Happy birthday Madiba! - 16 Jul 2012[Evan-Lee Courie @evan1985] Wednesday, 18 July 2012 marks the 94th birthday of South Africa's living legend, Nelson Mandela. read more Happy Birthday to Africa’s youngest state, South Sudan - 9 Jul 2012[Evan-Lee Courie @evan1985] Just one year ago, South Sudan achieved independence by becoming Africa's 54th state. The past 366 days (2012 is a leap year) must have been an exciting time for the South Sudanese with a whiff of promise in the air and a new-found hope in what the future holds, but it has also been a year filled with corruption and a weakening economic crisis that underlines the difficulties of constructing a state. read more BFMA Conference takes place next week - 2 Jul 2012[Evan-Lee Courie @evan1985] The 2012 Broadcast, Film & Music Africa Conference, hosted by AITEC Africa is just days away, taking place from 10-11 July 2012 at the Oshwal Centre in Nairobi, Kenya with the theme 'Innovation, investment and partnerships for local content and service excellence'. This conference, now in its fouth year, is aimed at evaluating opportunities for growth in the industry, and is simply known by broadcasters, filmmakers and advertising agencies as BFMA. The conference is expected to provide a platform for thoughtleaders and industry players to to assess trends in film, broadcast and music business in Africa, Europe, the US and Asia. read more MTN, not so Ayoba after all... - 25 Jun 2012[Evan-Lee Courie @evan1985] I've been a MTN subscriber for a good number of years and until recently I never had any real issues with this network operator. I recently upgraded my contract and got the very slick Samsung Galaxy S3 (which I am very happy with - it has some amazing features!). read more How many days left until the Olympic Games? - 18 Jun 2012[Evan-Lee Courie @evan1985] As the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games draw near, I began to wonder just how many days there were until the opening ceremony. In my search I discovered that there were just about 40 days until the opening ceremony. read more That not so stable internet connection - 11 Jun 2012[Evan-Lee Courie @evan1985] There is nothing worse than arriving at work on a Monday morning ready to take on the week and all of a sudden you're faced with a speed-bump in your daily routine - like not being able to upload content for your readers. Working in an online environment has its advantages, and it also has its disadvantages. read more Cheers to Africa! - 4 Jun 2012[Evan-Lee Courie @evan1985] WOW! Can you believe that we are officially half way through 2012? Time really does fly when you're having fun! Some of the news and events that took place in the past six months include:
Seeing Africa in a new light - 28 May 2012[Evan-Lee Courie @evan1985] Friday, 25 May 2012 marked Africa Day, the annual commemoration of the 1963 founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). In 1963, leaders of 30 of the 32 independent African states signed a founding charter in Ethiopia. read more Media in Malawi - 21 May 2012[Evan-Lee Courie @evan1985] By the look of things, it seems the president of Malawi, Joyce Banda, is showing no sign of slowing down since being sworn in as president, after the passing of late president Bingu wa Mutharika. Since her appointment as president of the country, she has fired the then Information and Civic Education Minister, Patricia Kaliati, and the CEO of Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), Bright Malopa. She then appointed Moses Kunkuyu as Information and Civic Education Minister, while broadcaster Dr. read more A week of launches - 14 May 2012[Evan-Lee Courie @evan1985] Last week saw the launching of the African News Innovation Challenge, the West Africa Cable System, Airtel's Green Data Centre and the ITWeb Africa website. With the help of generous sponsors, Google launched the African News Innovation Challenge which looks for ideas that will transform the way that African media work and to help African journalism flourish in the digital age. I look forward to seeing some of the great ideas that will emerge from this challenge. read more Moving along... - 7 May 2012[Evan-Lee Courie @evan1985] So after all the public holidays that we've been having here in South Africa, things are pretty much back to normal once again in the office. Last week we celebrated World Press Freedom Day. This day, observed annually on 3 May globally, focuses on the importance of the freedom of the press and freedom of expression. read more New research puts spotlight on how – and why – ads work - 30 Apr 2012[Rod Baker, Content Director] Researchers at the University of Los Angeles in the US have found that when it comes to which ads are winners your brain knows better than you do. Neuroscientists at the university used brain data to predict how large populations will respond to advertisements. It's sad, but true, that one of the world's most dangerous professions is journalism. read more Countdown to World Press Freedom Day - 23 Apr 2012[Evan-Lee Courie @evan1985] Next week Thursday, 3 May 2012, is World Press Freedom Day, which marks the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in 1991 in Windhoek, Namibia. This year, the main celebration of World Press Freedom Day will be held in Tunis from 3-5 May, jointly organised by UNESCO and the Tunisian Government under the theme 'New Voices: Media Freedom Helping to Transform Societies'. According to a study released in May 2011, the number of people worldwide with access to free and independent media declined to its lowest level in over a decade. read more Social media can be a funny thing - 16 Apr 2012[Evan-Lee Courie @evan1985] Social media can be a funny thing at times. Especially when it comes to breaking news. read more Let's get going.... - 2 Apr 2012[Evan-Lee Courie @evan1985] So we've completed the first trimester of 2012 and so far so much has happened on the continent. Here are just some of the things that stood out for me in the past three months: we released our 2012 Biz Trends report and it is still available to download in pdf format; Airtel continues to expand its footprint on the continent with its latest move, launching mobile services in Rwanda; research revealed how Africa tweets; there's been some positive growth in media in Malawi; Design Indaba 2012 has come and gone and Samsung is set to offer free satellite TV to Africa. The one thing that remains the same is the ongoing battle of media freedom on the continent. read more |
