long ago as 2002. Now an executive editor for the Nation Media Group, Onyango-Obbo is amongst the leading journalists in Africa and he really ought to be known as such by Sunday Times journalists.[more]

The SA media have hopped on the patriotic bandwagon over the World Cup, writes Franz Kruger in the Mail & Guardian. But there are worrying signs that there may be an outbreak of xenophobia, which may be the flipside of the patriotism and will need the best journalism the country's media can muster: The World Cup has created an extraordinary opportunity for seeing South African patriotism at its best -- but it has also shown an ugly side that may yet cancel out any improvements in our international reputation. Who can forget the flags that sprouted on cars and homes around the country in the weeks leading up to the kick-off? Traffic became a constant national parade. Patriotic fervour hit its peak just before the opening game against Mexico, and that Friday the entire country seemed to grind to a joyous, vuzuzela-fuelled halt. [more]

Not a vuvuzela was to be heard at the Public Viewing Area at Grahamstown’s Miki Yili field during the high-stakes Portugal-Spain game on Wednesday night. The large screen flickered desolately as seven spectators sat silently on the benches. An equal number stayed in their parked cars as if at a Drive-In cinema. There were more police and ambulance personnel present than the viewers. In contrast, the opening game of the Cup attracted crowds of thousands to the same facility. Wednesday night’s weather was pretty mild for Grahamstown, so that wasn’t the reason for the no show. In the city centre, public viewership was slightly higher. Fifteen people watched the game from the High Street pavement – on a TV set in the shopfront window of Grocott’s Mail newspaper. [more]

Four months in jail with hard labour is hardly the kind of punishment you’d expect to be meted out to a mere journalist. It’s a form of repression you may have thought belonged to the distant past. But in delivering exactly this draconian sentence to a media person earlier this month, a Zambian court has seen fit to defy modern enlightened opinion. The victim of such a Neanderthal attitude is the heroic editor Fred M’membe, founder of the Post. The paper is a long-standing independent crusader for democracy in his country. The “crime” that earned him this barbaric retribution was to publish a column by a US-based commentator criticising the Zambian judiciary for a reactionary decision.[more]

The proposed amendment to the Ugandan Press and Journalist Law has caused quite a stir in the international media and provoked condemnation by international advocacy organizations and diplomats. It would amongst other allow the statutory media council to licence newspapers and revoke licences if they determine that “material …is prejudicial to national security, stability and unity”, which is vague enough to be abused by the powers that be. Yet, international “pressure” cannot get anywhere without a national outcry. Missing local voices give governments ammunition to write off valid criticism as foreign imports, which do not resonate voices on the ground. Andrew M. Mwenda , editor and owner of the Ugandan Weekly “ The Independent” takes civil society and journalists severely to task and asks how local journalists and civil society can claim ownership, if they are not willing to invest money, time or efforts in campaigns to defend their freedom of expression. Read his column titled "Who Will Defend Our Freedoms?"[more]

Hundreds of thousands of viewers around the world will be watching the World Cup kick-off on a pirate basis, and there’s not much that FIFA or the broadcasters can do about it. Global copyright authorities are still debating ways to combat broadcast piracy. The issue is whether to extend protection of property in the content itself, to the ownership of the electronic signal that carries the content. The issue is ongoing at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), and driven by vested interests who are specially affected by unauthorised re-streaming of live sports events. This piracy cuts into the business models of the broadcasters who have paid for the rights, and it also cheapens the value of the rights for the key sporting associations. An example of such piracy was in the 2008 Olympic Games, where 453 online infringement cases were reported. In the European football season prior to that, one source recorded 364 unauthorised web-streaming sites (mainly peer-to-peer based).[more]

Sometimes it’s better to hope for forgiveness, rather than to ask for permission. This is what the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) must be thinking after the group asked FIFA to loosen its limits on journalists delivering coverage to cellphones. What they got instead was a tightening of coverage conditions. The story begins in January with Sanef writing to FIFA pointing out newspapers’ unhappiness with the restrictions. No reply was forthcoming, so the organisation tried again in March. What Sanef wanted was FIFA’s permission to publish World Cup coverage via technologies like cellphone applications. These are software programmes residing on phones – like the well-known Mxit service.[more]

The world's media eyes will soon squarely focus on South Africa, with millions from across the globe tuning in via multimillion-dollar broadcasts. Yet, even as the international media and big broadcasters move in, and journalists descend from all over the world, in South Africa, like much of Africa, community radio is still a key source of information and news for many communities, linking local activities and issues with international perspectives. While other news media, especially print, struggle to keep audiences, community radio listenership in South Africa is continuously rising. According to the South African Advertising Research Foundation, community radio is improving its weekly reach, rising from 7.340-million listeners to 7.713-million between February and May this year alone.[more]

