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Headlines
  • Web of Terror, Part 1: Extremists take to the Net
  • Beware of data dumpster divers
  • IM at Work, Part 2: Tools for Locking Down
  • Rand to shore up Zimbabwe dollar?
  • El Watan, an Algerian success story
  • ABC called for – only to be ignored
  • Exploding cell phone kills Chinese man
  • The social web's meagre promise for retail marketing
  • Zimbabwe bans bulk sales as shelves empty
  • Sierra Leone editor freed, but…
  • IM at Work, Part 1: Idle Chatter, Serious Risk
  • Social networks and the citizen journalist


  • Marketing
    ZIMBABWE
    Zim marketers band together
    [Dumisani Ndlela] Zimbabwe's marketing professionals have established an association to further their interests in a country they say has not given them the recognition they deserve. Called the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe (MAZ), the association intends to promote marketing excellence and further the interests of the profession in a crisis-sapped economy.


    Advertising
    MOROCCO
    ABC called for – only to be ignored
    The creation of an Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC or OJD in French) in Morocco has certainly promoted transparency, but it has failed to impact advertising revenues as hoped.


    Branding
    UGANDA
    A fortune up for grabs for company logo design
    [Walter Wafula] As more powerful brands emerge in Uganda the fever of distinction has gripped the old ones, prompting them to revolutionize their selling points.

    NIGERIA
    Making capital out of reality shows and their ROI
    [Emeka Enyadike] Sometimes I wonder if all that brands ask their agencies for these days are reality shows because I've lost count of the number. There are no dull moments… One ends, another begins and Nigerians just love them all.

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    Cinema
    AFRICA
    EC grills Hollywood film studios on high-def format choices
    The European Commission is informally investigating whether any antitrust regulations have been violated in Hollywood studios' support of either the HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc. The new shift in focus onto the studios follows the EC's launching of a broad inquiry into the competing formats in 2006.


    Digital
    AFRICA
    On tap for Patch Tuesday: Three critical updates
    Microsoft will issue six security updates on Tuesday for vulnerabilities in Office, Windows and the .Net framework for the running and building of applications. Three are labeled "critical," two are called "important" and one is what the company called "moderate" in importance. Users should make sure they are set to receive the updates as soon as possible, suggested Shane Coursen of Kaspersky Lab.

    AFRICA
    IM at Work, Part 2: Tools for Locking Down
    Applications such as IM, Skype, and Web conferencing can deliver significant business value to business users. However, they can also introduce three main kinds of business risks: inbound threats, outbound leakage and regulatory and e-discovery non-compliance. The challenge is that many organisations have a mix of both public IM usage and enterprise IM usage.

    AFRICA
    A frontier spirit
    [Malcolm Ray] If billionaire cosmonaut and philanthropist Mark Shuttleworth has his way, free internet technology will revolutionise the innovation platform on, and rate at, which knowledge is created and transferred across the globe. But there's a sting in the tail.

    KENYA
    African ICT achievers program to be launched in Kenya
    The African ICT Achievers program will be launched this week as part of the eTourism conference to be held at the Kenyan coastal town of Mombasa.

    AFRICA
    Don't let your navigation be your downfall
    How are users going to navigate throughout your Web site? It is vital that they understand your products and/or services.


    Media
    AFRICA
    Free them!
    The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on those African governments that have incarcerated members of the media, to free them.

    AFRICA
    African business reporting winners announced
    Diageo, one of the world's leading premium drinks businesses, announced the winners of this year's Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards towards the end of last week.

    WEST AFRICA
    Gamibian journalist hiding after harassment
    Modou Lamin Jaiteh, Banjul correspondent for the Pan African News Agency (PANA), an African news wire service based in Senegal, and former staff reporter of The Point newspaper, based in Banjul, has gone into hiding for fear of his life.

    AFRICA
    World media told to speak for voiceless poor countries
    [Carole Kimutai] Outgoing UN Envoy for Developing Countries Anwarul K. Chowdhury has told the world media to focus on the needs of the ‘voiceless' developing nations.

