SOUTHERN AFRICA

Radio 2000, Nigerian stations begin 2010 deal
Radio 2000, the SABC's official 2010 radio station, has signed a deal with Nigeria's all-sports radio station, 88.9 Brila FM. The deal between the two stations concerns Radio 2000 circulating its 2010 information, reports, interviews, and features with Brila FM.

APEX 2009 entries double
According to Odette Roper, CEO of the Association of Communication and Advertising (ACA), APEX entries for 2009 have more than doubled compared to previous years. The APEX awards acknowledges leaders in the advertising and communication industry.

MOZAMBIQUE

Call to enter Maputo International Advertising Festival 2009
MAPUTO: AMEP, the event organiser of the Maputo International Advertising Festival, is calling for entries to the fourth annual festival, which recognises advertising agencies, producers and communication companies worldwide, especially from the southern Africa and Indian Ocean regions.

Display Mania International launches new division, new products and a brand new website - Display Mania
Display Mania, which manufactures portable display products, snap frames and pull-up banners, has recently launched Promo and Print Mania which will specialise in promotional material.

Triomf selected for 2009 FESPACO competition
Director and scriptwriter, Michael Raeburn's Triomf has been selected for the FESPACO 2009 - the Pan-African Film and TV Festival official competition. FESPACO, one of Africa's largest film festival established in 1969, showcases African cinema and television.

AFRICA

Wolda '08 annual on sale
The inaugural 2008 printed edition of Wolda, the Worldwide Logo Design Annual, is now available for purchase online. The book features 192 logos selected from a total of nearly 1100 entries from 43 countries.

Ericsson launches Pixl8r and Social Media Portal
Ericsson has launched a social networking portfolio for mobile network operators, the Pixl8r initiative and the Social Media Portal. The technologies together offer sharing of user-generated content across networks.

Uganda hosts IST-Africa 2009
IST-Africa 2009 will be hosted by the Government of the Republic of Uganda through the Ministry of ICT. The event is supported by the European Commission and technical co-sponsored by IEEE. IST-Africa 2009 will take place on the shores of Lake Victoria at Speke/Munyonyo Resort and Conference Centre, Kampala from 6 - 8 May 2009.

AFRICA

2009 TABPI Young Leaders Scholarship
CLEVELAND: The 2009 scholarships are to attend the ASBPE Editorial Conference, scheduled for 15 - 17 July, 2009 in Washington, D.C., USA. The TABPI Young Leaders Scholarship allows younger editors, who might otherwise be unable, to attend this educational b2b editorial event.

Swazi authorities threaten new publications with closure
At least two publications which recently came into the Swazi media scene have been threatened with closure for failure to register with government.

SOUTHERN AFRICA

Swaziland: Times challenges censorship bid
MBABANE: The privately-owned Times of Swaziland newspaper has opposed a High Court application by the Jericho Church in which the indigenous Christian denomination is seeking to ban the newspaper along with two other media houses from reporting on a split in the church caused by a leadership wrangle.

Egypt: Concerns with draft Broadcast Law
Article 19 and the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information have voiced concerns with the draft Broadcast Law released by the Egyptian authorities. An analysis of the draft law conducted by Article 19 highlights these concerns, including the fact that the oversight body, the National Audiovisual Broadcasting Regulation Authority, would be controlled by the government.

AFRICA

Media in Africa grows as Europe cuts back
[Adelia Saunders] PARIS: The demise of the news industry has been predicted with eerie frequency lately, and journalists and editors in Europe and North America have reason to be alarmed as news organisations trim budgets and shed staff. But in contrast to the grim outlook of their counterparts overseas, many African journalists are optimistic about the future of the press.

Swaziland: Church in bid to censor the media
MBABANE: On 10 February 2009, the Jericho Church, an indigenous Christian denomination, moved an application at the High Court of Swaziland to ban the media from reporting on the split that has rocked the church as a result of a leadership dispute.

Malawi media loses gurus to politics
[Gregory Gondwe] With Malawi going to the polls on 19 May 2009, two media gurus have resigned from their positions and decided to join the political race as parliamentary contenders.

AFRICA

Attacks on the Press 2008 report released
NEW YORK: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released the annual global press freedom survey, Attacks on the Press 2008, earlier this week. The entire book is available online, in both English and French, on the CPJ website.

ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwean journalists placed on EU sanctions list
Seven journalists and senior managers with the state media have been added to the European Union's (EU) targeted sanctions lists for whipping up a government orchestrated terror campaign before and during the June 2008 presidential runoff.

Nokia launches service for Kenyan farmers
Nokia is launching a new service to offer prompt weather and agriculture-related information to farmers to enhance their preparedness in ensuring optimal food production.

