eTV comes of age with eNews
Walk around the sparkling new high-tech newsroom that eTV has built for eNews, its 24-hour news pay-TV channel, and you sense a small, spunky station coming of age.
Continue Reading 1 comment June 8th, 2008
Tread carefully on SABC funding
Government funding for the SABC could be a boon to public broadcasting. Or it could be a total disaster, depending on how it is done.
Continue Reading Add comment April 17th, 2008
SABC and funding
Does the prospect of direct government funding for the SABC bode well for broadcasting? It is an important question.
Continue Reading Add comment January 10th, 2008
A prediction: all predictions will be wrong, including this one
A basic rule in journalism is that there is only one prediction one can make with confidence, and that is that one’s predictions will likely be wrong.
Continue Reading 1 comment December 4th, 2007
Who is the real conservative?
My Business Day column of today: SABC boss Dali Mpofu called me a “rightwing conservative�. Last time we had a public disagreement he called me an “ultra-rightwinger�. Let me spell out a few things about myself, so you can judge.
Continue Reading 3 comments September 12th, 2007
They have Carte Blanche - even to mess with journalism
Somebody tell George Mazarakis of Carte Blanche to stop defending his Gert van Rooyen story. He must do what his programme has done before, to their credit: admit that they erred and set the record straight.
Continue Reading Add comment August 12th, 2007
A breakthrough in broadcasting: a global channel no-one can see?
It is excellent news that the SABC is launching a 24-hour international news channel to bring an African perspective to global coverage. There is only one detail that is being left out: will anyone be able to see it?
Continue Reading 2 comments July 19th, 2007
Adriaan Vlok - My part in his downfall
It is a small thing forgotten by all except me and my immediate family, I suspect, but I had a part to play in the downfall of cabinet minister Adriaan Vlok (now facing murder charges). Those around in the early 1990s, might remember that I confronted him with evidence of Inkathagate on live television one Sunday night. He was demoted a few days later. It is worth recounting the story because it was the first and last time the SABC allowed a rambunctious, angry, independent journalist to go head-to-head with a cabinet minister.
Continue Reading 3 comments July 18th, 2007
The world has changed, Dali
SABC may have a tantrum about losing rights to South Africa’s Premier Soccer League, but if they don’t wake up to the fact that the world has changed forever in the relationship between sport and broadcasting, they will lose out badly. Remember Rupert Murdoch …
Continue Reading 3 comments June 20th, 2007
ANC’s new views on the media
The ANC’s latest discussion document on the media is more interesting for what it does not deal with than what it does deal with. Here is my analysis.
Continue Reading 1 comment June 17th, 2007
News, news, news
I have returned from a few days abroad and come home to find a new daily newspaper and two new television news channels (CNBC and Al Jazeerah International). It is extaordinary how fluid our media market is.
Continue Reading 3 comments June 13th, 2007
The first YouTube killing spree
In the midst of his killing spree last week, the Virginia-Tech killer took time off to pop into a post office and send his multimedia manifesto to a major television network. Then he went back to the campus to shoot more of his fellow students. Cho Seung-hui, it seems, had pre-recorded a video, indicating that his killing was not an outburst, but a planned event. And, like all good event planners, he had his media schedule in hand.
Continue Reading Add comment April 24th, 2007
“Clarification” from the DoC
I am pleased to see that the Department of Communications has been quick to back off from the threat to stop the licensing of new pay-TV operations.
Continue Reading 1 comment April 12th, 2007