    MOROCCO
    'The Moroccan Façade'
    Moroccan authorities have come to rely on a stealthy system of judicial and financial controls to keep enterprising journalists in check, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found in a new report, 'The Moroccan Façade'. In a series of politicised court cases over the last two years, at least five Moroccan journalists have been hit with disproportionate financial penalties, five have been handed suspended jail terms, and one was banned from practising journalism. CPJ's Joel Campagna and Kamel Labidi report.

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    Mobile
    AFRICA
    iPhone: Security predators salivating
    "The biggest threat to the iPhone right now is its popularity," says Neel Mehta, team leader of the advanced research group at IBM's Internet Security Systems. "Everyone - for their own reasons or goals - will be looking for security flaws." Real risk to users will start to climb the longer the iPhone is on the market.

    NIGERIA
    Drop calls: Militants compound operators' woes
    [Jonah Iboma] Militant activities in the Niger Delta have compounded the problems of 'drop calls' in the networks of mobile operators in Nigeria as several base stations have become inaccessible in the region.

    ALGERIA
    Algerian press goes mobile
    [Zaid Zaghlami] Kuwait telephone mobile company El Wataniya, which operates in Algeria under the brand name of Nedjma, has initiated new services to readers on its network.

    AFRICA
    Exploding cell phone kills Chinese man
    A 22-year-old welder in China was killed after his Motorola cell phone exploded in the man's chest pocket.

    ZIMBABWE
    Mobile phone companies hit in price war
    [Lebo Nkatazo] Zimbabwe's mobile phone companies have been forced to reduce prices by 900% as the government spreads its price war to all sectors of business.

    WEST AFRICA
    Mobile initiative aids pilot paediatric project - Alcatel-Lucent
    Alcatel-Lucent, together with the Orange Mali Foundation, Afrique Initiatives, Médicament Export (Médex) and Kafo Yeredeme Ton, has announced the launch of a pilot project called Pésinet, in the district of Bamako Coura in Mali. Pésinet has been designed to provide preventative healthcare services for children from 0 to 5 years old from low-income households thanks to remote diagnosis based on the mobile tracking and monitoring of changes in the children's weight.

    MOROCCO
    State sells share in Maroc Telecom
    Morocco's finance ministry has announced that the state has sold 4% of its shares in Maroc Telecom (Itissalatt Al Maghreb), while retaining a 30% stake. Vivendi Universal still holds the majority share of 51% in the telecoms company, which is listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange as well as the Euronext Paris. The sale was confirmed on Friday, 29 June, with the shares going to numerous domestic and foreign investors for the sum of 4.57 billion dirham ($568 million).


    Newspapers
    ALGERIA
    El Watan, an Algerian success story
    Interview with the editor-in-chief of El Watan, one of Algeria's leading French-language daily, which continues to thrive despite a climate that does not always foster freedom of speech.

    NORTH AFRICA
    Corrupting the press is the hallmark of Ben Ali
    An interview with Omar Mestiri, who has a lot to say about Tunisia, as well as the pressure and repression faced by its free press. Kalima, the online newspaper he founded with Sihem Bensedrine in 1999, is the only outspoken Tunisian publication that covers topics, such as corruption, that angers the authorities.

    WEST AFRICA
    Sierra Leone editor freed, but…
    A Sierra Leone newspaper editor has been freed on bail pending trial, but the court set tough conditions for release.

    WEST AFRICA
    Gambia: Report on presidential ‘cure' earns reporter the sack
    Newspaper journalist fired over article on President Jammeh's HIV/AIDS 'cure'.

    WEST AFRICA
    Gabonese publisher in prison
    An editorial critical of Gabonese President Omar Bongo, Africa's longest-serving head of state, has led authorities in the capital, Libreville, to arrest a publisher and suspend his newspaper, according to news reports and local journalists.

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    Online Media
    AFRICA
    Web of Terror, Part 1: Extremists take to the Net
    "Organizations with sloppy server monitors are often 'zombied'" - or taken over remotely - "for jihadist purposes," explained Frank Preston, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin who works with a team studying media use in terrorist cell group formation. "E-jihadists," as he calls them, then use these zombie servers to host their training manual.