Standard Chartered launches mobile banking in Kenya
Standard Chartered has announced the launch of mobile-phone banking (‘mBanking') in Kenya. It is the first bank in Kenya to introduce ‘mBanking' on the USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) platform to the market.

Zim government cuts mobile airtime VAT
[Sam Hungwe] Local newspapers have been flooded with letters from agitated telecommunication users complaining over unfair charges by the country's three mobile networks. The Zimbabwe government has now cut punitive tax on mobile airtime, admitting this had affected “talk time” by mobile phone users.

AFRICA

Mobile world reaches four billion connections
LONDON: The GSMA announced yesterday, Wednesday, 11 February 2009, that the mobile world has reached its four billionth connection, according to Wireless Intelligence, the GSMA's market intelligence unit. This milestone underscores the continued growth of the mobile industry and puts the global market on the path to reach six billion connections by 2013.

AFRICA

Dates confirmed for World Newspaper Congress India
The World Association of Newspapers has confirmed the new dates for its World Newspaper Congress, World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo, the global meetings of the world´s press, which will now be held in Hyderabad, India, 30 November - 3 December 2009.

AFRICA

Practical Publishing launches Sign Africa 2009
JOHANNESBURG: Sign Africa returns to Port Elizabeth, Durban and Cape Town this year culminating with the Sign Africa Johannesburg and Africa In-store events. Sign Africa is a platform for the sign, design, graphics and marketing arenas.

Neo Africa Group appoints MBP
The Neo Africa group of companies has appointed Marcus Brewster Publicity (MBP) as its PR agency. MBP will fulfill a corporate and commercial PR role across the six divisions of the group.

Job losses as diamonds lose their lustre
GABORONE: Thousands of mining jobs in Botswana are in jeopardy as diamond and other mineral sales dwindle and companies begin retrenching to cut costs.

AFRICA

The African Activist Archive
[Janine Erasmus] A new online resource aims to preserve an important slice of shared African and American history covering 50 years of activism in the US against apartheid and colonialism. The African Activist Archive project has so far collected over 1,300 documents and artefacts, which are now available for perusal on its website.

CAMEROON: Farmers “forgotten” by government
ESSE: Nearly a year after the government pledged to help boost agricultural production, farmers told IRIN they have been “forgotten” by their political leaders.

Zim sanctions discussed at SA, Bulgaria meeting
[Bathandwa Mbola] PRETORIA: The issue of Zimbabwe, in particular the lifting of sanctions imposed by the European Union on that country, emerged in discussions between South African Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and the Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin late last week.

MTL partners with bank in credit loading
[Gregory Gondwe] The country's lone fixed-phone line company, Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) has entered into partnership with National Bank of Malawi (NBM) where the bank's accounts holders will be able to top-up their airtime credit using standing orders.

Crisis hitting poor hard in developing world, World Bank says
WASHINGTON: The spreading global economic crisis is trapping up to 53 million more people in poverty in developing countries and, with child mortality rates set to soar, poses a serious threat to achieving internationally agreed targets to overcome poverty, the World Bank Group said.

DR Congo: Joblessness rises as global crisis hits mining
[Miriam Mannak] LUBUMBASHI: It is busy at the gates of Bralima brewery in Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). About 60 men are waiting at the doors, hoping for them to open and someone to offer them work. Their numbers have grown since the global economic crisis which has caused the collapse of the local mining industry.

Cameroon ends IMF programme
The government of Cameroon has ended an economic programme designed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and drafted its own instead. It marks the end of a three year Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) between Cameroon and the IMF.

Shoprite's move into Africa pays dividends
The expansion of Africa's largest retailer, Shoprite, into the continent is paying off as it said yesterday it expected earnings to improve at least 35% in the six months to December.

SA calls for lifting of Zim sanctions ahead of unity government
[Michael Appel] CAPE TOWN: The South African government has joined African Union (AU) calls to the international community for economic sanctions against Zimbabwe to be lifted.

Djibouti: Global food crisis adding to shortages
Drought, high food prices and a weak response from donors have left a large proportion of Djibouti's population without enough to eat, despite some level of economic growth, the UN resident co-ordinator said.

MACRA offers four TV licences
[Gregory Gondwe] The Malawi Communication Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has issued an offer of four private television stations, signifying a possibility of additional TV media houses apart from Malawi Television and Catholic church-owned regional, Luntha TV.

GTV Uganda licence withdrawn
[Walter Wafula] After succumbing to the current global financial crisis GTV Uganda has now had its licence withdrawn by the country's Broadcasting Council. GTV Uganda can now no longer operate in the country.