High-speed connectivity dawns According to RAP 21, the media in Madagascar is taking quite a beating due to the political turmoil that has engulfed the south-east African island of late. News agencies have suspended publication for fear of being victimised, editors and journalists have been violently attacked and newspapers are losing readers. It has suddenly become a case where information amongst the people is distributed through rumour, which can in turn lead to panic and fear as news spread through the grapevine usually becomes more and more sensationalised. An extreme case of this was during the Rwandan genocide and yet still African nations have not learnt that politics and the media should never be found sleeping in the same bed together. The SADC plans to discuss potential sanctions against Madagascar during the summit in Johannesburg, South Africa at the end of March. The outcomes reached should show the possible value in a union government for the continent. On a more digital note though, it seems the era of high-speed internet connectivity for Africa is finally upon us. June 2009 will see the arrival of fibre-optic cables in Kenya and hopefully from there we will see a swift roll out to the rest of the continent. Too long has the digital divide been left to grow wider as technology advances at great speed. Africa will see a booming telecommunications industry, and businesses able to connect to the rest of the world will flourish. This will certainly be a welcomed development in Africa, as well as for those investing in its potential. Cheers! Sindy Peters, Content manager Send all your Africa marketing news to africanews@bizcommunity.com. | Top stories
Marketing
[Sam Hungwe] The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) has courted British-based international publicists World Travel Group (WTG) for an international marketing campaign to improve the country's image. Read more >>
Advertisement: 2010 FIFA World Cup
 [Janine Erasmus] South Africa's national Department of Sport and Recreation has partnered with the Pretoria-based Youth Development through Football and other NGOs to form the Peace Caravan, an initiative that will tour the Great Lakes region of Africa during March 2009 to promote the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Read more >>
[Neo Semono] PRETORIA: Government and various language experts have gathered for a three-day workshop in Pretoria, South Africa to develop the African language equivalent for English soccer terminology. Read more >>
Branding
 [Issa Sikiti da Silva] The culprits of the African brand debacle are none other than African leaders themselves. This is what delegates attending the Wits Business School lecture on ‘Evolving African leadership and its impact on brand Africa' by Thebe Ikalafeng heard last night, Thursday, 19 March 2009. Read more >>
CSI
BOSTON: One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is beginning a summer grant program in which up to 100 teams of university students from around the world will distribute thousands of XO laptops to children in Africa during the course of the year. Read more >>
Advertisement: Digital
 [Titus Kaloki] With baited breath many in this tech-savvy East African country have been waiting to join the world of high speed internet connection. The digital divide is about to be reduced thanks to the imminent arrival of fibre-optic cables on Kenyan shores this June. Read more >>
Media
A complicated and violent political situation in Madagascar is taking its toll on the media. Newspapers are suspending publication, editors and journalists are being detained for undisclosed reasons, and several independent broadcasters have been taken off the air. Read more >>
 Diageo announced on Tuesday, 17 March the panel of judges for the Africa Business Reporting Awards. The awards, initiated in 2004 by Diageo, awards excellence in journalism and recognises individuals and organisations reporting on business activity in Africa. This year's panelists were drawn from the media, business, government and development sectors. Read more >>
Mediatech Africa 2009 - South Africa's broadcast, media, entertainment and AV trade fair - comes as the industry prepares to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Read more >>
The Directorate General for Development of the European Commission confirmed on Friday, 13 March its interest to have the African Press Organisation (APO) organise six press video conferences related to Africa. The African Press Organisation is a partner of PressVideoconference. Read more >>
Mobile
 After a one-year delay, The Punch, a Nigerian newspaper, has launched the country's first full mobile news service, called Mobile Punch. Readers can access the full text of an article on their mobile phones serviced by three of the country's major networks. Subscribers are also given an e-paper version, the exact digital version of the printed paper. Read more >>
 JOHANNESBURG: Access to mobiles phones has transformed the lives of rural women farmers boosting income and expanding knowledge, a pilot study in Lesotho has found. Read more >>
 [Gregory Gondwe] Zain Malawi has started discussions with the Malawi Communication Regulatory Authority (MACRA) to change its licence conditions so that the third Generation (3G) system can be introduced into Malawi's telecommunication industry. Read more >>
CAPE TOWN: Fundamo, a specialist mobile financial services provider, announced earlier this week that the MTN Group will use Fundamo's Mobile Wallet solution to power its MTN MobileMoney service. The service will be available to its subscriber base across 21 countries in Africa. Read more >>
 CASABLANCA: Zain has entered into a 50/50 partnership with Al Ajial Investment Fund Holding (Al Ajial) investing through a joint venture, Zain Al Ajial an amount of MAD2.850 billion (US$324 million) in return for 31% of Wana Corporate SA (Wana), the third mobile telecom operator in Morocco. Read more >>
Online Media
 [Sindy Peters] South African weblog Glad to be a Girl has won the Best African Blog award at the 2009 Weblog Awards held at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW) Festival in Austin, Texas, US, it was announced yesterday, Monday, 16 March, 2009. The annual non-profit ceremony awards bloggers worldwide. Read more >>
Advertisement: NIGERIA Justin Hartman to present at BarCamp NigeriaSouth Africa's Justin Hartman will be speaking at the BarCamp being hosted in Lagos, Nigeria. BarCamp is an international network of user-generated conferences open, participatory workshop events, with content provided by participants. BarCamps Nigeria will take place on Saturday, 25 April, 2009. Hartman is the MD and co-founder of Afrigator - an African social media aggregator and blog directory. He will be presenting the new open source Afrigator offering at the BarCamp. For more about BarCamp Nigeria, go to www.barcampnigeria.com.
