EAST AFRICA

Ethiopia: Two journalists arrested, pressure mounts on media

ADDIS ABABA: Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrests of two journalists working for privately-owned newspapers in the past few days. The latest victim is Reyot Alemu, a young woman reporter for the Amharic-language weekly Feteh, who was arrested on 21 June, two days after the arrest of Woubeshet Taye, the deputy editor of the Amharic-language Awramba Times. Read more >>

AFRICA

Social media the next frontier for social responsibility

[Michelle Atagana] Social media has practically been used in every way known to man. It is not surprising, therefore, that the next phase in social media usage lies in businesses' corporate social responsibility portfolios. Read more >>

AFRICA

Egyptian human rights speaker to address iWeek conference

Speakers from six continents are billed to speak at the South African internet industry's annual iWeek gathering, while the International Internet Industry Alliance (IIIA) and the Wireless Access Providers' Association hold their annual meetings simultaneously. Ramy Raoof, online media officer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, is included in the line-up. Read more >>

AFRICA

Opera browser now comes in Zulu and Swahili

Opera Software released the newest update to its desktop web browser, Opera 11.50, which is now available for the first time in Swahili and Zulu. Read more >>

WEST AFRICA

Hughes, Bharti Airtel awarded for innovation

GERMANTOWN: Global broadband satellite solutions and services provider Hughes Network Systems and its customer, Bharti Airtel, were named winners of the Global Telecoms Business (GTB) Innovation Award for Satellite Voice and Data Innovation for their African Sotelma project. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Andy Davis digs up the underground with Mahala

[Herman Manson: @marklives] Andy Davis's name may forever be associated with the defunct student magazine SL. It really shouldn't be. The not terribly rebellious and long-dead youth magazine, which he used to edit in the early part of the previous decade, has been properly usurped by the creation of Davis's own publication - the youth-orientated Mahala magazine and website. Read more >>

UGANDA

Uganda: Publishers increase newspaper prices

[Walter Wafula] Publishers of Uganda's most read newspapers will increase cover prices of their publications this July as they move to cushion their profits from rising production costs. On Tuesday, 28 June 2011, New Vision Printing and Publishing Company Limited (Vision Group), the publisher of The New Vision newspaper, said it would increase the cover price of the weekday newspapers from UGX1,200 to UGX1,500, on 1 July 2011. Read more >>

MALAWI

Malawi: Government hails Zodiak Online launch

[Gregory Gondwe] Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) late last week officially launched its online service which government has said is an innovative diversifying of services which will help market the country to the world. Read more >>

AFRICA

ITNewsAfrica collaborates with USAID

Johannesburg-based ICT publication, ITNewsAfrica and the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Global Broadband and Innovations portal have entered into a knowledge and resource sharing agreement, whereby ITNewsAfrica will contribute local and African news articles to the USAID's GBI web portal. Read more >>

KENYA

Nairobi becomes new centre for media research agency

NAIROBI: US media research agency InterMedia has opened its third office in the world - after Washington and London - in Nairobi, Kenya. The launch of InterMedia Africa comes in conjunction with the AITEC Broadcast & Film Africa 2011 conference. InterMedia's launch into Africa will be celebrated on 6 July 2011, following the first day of conference activities. Read more >>

AFRICA

Africa's economy rebounds without jobs

[Kingsley Ighobor] Alimamy Bangura, a rice farmer in Makeni, eastern Sierra Leone, is unlikely to read the 2011 Economic Report on Africa written by experts of the African Union (AU) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). The report forecasts a 5% economic growth rate for the continent this year. Read more >>

JAPAN

Underlying adspend recovery despite turmoil in Japan, Middle East

TOKYO, JAPAN: Return on investment focused media agency ZenithOptimedia has released its 2011 Advertising Expenditure Forecasts revealing interesting shifts in global ad expenditure. Zenith reports that an estimated US$2.4 billion* was knocked off adspend as a result of the turmoil in the Middle East and the earthquake in Japan. Read more >>

UNITED KINGDOM

Global TV advertising market looks forward to bumper 2012

[Adam Thomas] LONDON, UK: New forecasts from Informa Telecoms & Media show that global net TV advertising revenues are expected to climb by 3.8% in 2011 to US$149 billion*. This follows a 10.3% increase in 2010, which rebounded from an extremely difficult year in 2009, when global revenues dropped 8.1%. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Flowers from Cape Grace... a la cart

[Brian Berkman: contributing editor, travel] Guests at The Cape Grace Hotel often talk about the "special touch" that makes them willing to pay the premium required to be a guest at one of the V&A Waterfront's costliest addresses. Now you can have your cake as well - and eat it. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Unforgettable Script

[Jordan Scott] We Capetonians have been incredibly lucky to receive so many amazing international bands lately and the Irish trio that graced the stage of the Grand Arena was no exception. I cannot speak for the Joburg folk, but the show The Script put on for us was something that I will never forget. Read more >>