Daily Sun did a book launch?
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
Why I did Diepsloot
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
Diepsloot - the book
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
The excellent is truly excellent
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
Jerks and knee-jerks
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
An Africa-wide view of media regulation
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
A Vuvuzela democracy
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
On Garda!
An SAfm producer called me yesterday to ask if I would join them on their Sunday media programme - on Human Rights Day - to talk with Ashraf Garda about media infringements of peoples’ rights. Isn’t that interesting? The problem is framed purely as media infringing rights, and there is no desire to talk about the overwhelming majority of times when the media protected, promoted and encouraged peoples’ rights.
Continue Reading Add comment March 19th, 2011
The ANC cared so much, they didn’t turn up
The ANC were notably absent from this week’s Press Council public hearings. Having called for reform of the Council, and having welcomed the Council’s move to open up a public debate, the ANC did not make any submissions and did not even send anyone along to listen. They could not be bothered to show even perfunctory interest.
Continue Reading 2 comments February 18th, 2011
That was a stupid move, Helen
The Democratic Alliance held the high ground on media freedom - and then gave it away when they “blacklisted” a journalist.
Continue Reading 1 comment February 18th, 2011
Wikileaks: Lessons from the past
The Oscar-nominated documentary, “The Most Dangerous Man in America”, could not be more timely. Released last year, it told the story of Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and was charged with espionage – and puts in dramatic perspective the current row over Wikileak’s Julian Assange.
Continue Reading Add comment February 16th, 2011
Jimmy Manyi - a surprise appointment, to say the least
The appointment of the outspoken Jimmy Manyi to the joint task of head of the Government Communications and Information Service (GCIS) and chief government spokesperson is an unexpected one. There are a number of reasons for this.
Continue Reading 3 comments February 3rd, 2011
The new thing: web curating
Okay, it’s not so new, but it is becoming more prevalent - and it is certainly changing my reading habits. I am talking about curated sites - where smart people select and present information and articles from all over the web, and put them in an accessible form for people in a hurry to find good reads.
Continue Reading Add comment January 30th, 2011