Media coverage helped to make ANC Youth Leader boss Julius Malema into a significant celebrity. What the media now needs is its make its own star who can champion the cause of media freedom.The ANCYL’s attacks on journalists have gone beyond mere criticism. They are intimidating and dirty assaults that threaten the very fundamentals of media freedom. No one in the press is bowing to the pressure – yet. But that could happen unless there’s resistance. The question is whether to fight fire with fire, and to hit back at the spoilers of media freedom with equal rhetoric, aggression and sensation. [more]

The Media Institute of Southern Africa, a regional media and freedom of expression advocacy organisation, based in Windhoek and working through national chapters in 11 Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries joins the rest of the world in marking the World Press Freedom Day on May 3 2010. MISA commemorates May 3 under the theme “Access to Information: The Right to Know”.The 2010 World Press Freedom Day comes at a time when the enjoyment and respect for media and freedom of expression has taken a serious downturn in Southern Africa. We mark May 3 under the shadow of a deterioration of media freedoms throughout the region notably in Swaziland, Zambia and Botswana.The optimism and renewed hope that came with the Government of Unity in Zimbabwe did not last. All seemed so bright; a promise of a new chapter in the media environment of freedom and media law reform for a country that has known repression for too long. The Government of Unity did not deliver. Not yet.[more]

Zimbabwe's power-sharing government has not carried out critical media reforms as promised under the country's September 2008 Global Political Agreement, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.The 26-page report, "Sleight of Hand: Repression of the Media and the Illusion of Reform in Zimbabwe," says that the Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the former sole ruling party, still holds the balance of power in the coalition government forged with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the former opposition movement, in February 2009. ZANU-PF promotes political propaganda and restricts independent reporting through repressive laws that remain unchanged, and it retains its control of security forces and key resources, Human Rights Watch said. "The Global Political Agreement promised reforms that would guarantee transparency and promote free, fair, and credible elections," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "But these have turned out to be empty promises. The power-sharing government is taking no serious steps toward reform."[more]

When 28 000 flights a day to and from Europe are cancelled because of a far-away island’s volcano dust, the people directly affected turn to social media big time.

As one of the many people stranded by the ash cloud, and unable to get home for five days, I also checked out the Internet buzz. Not much punch by the online media, but Twitter was humming with posts, including humour. Amongst the searchable keywords, known as “hashtags” in reference the # before a chosen term, was “#ashtag”. Following that keyword online, you could summon a chuckle at quips being tweeted and re-tweeted, like these: * “All that smoke from the Iceland volcano is God’s way of trying to elect a new pope”. * “Iceland's volcano is called Eyjafjallajokull. And pronounced your-travel-plan-is-screwed”. One website ( see www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/04/iceland_volcano_eyjafjallajoku.html) the US-based National Public Radio, helped out on the name of the culprit, explaining that you simply say: "AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul." They further included audio clips online, just to show that It doesn’t always have to sound like a swearword. [more]

Titled “The feet of the chameleon”, Ian Hawkey’s recent book on African football could equally be dubbed the “feat” of the chameleon. That’s because of the way soccer players on the continent have had to change their national colours in building their careers in exile – and usually against great odds. This book reckons that some 2000 Africans have made it to currently work as professional footballers in Europe. As evidence of the colour-change, Hawkey cites the 2002 World Cup where “the Senegalese team-sheet showed every single player had an address in France, all employed by clubs in the French league.” Feeding this pipeline, according to the book, are thousands of small African football “academies” – perhaps 450 in Cote D’Ivoire’s capital alone. Some big foreign-owned talent-spotting clubs and agencies are also in on the trafficking.[more]

East Africa’s powerful media house, The Nation group, celebrated its 50th birthday last week with a major media conference (see www.panafricamedia2010kenya.com )

Adding continental aspects to the event were two influential bodies that partnered with it: The Africa Media Initiative, a body that is gaining momentum in its quest to become a facility for attracting major funding into the continent’s media sector. Highway Africa( see www.highwayafrica.com ), which operates the world’s largest annual gathering of African journalists, and which launched its “Reporting Development News Agency” at the conference (see http:/reportingdna.org). The gathering drew a host of African politicians as speakers, including Kenya’s top leadership, the Rwandan president and the former leaders of Mozambique and Tanzania.

[more]

As individuals, South Africa’s journalists express themselves in media platforms around the clock. But for the past five years, they’ve lacked a collective professional voice.

This may be about to change, with the launch this coming weekend of the Professional Journalists’ Association (see www.projourn.org.za) . The South African Union of Journalists (SAUJ) closed down five years ago. The Media Workers Association of South Africa (MWASA) is very much broader than journalists, while also limited to concerns like labour disputes. Special interest groups like the Forum of Black Journalists rise and fall. In the past, the journalists’ unions strutted on the national stage, for example in being parties to setting up the Press Ombudsman office in 1996, and in giving testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1997.

The PJA plans to revive this kind of public sphere presence. [more]

Karl Marx famously said the first time history repeats itself is tragic; the second is farce. He wasn’t exactly referring to broadcast licensing in South Africa, but his aphorism may apply.

