THESE are glorious days for journalism. We celebrate the end of the Rupert Murdoch era, in which he systematically degraded what we do and wielded a malign influence in London and Washington. His corruptive hold over the British establishment is broken, and this can only lead to a waning of his power and influence in the media world.
Continue Reading 1 comment July 15th, 2011
Branko Brkic is an editor’s dream and a publisher’s nightmare. He is a groundbreaker in South African publishing. He boldly starts new titles, usually with brilliant content, design and marketing, and charges in headfirst – with admirable courage and independence of spirit.
Continue Reading Add comment July 15th, 2011
WHY is Jimmy Manyi trying to steal my job? He is government spokesman, but from everything he says it is clear he really wants to be a media critic. That’s my job. Since he is trying to do my job, I will have a shot at thinking about what I would do if I had his.
Continue Reading Add comment June 23rd, 2011
Some of the reviews of my book …
Continue Reading 2 comments June 7th, 2011
We should be careful not to romanticize war photographers. Anyone who has spent time with a bunch of them will know that it is easy to glorify the mixture of courage and foolishness, the adrenalin addiction, the search for “bang-bang” that drives them. But we must never stop appreciating them, and what they do for us …
Continue Reading Add comment June 5th, 2011
Corina van der Spoel of Boekehuis sent me this pic with this note: Herewith a photo a friend took the other night at Diepsloot. These three guys turned up at their local only to find the launch in progress. Here they are caught in the act of looking at your book. They didn’t have money to buy it and soon after left, only to return with enough money between the three of them to buy one copy.
Continue Reading Add comment May 19th, 2011
I am proud to say that I believe this was the first book launch every covered by the Daily Sun. Here is the cutting …
Continue Reading 1 comment May 13th, 2011
After the momentous Polokwane conference (I said at the launch of my book Diepsloot), I wrote a column in Business Day asking why us journalists had got Zuma and the ANC so wrong. My conclusion was that we were focused on the edifices of power - parliament, Union Buildings and so on - and needed to examine the foundations …
Continue Reading Add comment May 13th, 2011
My book is out! Here is the blurb: In little more than a decade, Diepsloot has transformed from a semi-rural expanse to a dense, seething settlement of about 200 000 people.
Continue Reading 1 comment May 6th, 2011
Every year this time, a group of us sit down and study the best journalism of the year. We are judging the Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism, and it allows us a rare chance to focus on the top 5% of our reporting.
Continue Reading 1 comment April 17th, 2011
That crumpling sound you are hearing is the sound of knees jerking. It is the traditional soundtrack for much of our journalism, but it has been particularly loud in recent weeks on one particular story.
Continue Reading Add comment April 17th, 2011
There are a lot of differences in media across Africa, and a wide range of media regulation systems in this big continent. But when media people from 21 African countries got together at Wits University last week, there were two things that brought swift consensus.
Continue Reading Add comment April 17th, 2011
Ours is a vuvuzela democracy: noisy in a joyous and sometimes painful way, repeatedly testing our tolerance for unpleasant – even harmful – cacophony.
Continue Reading Add comment April 17th, 2011