Fortunately, good sense has prevailed in the sage of the subpoena to force eTV to identify the criminals they recently interviewed. The police have reportedly agreed to follow the path of consultation and conflict-avoidance set out in the 1999 agreement between government and editors.
Continue Reading Add comment January 26th, 2010
These days I seem to get published more in Afrikaans than English. For Rapport, on Sunday, I wrote about my marriage … and Section 205 of the Criminal Procedure Act.
Continue Reading 2 comments January 25th, 2010
In Beeld this Saturday, I wrote of the implications of the Minister of Communications publishing what was the worst piece of draft legislation I have seen ever. What does it mean if one puts out a scrappy, contradictory, ill-considered Bill that has not even been discussed with your cabinet colleagues?
Continue Reading Add comment January 25th, 2010
I also had a bad experience of lazy journalism from a leading national business publication this week - one from whom I have come to expect higher standards.
Continue Reading Add comment January 25th, 2010
The new National Director of Public Prosecutions, Menzi Simelane, has reportedly banned all 3 000 prosecutors who fall under him from talking to the media without permission. In doing so, he is showing, again, his lack of appreciation for the principles and values enshrined in our constitution. He is also flying in the face of ANC policy.
Continue Reading Add comment January 21st, 2010
I just had a call from SABC Durban, a reporter from Radio Lotus, asking me to be available for their morning news programme tomorrow. I will phone you before to tell you what questions we are going to ask you, so that we don’t catch you off guard, he said.
Continue Reading 2 comments January 21st, 2010
You can accuse Jon Qwelane of many things, but never of being diplomatic. He has made a life’s work of being rambunctious, otherwise, outspoken, contrary, troublesome and sharp-tongued. And that’s just the polite part. Now there is talk of this journalist being made an Ambassador.
Continue Reading Add comment January 20th, 2010
On the eTV controversy, I think there are two separate questions to ask and answer: was eTV wise to run this interview; and are the police wise to react so sternly?
Continue Reading 3 comments January 18th, 2010
The police are wrong to accuse eTV of promoting criminality or harbouring criminals with their interview of two unidentified men who promised violence and murder during the 2010 World Cup. They are also foolish to subpoena the station.
Continue Reading 1 comment January 18th, 2010
Two adverts caught my eye: Sunday Time’s giant front pages on buildings across Joburg and a mysterious bottle of whisky in the middle of a page in The Times.
Continue Reading 2 comments November 27th, 2009
Probing behind the Nasper’s results shows some interesting things: how bad things are in newspapers, how our TV market is changing quietly, and just how big and powerful Naspers is.
Continue Reading 2 comments November 27th, 2009
Last week’s newspaper circulation figures indicate that we may have joined the many countries seeing a rapid decline of the industry. Only one daily and one Sunday newspaper were the exception as sales plunged. Usually there are some that go up and some down, but this time it plummeted across the board.
Continue Reading 1 comment November 25th, 2009
In California, you can be your own virtual news editor, getting journalists to cover stories you think are important. If, that is, enough people agree with you that it is worth paying a few dollars for the story. Through the website www.spot.us, you can deal directly with journalists looking for work.
Continue Reading Add comment November 25th, 2009
Professor Anton Harber directs the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at Wits University. He is former editor of the Mail & Guardian.
Full bio
Among the main results from the World Association of Newspaper’s Newsroom Barometer (a survey of 700 editors and senior news execs in 120 countries) for this year:
- 86% believe integrated print and online newsrooms will become the norm, and 83% believe journalists will be expected to be able to produce content for all media within five years.
- Two-thirds believe some editorial functions will be outsourced, despite frequent newsroom opposition to the practice.
- A plurality - 44% - believe on-line will be the most common platform for reading news in the future, compared with 41% last year. Thirty-one cited print (down from 35% last year), 12% mobile and 7% e-paper. The rest were unsure.
- A majority of editors - 56%- believe news in the future will be free, up from 48% from last year’s survey. Only one-third believe the news will remain paid for, while 11% were unsure. - From Editors’ Weblog
There is a crisis in trust and communication between the British public and the mainstream media, a new report has concluded. The gulf between public expectations of news provision and the actual nature of articles, which oscillate between esoteric or irresponsible, leaves readers feeling confused and excluded.
The report, entitled ‘Public Trust In The News’ was conducted by researchers from Manchester and Leeds Universities and was published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. - From Editors Weblog
Reflections on Journalism in the Transition to Democracy - Ethics & International Affairs 18, no. 3 (2004).
Journalism in the Age of the Market
- Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture, Centre for Civil Society, University of KZN, Aug 2002
The Untimely Death of SA’s Finest Daily - Sunday Times, May 2005
“Two Newspapers, Two Nations? The Media and the Xenophobic Violence” from Go Home or Die Here, edited by Shireen Hassim Tawana Kupe and Eric Worby (WUP, 2008)
Remarks at Goedgedacht Forum, October 2008
The rise of social network journalism - From The 2009 Flux Trend Review (Macmillan, 2008)
A recent piece by me on the Zapiro cartoon row which appeared in Comment is Free, a Guardian blog.
