Marketing to the uninterested
[Steve Smith] The other day, and for the tenth time in the last year, I showed my mother how to answer her cellphone.

AFRICA

The whole world is watching: Google shines light on refugee camps
[Keith Regan] Google and the UN High Commission for Refugees - the United Nations agency responsible for tracking and caring for refugees from the world's conflicts - unveiled a Web-based mapping tool on Tuesday, 8 April, meant to help raise awareness of displaced populations.

India-Africa Summit to forge strategic economic relations
The first India-Africa summit is currently underway in the India capital, New Delhi, with the aim of forging a strategic economic partnership between the two regions.

ZIMBABWE

Times reporter released on bail, trial set for this week
A New York Times reporter and a British national were released on bail from Zimbabwe's Harare Central Prison on 7 April 2008 after spending five days in detention on charges of reporting without accreditation.

Liberian newspaper threatened with lawsuit over alleged defamation
The National Chronicle, one of Liberia's daily newspapers, is being threatened with a lawsuit by a member of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's inner circle.

Don't kill the blogger
[Mick Brady] If blogging is tough on one's equanimity and consequently one's overall health, then posting comments in response to published articles must be risky too. Imagine the elevated blood pressure some of those irate critics must experience as they furiously type away. They could be headed for aneurysms, strokes or lengthy sessions of beating their heads against walls.

It's the economy stupid!
[Lance Mambondiani] The recent Zimbabwean elections have generated unprecedented excitement for many stakeholders as a defining moment for the future of Zimbabwe.

AFRICA

India offers trade privileges to African countries
[P. Vijian] Recognising the importance of market access to ensure the development of international trade, India is engaging the African states and offering trade privileges to the continent which has more than 900 million people.

SOUTH AFRICA

The latest and greatest in branded entertainment
[Stanley Edwards] Stanley Edwards, director of Platypus Productions, is once again at MIPTV 2008 in Cannes, running 7 – 11 April 2008, and is reporting daily for Bizcommunity from the conference programme "Audiences on the Move", which has more than 40 sessions featuring over 150 entertainment innovators. This is the freshest global perspective on television programming, advertising and media, telco-media convergence, online video, mobile media and social networking.


Battle gets down and dirty over TV white spaces
US - Ten months before the nation flips to digital television, US technology companies and TV broadcasters are fighting over the virtual remote, with different ideas of what to do with the unused airwaves. In South Africa last year, Cabinet announced that the digital signal for SA viewers will be switched on from 1 November 2008; and though the migration will take three years to complete, will the country see a similar vie for TV "white space"?