EAST AFRICA

Swedish-Eritrean awarded 2011 Golden Pen of Freedom

Dawit Isaak, founder of Eritrea¹s first independent newspaper, who has been imprisoned for the past nine years without charge or trial, has been awarded the 2011 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). WAN-IFRA has called on Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki to immediately free Isaak. Read more >>

CENTRAL AFRICA

DRC: Authorities urged to free detained journalist

KINSHASA: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has expressed concern about Tumba Lumembu, a journalist who has been detained in Kinshasa for the past six weeks, and has urged the authorities to free him. A reporter for the newspaper La Tempête des Tropiques, he was abducted on a street in the capital on 15 September 2010 by members of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR). Read more >>

AFRICA

[IMCC] Targeted, less intrusive advertising needed - Walter Pike

[Sindy Peters: Africa editor] Walter Pike believes that the whole premise of interrupting people through advertising is falling away as people are connecting and consuming media in different ways, making old methods of advertising irrelevant. Pike was speaking on day two of the Integrated Marketing Communication Conference on Thursday, 28 October 2010. [presentation] Read more >>

AFRICA

SA's Khune named Kiwi African ambassador

Itumeleng Khune, the South African football team's goalkeeper has been named the African ambassador for shoe polish brand, Kiwi. The Kiwi campaign, which also features 800m runner and world record holder, David Rudisha, as the East African ambassador, launched late last week. Read more >>

NIGERIA

How the Nigerian president is using Facebook

[Jeremy Daniel] Politicians around the world have woken up to the potential of Facebook and Twitter as unfiltered platforms from which they can deliver their message to a receptive audience. But few have taken it up as effectively and with the same gusto as Nigeria's wonderfully-named President, Goodluck Jonathan. Read more >>

ANGOLA

Angola hosts fashion, beauty expo

Fashion Business Angola, a fashion and beauty expo will take place over four days in Luanda, Angola from 9-12 December 2010. The event will be held during the International Fair of Luanda (FIL) exhibiting designers from around the African continent as well abroad. Read more >>

COTE D'IVOIRE

Côte d'Ivoire: RSF concerned over unethical electoral reporting

ABIDJAN: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has voiced its concern about the language and hyperbole used by the privately-owned dailies Le Nouveau Réveil, Notre Voie and Le Patriote yesterday, 28 October 2010, four days before the first round of the presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire. Read more >>

AFRICA

What can online publishers learn from gaming?

[Niel Bekker] The demise of mainstream print media is now taken as gospel by many leading editors and media thinkers, while an even more radical idea - that there may not be any online future for existing newsrooms - is also being put forward. Whether or not you believe in that nightmare scenario is not important right now. What everyone in the news media does seem to agree about, is that engaging their online audiences is stupendously important. Read more >>

AFRICA

Google to fund digital journalism innovation

WASHINGTON: Google, which has had strained relations with some US newspaper publishers, announced on Tuesday (26 October 2010) it was donating five million dollars to encourage innovation in digital journalism. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

[IMCC] Mobile is not overhyped - Vincent Maher

[Sindy Peters: Africa editor] Is mobile overhyped as a platform to reach consumers? Does content need to be shortened and dumbed down for mobile users? These were some of the questions answered by Vincent Maher, co-founder of Motribe, on Thursday, 28 October 2010, day two of the Integrated Marketing Communication Conference, organised by Living Your Brand. Read more >>

KENYA

MTN Kenya rebrands to MTN Business Kenya

MTN Business, a wholly-owned division of telecommunications company MTN, on Wednesday (27 October 2010) celebrated the integration of UUNET Kenya into its stable, through a rebranding exercise to MTN Business Kenya with immediate effect. Read more >>

SOUTHERN AFRICA

SA, Mozambique to review partnership

PRETORIA: President Jacob Zuma will on Friday (29 October 2010) host his Mozambican counterpart, Armando Emilio Guebuza, to discuss the consolidation of economic relations between the two countries. The two are set to co-chair the SA-Mozambique Heads of State Economic Bilateral Forum. Read more >>

UNITED STATES

Adobe celebrates winners of 10th annual Design Achievement Awards

LOS ANGELES, US/JOHANNESBURG, SA: Adobe Systems Incorporated has announced the winners of its 10th annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards (ADAA), celebrating global student achievements that bring technology and the creative arts together. Read more >>

UNITED KINGDOM

Cannes Lions to launch Creative Effectiveness category in 2011

LONDON, UK: The organisers of the 58th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival have announced the launch of the Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions in 2011. Creative Effectiveness Lions will honour creativity which has shown a measurable and proven impact on a client's business - creativity that effects consumer behaviour, brand equity, sales, and where identifiable, profit. Read more >>

UNITED KINGDOM

D&AD Student Awards 2011: Your pencil, your potential

LONDON, UK: The D&AD Student Awards have gone live with a new set of exciting challenges in advertising and design from some of the world's leading brands. The 21 briefs are available to download for free from www.dandad.org/studentawards. Read more >>