    NORTH AFRICA
    Yemeni editor beaten
    A Yemeni online editor who is critical of that country's government, has been severely beaten by security agents and now faces vague terrorism charges and possible death penalty.

    AFRICA
    Social networks and the citizen journalist
    Mainstream media outlets are reaching out to a new source to gather information for their readers: the readers themselves.

    AFRICA
    Dynamic web content: Giving customers what they want
    To improve Web content management effectiveness, companies are deepening their understanding of customers and their behavior to provide targeted messaging for specific customer segments.


    Radio
    EAST AFRICA
    Troops raid Somali broadcaster four times
    A prominent broadcaster covering public reaction to a large-scale government security crackdown in the commercial district of the capital, Mogadishu, was raided four times over the weekend by Somali government troops, according to news reports and the National Union of Somali Journalists.

    NORTH AFRICA
    Eritrean journalist dies in escape bid
    Journalist, one of nine arrested in November 2006, dies in attempt to flee to Sudan.

    AFRICA
    New AIDS radio page is live
    IRIN/PlusNews has launched a new radio page delivering audio feature programs that give a voice to people and communities on the frontline of the AIDS pandemic.



    Research
    AFRICA
    PAMRO announces early Malawi line-up
    The Pan African Media Research Organisation (PAMRO) is holding its 9th annual meeting and All Africa Media Research Conference at Lake Malawi in August this year. The keynote address will be by Amandou Mather Ba, the president of All Africa Global Media in the USA. He will be discussing internet penetration in Africa, and its impact on social behaviour and business practice.


    Retail
    ZIMBABWE
    Social distinctions fade in the face of survival
    A senior Zimbabwean police official has employed five young men to sell foreign currency on the streets of the capital, Harare, but while the police play cat and mouse with the illegal dealers, his "employees" conduct their business undisturbed because they cannot be arrested.

    AFRICA
    The social web's meagre promise for retail marketing
    Online retailers looking to push sales through popular social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook shouldn't set their hopes very high. If retailers want to take advantage of the social aspects of the Web, they should do so at their own Internet outlets, according to a recent report. Niche retailers stand to gain the most from social and community sites.

    ZIMBABWE
    Zimbabwe bans bulk sales as shelves empty
    [MacDonald Dzirutwe] Zimbabwean authorities ordered businesses Thursday to stop selling basic goods in bulk to avert shortages after an official price freeze triggered a frenzied buying spree that has emptied most shop shelves.

    AFRICA
    Plan for urban population boom says report
    [Carole Kimutai] Urban populations of Africa and Asia growing by one million people a week.

    ZIMBABWE
    Price controls backfire again
    Parallel markets are booming, businesses and industries are buckling and consumers are paying the price as the Zimbabwean government's attempts to forcibly control runaway inflation backfire.


    Sponsorship
    WEST AFRICA
    Celtel to 'rock' Sierra Leone
    [Bai-Bai Sesay] Sierra Leonean musicians have hailed Celtel-Sierra Leone for 'coming to the rescue' of the industry with its sponsorship of a musical conference which took place in the capital Freetown last week. The conference attracted hundreds of musical artists all over the country.

    NIGERIA
    Major boost for Nigerian athletics body
    [Emeka Enyadike] Nigerian Telecommunications giant Globacom has signed a US$2 million deal with the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to sponsor the Lagos International Half-Marathon.


    TV
    CENTRAL AFRICA
    DRC journalist detained
    A DRC journalist has been detained and her camera seized while covering ceremonies marking anniversary of national independence.

    EAST AFRICA
    SABC's new bureau to shape African stories
    [Thapelo Sakoana] The newly established East African Bureau of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will help generate news within the right African perspective, said Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

    NIGERIA
    Your chance to embark on the Ultimate Search
    [Emeka Enyadike] Beer is the least important subject when the fourth season of the Ultimate Search comes alive but Nigeria's Ultimate Beer Gulder has put tourism and endurance at the heart of its famous reality show.

