MALAWI

Malawi: Information minister threatens journalist

Information and Civic Education minister, Patricia Kaliati is reported to have verbally assaulted freelance journalist, Gregory Gondwe, following the article 'Government condemns Sunday Times assessment', in which Gondwe reports on the annual assessment of the presidential cabinet by the Sunday Times. Read more >>

AFRICA

Building a culture of project management

[Karen Parkin] How does a company get things done if not by project management? It has been around since the days of creating the pyramids in Ancient Egypt. Yet even today in South Africa, project management is an under-valued discipline. Even though it is not rocket science, successful projects remain as elusive as the Scarlett Pimpernel. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Facebook brand page changes require greater PR involvement

[Trevor van der Ven] Facebook's announcement last week - that all brand pages will change over to the new timeline format by month-end - has caused many agencies and marketing departments to ask, "So what?" But this is a milestone for brand pages on the social network and the new format requires a completely new approach. Read more >>

RWANDA

Rwanda makes internet sharing mandatory

As East African internet outages continue, the Rwandan government told telecommunications operators and ISPs on Monday [5 March 2012] to "provide seamless redundancy and diversity of internet bandwidth to guarantee service". Read more >>

AFRICA

Leading African ICT officials join Dubai conference

Top African telecom operators, ICT officials and leaders will be attending a conference on broadband internet and telecommunications issues in Africa and the Middle East later this month. The Executive Summit at Broadband MEA 2012 starts on 26 March and will be held in Dubai, a conference statement said on Monday. Read more >>

KENYA

Election year and media agenda setting

[Carole Kimutai] Michael Joseph, the former CEO of Safaricom, once described Kenyans as having peculiar calling habits. According to a recent media survey by Ipsos Synovate, Kenyans seem to have another peculiar habit, watching news. The quarter four Kenya Audience Research Foundation (KARF) report shows over 80% of Kenyans read and watch local news. That news is politics. Read more >>

MALAWI

Cartoonists protest as MISA announces new awards

[Gregory Gondwe: @Kalipochi] Cartoonists and online publishers have cried foul after the Malawi chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Malawi) announced the inclusion of five more categories for the 2012 NAMISA Annual Media Awards. The media groups said MISA-Malawi should not have left them out because they are also at the heart of media products worldwide. Read more >>

AFRICA

Entries open for Africa business reporting awards

Diageo, the drinks business with a collection of beverage alcohol brands, today opened entires for the annual Africa Business Reporting Awards for 2012. The awards, initiated by Diageo in 2004, recognises journalists and editors who provide high quality coverage of the business environment in Africa. Read more >>

AFRICA

ABN launches new look and training institute

ABN (African Business News), home of the CNBC Africa and Forbes Africa, launched a new-look logo, while also launching a new business unit, the ABN Training Institute. Read more >>

KENYA

KBC strike ends, sack order withdrawn

Nairobi: Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) employees called off their six-day strike on Monday, 5 March 2012, after a crisis meeting with information minister Samuel Poghisio and his permanent secretary, Bitange Ndemo. Read more >>

SOMALIA

Broadcast journalist shot in Galkayo

Mogadishu: The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) is condemns the brutal murder of the broadcast journalist in the restive central Somalia town of Galkayo on Sunday night, 4 March 2012, around 10pm local time by unidentified assailants in the semi-autonomous regions of Puntland. Read more >>

NIGERIA

Politicians want MTN Nigeria's licence revoked

People's Democratic Party, a Nigerian political party, approached a Federal High Court sitting on Monday [5 March 2012] in Abuja aiming to force the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to revoke MTN Nigeria's licence. Read more >>

MALAWI

M-Net increases Africa Magic content

[Gregory Gondwe: @Kalipochi] MultiChoice Malawi has announced that M-Net, the South Africa-based pay TV channel, will be increasing their range of Africa Magic channels in celebration of a decade long service to their viewers. Read more >>

UNITED STATES

ADC Young Guns 10 competition for creatives age 30 and under

NEW YORK, US: The Art Directors Club, a premier organisation for integrated media and reputed to be the first global creative collective of its kind, has announced the launch of the ADC Young Guns 10 competition for creative professionals age 30 or younger. Read more >>

INDIA

The buddy stamp

MUMBAI, INDIA: Smartphones give users endless lists of things to keep them both informed and occupied. One of the latest crazes to hit the industry is the barcode's modern cousin, QR codes, or quick response codes. Read more >>

UNITED STATES

Apple's app store downloads top 25 billion

CUPERTINO, US: Apple has announced that the users of the more than 315 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices worldwide have downloaded more than 25 billion apps from its App Store. The 25 billionth app downloaded, Where's My Water? Free, was downloaded by Chunli Fu of Qingdao, China. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

ANC sticks to its guns on media tribunal

The African National Congress (ANC) is sticking to its guns on the implementation of a media appeals tribunal, and yesterday tasked Parliament to probe the viability of the tribunal. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

SABC blasts corruption probe

[Thabo Mokone] The SABC has blasted the Special Investigating Unit, telling Parliament that its probe into corruption at Auckland Park had not yielded significant value considering the almost R20m paid to it. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Massive leap in home affairs building rental

The home affairs department is paying R33m a year rental for its new Pretoria headquarters, more than one-and-a-half times what it previously paid for office space. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Nkwinti explains 30% land target

The confusion over the kind of land that made up the government's 30% land redistribution target had led to a debate by Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder and others over South Africa's land issues, the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti said on Thursday last week. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Motsoaledi resolute on banning alcohol ads

[Gabi Khumalo] Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi is forging ahead with his campaign to ban alcohol advertisements. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Visitors, invasive species and climate change threaten pristine Antarctica

Antarctica's reputation as one of the most pristine environments on earth is being threatened by foreign plants and animals that are unwittingly being brought to the icy continent in the luggage of tourists and scientists. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Velvet Sky still grounded

Velvet Sky has been unable to reinstate flights. Although the airline expected to continue with its flights today - 6 March - it will be unable to do so due to legal proceedings. Spokesman Gary Webb confirmed that the matter of the BP motion for liquidation was still pending. Velvet Sky served arguments yesterday, 5 March. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Ballet as we like it

[Debbie Hathway] When tremendous feats are performed, onlookers want to know one thing: How did they do it? On the international dance stage and, more specifically, last week at the six-day Cape Town International Ballet Competition in the Mother City, dance aficionados wanted to know two things: How did they do it and how were they scored by the panel of international dance luminaries? Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Extreme X-cess

[Daniel Dercksen] With films like Hangover and its sequel, producer-director Todd Phillips has turned vulgarity into an art form, and with Project X, he clearly shows that the extreme form of excess is not only entertaining and may result in box office gold, but that being offensive and rude are funny, if not hilarious. Read more >>