MALAWI

Malawi: Court releases journalist unconditionally

[Gregory Gondwe] The Malawi court has released Nyasa Times online journalist Collins Mtika, arrested for covering Malawi's 20 July anti-government demonstrations, after spending five days in prison. The Mzuzu senior resident magistrate court gave bail to Mtika who was arrested last week Thursday, 21 July 2011. Read more >>

EAST AFRICA

Two Ethiopian journalists released on bail after 15 months

NEW YORK: The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed last weeks ruling in Ethiopia to release on bail two journalists imprisoned on pre-trial detention for the last 15 months on vague criminal charges. Read more >>

EAST AFRICA

Sudan: Journalist jailed for reporting rape allegations

PARIS: Amal Habani, a woman reporter for the daily Al-Jarida, was on Monday, 25 July 2011, sentenced to a fine of £2,000 (€600) or a month in jail for reporting a woman activist's claims that she was raped by members of the security forces. As Habani refused to pay the fine, she was immediately taken to Omdurman women's prison, northwest of the capital, to begin serving the jail sentence. Read more >>

AFRICA

BT hints at plans to build SA fibre network

[Craig Wilson and Duncan McLeod] A senior BT Group official has hinted that the company, formerly known as British Telecom, is "close to" investing in fibre projects in Africa, and in "SA in particular", as demand for high-capacity infrastructure in the region explodes. Read more >>

AFRICA

Gateway Communications launches online data platform

Gateway Communications has launched Gateway Data on Demand, which will allow its customers to purchase pre-paid wholesale data directly from the company's website, without the need for a long-term contract. Read more >>

AFRICA

ITNewsAfrica Innovation Dinner to host international speaker

ICT publication ITNewsAfrica, has confirmed that international guest speaker Theodore Forbath, VP for innovation strategy at Frog International, will be a keynote speaker at the 31 August 2011, ITNewsAfrica Innovation Dinner. Read more >>

ZIMBABWE

Business as usual for Trustco Mobile in Zimbabwe

Trustco Mobile's operation in Zimbabwe will be back on track soon, following an interim order handed down by the High Court of Zimbabwe against Econet, a company incorporated in Zimbabwe. Trustco Mobile is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Namibian-listed Trustco Group (TTO), which is also listed on the Africa Board of the JSE. Read more >>

TANZANIA

Continental Outdoor Media, eighth best SME in Tanzania - survey

Continental Outdoor Media has been ranked eighth out of 100 SME's in Tanzania in a survey conducted by Synovate in East Africa. The survey, the brainchild of KPMG and The Citizen (in Tanzania), ranked Tanzania's businesses with a turnover of between Sh1 billion and Sh20 billion and was based on profitability, liquidity, return on equity and level of indebtedness, among other performance indicators. The integration process of East Africa's five economies has deepened in the past six years with the Common External Tariff (CET) that reduced to zero the tariff barriers to trade among member states.

SOUTH AFRICA

Radio's future in Africa: blight or bright?

[Issa Sikiti da Silva: @sikitimedia] Radio industry watchers and radio bosses believe radio's future in South Africa, Africa and across the world is as bright as ever, and will remain a force to be reckoned with for many years to come. This emerged at the second Joburg Radio Days conference, currently taking place at Wits University in Johannesburg. Read more >>

AFRICA

'Apply with LinkedIn' - The future of job applications

[Michelle Atagana] Professional social networking site, LinkedIn, has launched a new plugin which allows users to apply for jobs directly via the service. The plugin, Apply with LinkedIn, is designed to make applying for a job easy, with the service calling it "the future of job applications". Read more >>

AFRICA

80% of Africa population is unbanked - banking conference

[Issa Sikiti da Silva: @sikitimedia] Close to 80% of Africa's adult population is unbanked and this portion represents a total of 326 million adults, State Bank of Mauritius CEO Gautam Vir revealed at the Retail Banking Africa conference currently taking place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rosebank, Johannesburg. Read more >>

GERMANY

Editors can make better use of Facebook, social media: WEF

PARIS, FRANCE / DARMSTADT, GERMANY: From Twitter and Facebook, to crowdsourcing and gathering readers' photos, to community events: newspapers now have abundant ways to interact with their readers online. The World Editors Forum, to be held in Vienna from 12 to 15 October next, will focus on the new tools of social media to help editors build communities around their newspapers. Read more >>

UNITED STATES

USA consumer confidence drops in Q2 2011

NEW YORK, US: Global online consumer confidence declined to its lowest level in six quarters as economic recovery hit a stumbling block and recessionary jitters again reverberated around the world, according to second quarter findings of Nielsen's Global Online Consumer Confidence Survey. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Orlando is very easy to like

[Henrie Geyser: motoring editor] Chevrolet South Africa has added a Big Easy to its local line-up in the shape of an all-new, family-friendly, easy-riding Orlando MPV seven-seater Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Southern Sun goes face-to-face with social

[Brian Berkman: contributing editor, travel] Now that Southern Sun has embraced social media-site Facebook beyond using it as a fan page, other hotel groups are set to follow. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Let's party with OFM - in sunny Mauritius!

Nobody really needs a reason to take a stunning tropical holiday. But it doesn't hurt to have a good one anyway... So Thompsons Holidays, in partnership with OFM and MiWay, presents the Mauritius Tour, a six-night holiday to mark the radio station's 25th birthday. Read more >>