    EAST AFRICA
    Somaliland reporter freed after three days
    Abdirahman Musse Omar of the privately-owned television station SLTV was released on 1 July 2007 after appearing before a court in Hargeisa, the capital of the northern breakaway territory of Somaliland. The authorities are not pressing any charges against Omar, who was arrested on 28 June on the orders of Hargeisa's mayor, Hussein Mohamoud Ji'ir. Omar was reportedly trying to get the mayor's comments on deadly clashes which had taken place between police and residents in the area before being arrested. See related article here. - RSF


    Business
    IMF predicts total collapse of Zimbabwe economy
    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday predicted total collapse of Zimbabwe after describing the country as a sore thumb for the African continent, reports from Ghana indicate. [Management]
    Kenyan bank merger raises questions
    The proposed merging of Stanbic Bank and CFC in the East African country has generated a lot of interest, and raised a number of questions. [Management]
    Angola bans BA
    On Tuesday, British Airways reported that Angola has suspended its flight licence to operate in the African nation. [Business travel]
    Beware of data dumpster divers
    Trashing an old PC with sensitive data on the hard drive can be almost as bad as leaving it out on the pavement in terms of data security. [Management]
    Rand to shore up Zimbabwe dollar?
    A plan to rescue Zimbabwe's collapsing economy by pegging the Zimbabwe dollar to the South African rand is being put together by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), South Africa's Sunday Independent newspaper reported. [Management]
    IM at Work, Part 1: Idle Chatter, Serious Risk
    A recent monthly Instant Messaging Threat Watch by security firm Akonix tracked 20 malicious code attacks over IM networks during the month of May, bringing the 2007 total to 170 threats. The number of security threats associated with unmanaged instant messaging during work hours is steadily increasing. On average, at least one IM attack occurs per day. [Management]


    Events to diarise
    High-level conference to boost trade, investment - Cape Town, 10 July
    The UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) is to host a high-level conference aimed at growing trade and investment between Africa and India.
     
    MODE 2007 MODE 2007 - Algiers, Algeria, 4 September
    North African international fashion, casual and elegant wear exhibition.
     
    IPTV World Forum Middle East & Africa IPTV World Forum - Dubai, UAE, 5 November
    IPTV World Forum Middle East & Africa aims to provide the opportunity to benefit from established local deployments of IPTV and also meet those from further afield, along with other seasoned attendees from the IPTV World Series.
     
    IMS Africa 2007 Terrapinn - Sandton, South Africa, 6 November
    The conference will feature IMS presentations delivered by leading service providers as well as the views from the IT players to provide an objective outlook on the prospects for IMS.
     
    GSM>3G AfricaCom GSM>3G - Cape Town, South Africa, 21 November
    This Pan-African event for mobile, broadband and satellite communications is the place to learn, make connections and do business with all the continent's key decision makers and innovators.
     

    Upcoming events
  • World-class stellar service experiences - Boundary Road, Newlands, Cape Town, 11 July
  • TotalPack Summit EMEA 2007 Aspire Events - Singapore, 15 July
  • Africa's Big Seven Exhibitions Africa - Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, 15 July
  • More...  Submit an event
     

    Jobs offered
  • Junior/Intermediate Designer - Umdloti Beach
  • Junior Copywriter - Cape Town
  • Middle-weight Writer - Cape Town
  • Project Administrator - Cape Town
  • Press Release Manager - Johannesburg
  • Web Designer - Johannebsurg
  • Junior Middle-weight Designer - Cape Town
  • General Manager - Johannesburg
  • Operation Manager/Personal Assistant - Cape Town
  • Junior Graphic Designer - CBD
  •  

    Noticeboards
    AFRICA
    4 teams to fund with 3 weeks to go...
    [Sponsorship] Four nations - Liberia, Uganda, Zambia, Nigeria - desperately need your help to participate in the Copenhagen 2007 Homeless World Cup from 29 July to 4 August 2007.
    More...  Submit a Noticeboard
     

    Quotes
    "Until the lion has his or her own storyteller, the hunter will always have the best part of the story." - African proverb
    "The market is not attended from a single road." - African proverb
    More...  Submit a Quote
     

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