Africa offers platform for media businesses
It is a continent of diverse languages, cultures, religions and resources. Now, Africa is emerging as a big opportunity for communication business with nation branding. It is the last great market globally, providing untapped business opportunities for industries such as IT, finance, telecoms and infrastructure.

Communications Solutions Limited gets new MD
Kris Senanu is the new managing director of Communications Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of AccessKenya Group. Senanu will be responsible for overseeing strategy and operations of the internet division of the AccessKenya Group.

AFRICA

Festival of Media moves to Valencia
After two years in the city of Venice, the world's first global festival for the media industry has announced that it will be moving to a new city in 2009 - Valencia, Spain. The Festival of Media 2009 continues with its well-known “F” logo and will be held 19 - 22 April 2009.


Ad case study shows return of traditional masculine virtues
The success of recent Guinness campaigns in Africa validate the ‘menaissance' trend that cultural commentators predicted. This is according to Ian Young, MD of Saatchi & Saatchi.


Uganda: NTV gets new advertising manager
Africa Broadcasting (U) Ltd, a subsidiary of Nation Media Group, has appointed Johnson Omolo as the new advertising manager for NTV.

SOUTH AFRICA

WAN up in arms over Yahoo-Google ad deal
PARIS: Competition authorities in Europe and North America have been requested to block an advertising agreement between Google and Yahoo on anti-competitive grounds by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN),today, Monday, 15 September 2008. According to WAN, the deal will have a negative impact on the ad revenues that the search giants provide to newspaper and other websites, and on the cost of paid search advertising.

SOUTH AFRICA

SA vlogger takes Highway Africa Digital Journalism award
[Simone Puterman] Khaya Dlanga, YouTube vlogger, Thoughtleader blogger and MetropolitanRepublic Johannesburg creative, has scooped the SABC-Highway Africa New Media Award in the Student/Individual category, it was announced last night, Tuesday, 9 September 2007, at the awards ceremony at the 1820 Settlers' Monument in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. The other two winners were Nirmal Shah from Seychelles for Nature Seychelles (www.natureseychelles.org) in the Non-profit category and Togo's Noel Kokou Tadegnon for Sites Média (www.mediatogo.info) in the Corporate category.

AFRICA

Journalists important to Africa's digital revolution
[Professor Ndawonde] Grahamstown: Journalists should be at the frontline in advancing the digital revolution in Africa, Deputy Minister of Communications, Radhakrishna Roy Padayachie said on Monday, 8 September 2008.

Google backs $750m African internet project
Google has teamed up with John Malone, the media billionaire, and HSBC on a venture that will offer internet access to three billion people in Africa and other emerging markets as the US search engine continues to expand its presence across the web.

Africa tech conference on the cards
Latest developments in the broadcasting industry, such as mobile TV, interactive viewing and high-definition TV, will take centre stage at the Africa Media and Broadcasting Congress 2008, to be held in October.

First E-Tourism Conference for Southern Africa a success
Africa's first international e-tourism conference was held last week in Johannesburg. More than 250 delegates attended the E-Tourism Southern Africa conference and training seminars, including delegates from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho.


Countdown to first annual Kenya Trade Fair and Conference begins
The first annual Kenya Trade Fair and Conference, taking place 19 - 21 September 2008 at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, is a few days away. South African businesses will be able to engage with a host of Kenyan government and business stakeholders.

KENYA

Kenya: Fourth estate dances with double-edged sword
[Carole Kimutai] Love them or hate them, journalists are here to stay. Yesterday they were your best friends because they published an excellent review of the new product you just launched. Today they are your enemy; they published a story that you think was not well-balanced. So, to whose tune should the scribes dance to?

ANGOLA

Angola elections - no independent oversight, media bias
Luanda: Angola's parliamentary elections on 5 September 2008, reportedly won by the ruling MPLA party, were marred by numerous irregularities, Human Rights Watch said today, 15 September 2008. Preliminary results indicate that the MPLA won more than 80% of the vote, the first held in Angola since 1992.

SOUTH AFRICA

Gillmor on citizen media's effects on business, culture
[Sindy Peters] Fresh from presenting at the 12th Highway Africa conference last week, Dan Gillmor, director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship (Arizona State University, US), gave a lunch talk at the UCT Graduate School of Business on Friday, 12 September 2008. Gillmor's discussion focused on how the media landscape has evolved over the last decade or so and how media and business industries have been affected by social media tools.

ZIMBABWE

Zim journalists should lead efforts for 'fresh start'
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists are calling for a new strategy to remove harsh media laws that have been used to intimidate and stifle independent journalism.

SADC Protocol on Gender: What's in it for the media?
The recent signing of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development could mean that the stories and images in the region's media may soon have a more balanced perspective.

Niger Communication Minister urged to end crackdown on media support group
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on Wednesday, 10 September 2008, urged the Communication Minister of Niger, Mohamed Ben Omar, to stop his crackdown on the Press House, an independent media support group, after he threatened to dissolve its board and all the member associations.

Developing countries struggle to give climate change coverage
[Adelia Saunders] An old man is dying. He calls his only daughter home to care for the family's farm. An educated and determined young woman, the daughter returns to find the land parched and infertile. Disputes are breaking out among the villagers. Cooking fuel is scarce. One family falls ill after burning poisonous plants.