This issue of who owns broadcasting is important for industry growth, for transformation and for democratic pluralism. But South Africa is in danger of missing the boat of legal reforms that balance these three issues.

Way back in 1993, the Independent Broadcast Authority Act set down limits on who may own radio and TV stations. We still have them today:

- No station can have more than 20% of its shares in foreign hands. - Concentration of radio ownership is limited to no more than four stations, and only two operating in a single broadcast area. - No company can control radio and television licences if it also controls a newspaper with 20 percent or more of its circulation in the broadcast area. [more]

A worldwide movement to promote people’s rights of access to information came to Africa this week. A centre set up by former US president Jimmy Carter (see www.cartercenter.org/accesstoinformation.html) convened a big-guns conference in Ghana to advance the cause across the continent. You might think: “Enough already”. There’s already too much information out there. You’re buckling under the pressures of email, the World Wide Web, Facebook, Twitter, satellite TV bouquets, etc. But “overload” is relative. Lots of people are still outside the information loop. And even in South Africa we still have authoritarian and corrupt officials who rely on information scarcity to resist accountability. Meanwhile, there are probably some facts that you personally would really like to know about...[more]

President Jacob Zuma’s believe in polygamy has become the subject of a heated debate in the South African media. Zuma, who is married to three wives and father of so far 19 marital children and now one extramarital, regularly hits the headlines with his sexual affairs. Journalists, opposition parties and women rights groups accuse the political leader of being a bad role model for the country and argue that his behaviour contradicts his government’s HIV-Campaign, which advocates the use of condoms and faithfulness to one partner . Zuma and his supporters on the other hand see the criticism as “cultural intolerance” and inacceptable interference in private matters.

As reaction to the latest revelations of the president’s fatherhood read Oliver Meth’s thoughts about the impact of the “world’s most famous polygamist” snubbing safe sex on the South African society.

[more]

When a church bans a bishop from speaking to the media, you have to wonder what’s next. Blocking the man from addressing his parishioners?

In the apartheid days, more than 1600 dissidents were banned from speaking in public to more than one person at any given time. And everyone else was prohibited from quoting individuals thus “listed”. (see www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/lives-of-courage/pages/wall/banned/banned_a.html) This time around, it’s not a minority government doing the gagging. It’s the Methodist Church which reportedly suspended Bishop Paul Verryn for allegedly defying its instruction not to talk to the media.

However controversial the Bishop and his Central Methodist Church may be, one would have thought that a free South Africa would have been a beacon of free speech – and not least within the church.[more]

This media column is made possible by cooperation of Mail&Guardian and fesmedia Africa. Read Guy Berger's biweekly analysis at www.fesmedia.org.

This isn’t a movie for rugby nuts. All you need is soft spot for letting a classic narrative lead you through an epic and emotional journey.

Invictus is the screen version, simplified and embellished accordingly, of how Nelson Mandela cannily co-opted a symbol of apartheid. It’s a reminder about how he successfully converted Springbok rugby into a personal and national triumph.

[more]

Yoweri Museveni used to be the darling of the West. After 23 years in power the Ugandan president still cuts a good figure at international summits. Only recently the US-Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice praised the Ugandan military’s peacekeeping deployment in Somalia. Western complaints about Museveni’s arbitrary rule and corruption inside his regime is only whispered behind closed doors.

Yet after having changed the 1995 constitution and lifting the Presidential term limits there is mounting criticism from Ugandan journalists and human rights activists of Museweni’s attempts at clinging to power which is challenged from within his ruling coalition.

Read Evelyn Matsamura Kiapi’s article for the International Press Service (IPS) on how President Museweni’s questionable preparation for the election in 2011 is “colliding with the Fourth Estate”.

[more]

"Reporters Without Borders" launched its annual Press Freedom Index, which measures the state of media freedom in 169 countries worldwide. By using a methodology that focuses mainly on press freedom violations, the more structural limits of media freedom are not taken into account. Yet, despite defining and describing freedom of expression and freedom of media rather superficially, these results and rankings of the Press Freedom Index are often cited by international organisations and human rights groups. For a comprehensive assessment of the media landscape in 26 African countries read more about our own African Media Barometer and the country reports. Below you find the overview about the ranking of some African Countries from the Press Freedom Index of "Reporters Without Borders" . To be seen in context and read with caution.[more]

Ruanda was ranked 183 out of 195 countries in press freedom in 2008. Human Rights organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticise the Ruandan Government for imposing harsh and arbitrary justice. Despite this the government of Paul Kagame has been a donor’s darling for years. Guilt tripped over its shameful role in the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994 western governments have largely refrained from challenging the actions of the Tutsi government in Kigali. A spade of new books take a fresh look at the more complex picture of the genocide and the Ruanda’s role in neighbouring Congo. Read “Kagame’s Hidden War in Congo” by Howard French in the September 24 issue of the New York Review of Books.[more]