Production
 The Africa in Motion film festival (AiM), which takes place annually in October at Edinburgh Filmhouse, Scotland, is calling for entries for the AiM 2009 Short Film Competition. Young and emerging African filmmakers are encouraged to submit their work for the annual competition. Read more >>
Radio
[Lansana Fofana] FREETOWN: Sierra Leone's vice president, Samuel Sam-Sumana, on 13 March ordered an indefinite ban on radio stations owned by the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) and its main rival, the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP). This comes in the wake of a wave of politically-motivated clashes between rival party militants across the country these past two weeks. Read more >>
 The fourth pan-African conference held by the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters' (AMARC) will be held in Ivory Coast from 27 - 30 April, 2009. The host member organisation is the Union des Radios de Proximité de la Côte d'Ivoire (URCPI). Read more >>
Research
[Sam Hungwe] The internet survived a slump in patronage or visibility that affected all the other media in Zimbabwe from Q4 2007 to Q4 2008, the Zimbabwe All Media Products and Services (ZAMPS) survey has revealed. Read more >>
 Customer anxiety and cutbacks are the biggest factors influencing marketing budget allocation in 2009, according to the newly released Marketing Outlook 2009 report from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council. Read more >>
Retail
Addis Ababa: The African Ministers of Trade meeting at the Fifth Ordinary Session to discuss economic partnership agreement (EPA) negotiations, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and aid for trade amongst other issues, ended a two-day brainstorming meeting on Friday, 20 March, 2009, at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Read more >>
[Edwin Tshivhidzo] PRETORIA: Imposing tough sanctions on Madagascar will be top of the agenda when the Southern African Development Community (SADC) meets in Johannesburg at the end of the month. Read more >>
ACCRA: Standard Bank and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) have created a joint fund for African smallholder farmers. The fund is to operate in Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda, opening loan opportunities to smallholder farmers and small- and medium-sized agricultural businesses previously considered too risky for lending. Read more >>
ADDIS ABABA: Africa will request more financial assistance and a strengthened role in the international financial institutions at next month's summit of the Group of 20 (G20) leading developed and emerging nations. Read more >>
As part of the build-up activities towards the 2009 “Trade & Investment Africa” Exhibition and Congress, Thebe Exhibitions and Projects will be hosting the first of five African country focus seminars on 20 March, 2009 at the Michelangelo Hotel in Sandton, South Africa. Read more >>
The second NEPAD Business Foundation (NBF) Ithuba Business Forum was held on Thursday, 12 March 2009, in Sandton. The forum is a platform created to stimulate interaction and discussion between project owners and promoters on the one hand, and other interested parties such as investors, contractors and service providers. Read more >>
TV
[Gregory Gondwe] The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) is gearing up for migration from analogue to digital broadcasting in line with International Telecommunications Union (ITU) international deadline of 17 June, 2015, according to a statment issued by the organisation. Read more >>
 LONDON: Discovery Networks Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), a division of non-fiction media company Discovery Communications, on Thursday, 19 March announced the appointment of Christian Kurz as research director EMEA, Emerging Markets. Read more >>
 ITNewsAfrica.com has announced the launch of a conference focusing on digital and mobile TV in Africa in August 2009 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Africa Future TV Conference 2009 aims to gather industry experts, business leaders, regulators, government officials and service providers from African countries for the broadcast industry conference. Read more >>
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Advertising
 Golo (Mozambique), Joe Public (South Africa), LV Ogilvy (Reunion-France), Executive Center and Orion (both from Angola), sabiOne.com (England) and McCann Ericksson (Portugal) have expressed their interest in taking part in the 4th Maputo International Advertising Festival. Read more >>
Public Relations
Inyathelo - The South African Institute for Advancement has appointed Quo Vadis Communications to handle its media liaison and public relations with effect from 1 March 2009. Read more >>
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