Citizen journalism: some things will never change!
[Issa Sikiti da Silva] Despite the surge of technological innovations and its sexy gadgets doing wonders in the current media environment, spoiling us for choice, one thing that has not changed is the way we practice journalism, said Jovial Rantao, chairperson of the South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF) during his thought-provoking intervention yesterday, Monday, 8 September 2008, at Highway Africa 2008, currently taking place in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape.

SOUTHERN AFRICA

Exactmobile/NORM royalty dispute continues
WASPA announced last week that it has reached an agreement with SARRAL whereby WASPA members who sign individually, will be granted mechanical rights for digital music sales, at a rate of 5% of the retail sales price. Exactmobile is the first WASPA member to sign with SARRAL.

KENYA

Kenya: Mobile phone companies irk banking industry
[Carole Kimutai] In Kenya, the mobile phone has become a very powerful gadget. Apart from just receiving and making calls, the cell phone can do a lot of other things that a few years ago were thought impossible. From the cell phone I can; send and receive email, buy airtime from my bank account, receive airtime from another phone user, top up another phone user and pay my bills.

Zain scoops GTB Innovation Award
[Walter Wafula] Zain, formerly known as Celtel was last week awarded the Global Telecoms Business (GTB) Innovation Award for introducing its One Network.

Mobile applications white paper from MMA
NEW YORK, LONDON, UK, SINGAPORE AND SAO PAULO: Earlier this week, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) announced the publication of its latest educational resource: a white paper on mobile applications. The paper provides an overview of the mobile applications available to advertisers and the key considerations for optimising both campaign effectiveness and the overall user experience.

Nigeria Mobile Football Trivia game kicks off with the English Premiership - Starfish Mobile
Starfish Mobile Nigeria has teamed up with Zain, a major mobile telecommunications company, to launch the second Mobile Football Trivia Game in that region. The latest game will be based on the current English Premiership League.

ITNewsAfrica.com partners up with BlackBerry

click to enlarge

ITNewsAfrica.com and Blackberry are giving away the BlackBerry Curve 8310 smartphone, the smallest and lightest BlackBerry smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard. The publisher of ITNewAfrica.com, Abby Wakama, said the competition was the first phase in a growing relationship with RIM, makers of BlackBerry.

The competition is open to anyone who lives anywhere in Africa. To participate log onto ITNewsAfrica.com.

CENTRAL AFRICA

Malawi's third daily newspaper on the cards
[Gregory Gondwe] Malawi will, from this month have a third daily newspaper after President Bingu wa Mutharika's Guardian Publications Limited (GPL) announced its plans to turn tri-weekly, The Guardian into a daily.

Schibsted's Aamot to give keynote at Beyond the Printed Word 2008
DARMSTADT: Kjell Aamot, CEO of Schibsted ASA, Scandinavian media group, will give the keynote address at the IFRA 16th World Digital Publishing Conference, Beyond the Printed Word that will take place in Hunagry, Budapest on 20 and 21 November 2008.

Call for making decent work “a reality in Africa”
High-level participants of the Monrovia international workshop, held on 10 September 2008, called for practical strategic partnerships between African countries, tripartite constituents, civil society organisations and development partners to make decent work a “reality in Africa.”

ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe: Hotels defy govt as crisis escalates
[Dumisani Ndlela] Zimbabwe's hotels and leisure operators this week defied a moratorium on price hikes, threatening to close operations if government went ahead with threats to force prices down.

ZAMBIA

Zambia relooks its investments campaign
[Gregory Gondwe] Although Zambia is experiencing more investments in its mining sector, government is planning to establish multi-facility economic zones (MFEZ) across the country and improve its petroleum sector.

Mozambique-Zimbabwe: The commodities lifeline
Harare: It is 7am at the main long-distance bus terminus in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. The roof-rack of a battered 75-seater bus is piled high with goods, from bales of dried tobacco leaves to reed mats, in preparation for the 24-hour journey south-east to the town of Sango, in Chiredzi district on the Mozambican border.

Closing gaps in MDG requires increased efforts
[Gabrielle Wade] In preparation for the 25 September 2008, high-level event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the MDG Gap Task Force released a report this week examining the key areas where targets are not being met throughout the world.

Central bank dispels fears of dollarisation
[Dumisani Ndlela] The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has unveiled a foreign currency-denominated strategic commodities imports bond (SCIB), while also opening up the scarcity-ridden domestic market to trading in foreign currency.

Embassies 'used for smuggling'
[Sibongakonke Shoba] Authorities are struggling to prevent counterfeit goods entering South Africa as criminals are using embassies to smuggle the products into the country.

AFRICA

Doing business in Africa
Doing Business 2009: Record year for regulatory reform in Africa - Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Botswana make key improvements; Mauritius ranks highest in region on ease of Doing Business.

Government finally offers Air Malawi to Comair
[Gregory Gondwe] Malawi government has finally offered Comair 49% of Air Malawi after it snubbed the South African sky giant's bid to take over the airline in January 2008.

SA, Mozambique to discuss aid request
Pretoria: Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota has departed for Mozambique to have talks with officials from the Mozambican Ministry of Defence on the aid it has requested from South Africa.

K300m hotel opens in Lilongwe
[Gregory Gondwe] Malawi's capital city of Lilongwe has added another hotel in its hospitality industry with the opening of a 48-room Pacific Hotel at the heart of the city centre.