Journalism governs AfricaJournalism in Africa is at times one of the most risky professions in the world, and yet there are thousands out there who can't seem to put their notepads down. It is also one of the fields that Africa is excelling in most and maintaining pace with the rest of the world. The annual Highway Africa conference is probably one of the most important events on the journalistic calendar, and those lucky enough to attend are allowed access to thought-provoking insight from some of the most inspiring leaders in the business who have experience beyond their years. That knowledge is then applied across the continent, ensuring continuous access to information and knowledge for those in countries that respect media freedom. Amongst all the difficulties Africa strives against, journalism has remained integral to everyday life and most recognise its necessity and value. The Pan African University in Lagos, Nigeria, also recently concluded a three-day conference on “Journalism and the new media technologies in Africa". It is clear that journalism will always remain a priority on the African agenda - evident in Telkom's renewed and increased sponsorship of the Highway Africa conference. Oscar Wilde's words could be re-written to apply here: “In Africa the president reigns for five years, and journalism governs for ever and ever.” Cheers! Sindy Peters, Content manager
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[Pieter Steyn] South African companies still thinking about venturing into other African markets should be aware that their windows of opportunity may not stay open indefinitely. Although far from saturated, markets across the continent are absorbing a growing number of new entrants across economic sectors. In the not-so-distant future, late-starters may find themselves facing stiff competition. Read more >> 2010 FIFA World Cup
JOHANNESBURG: According to the 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa (OC) a total of 67,999 people from 170 countries applied to volunteer for the world cup. Applications closed at midnight on 31 August 2009. During the application period from 20 July 2009 to 31 August 2009, an average of 1,600 applications were received a day. Read more >>South African Tourism has initiated a “win and watch” football competition as part of its campaign in Nigeria ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Part of the grand prize is tickets to the qualification match between Nigeria and Tunisia, on 6 September 2009, in Abuja. Read more >>CSI
According to the organisers of the Southern Africa grassroots awards programme, the annual Jet Community Awards, entries have doubled since the 2008 competition. Almost 1000 entries were received from community projects and non-profit organisations (NGOs) from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland. Read more >>Digital
CAMBRIDGE: Total broadband adoption in Africa will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28% through 2013 as new undersea cables boost Africa's international bandwidth, reducing the number of coastal countries without any cable access from 19 to one, according to a new report from Pyramid Research, the telecom research arm of the Light Reading Communications Network. Read more >>[Dan Oshodin] The 2012 date for switch over from analogue to digital broadcasting in Nigeria may be a mirage if certain steps are not immediately taken by the government and key stakeholders in the country's fledging broadcast industry. This is the view of Ben Egbuna, veteran broadcast manager and former director general of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN). Read more >> PARIS: Alcatel-Lucent announced yesterday, 3 September 2009, that it has signed a €21 million contract with Telecomunicacoes de Mocambique (TDM), the Mozambican state-owned telecommunications company, to deploy the third phase of Mozambique's national transmission network. Read more >>This year's fourth Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI), themed 'Digital civil society and journalism in Africa', takes place on 5 - 6 September 2009 at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, just before the University's annual Highway Africa conference. The event aims to attract bloggers, online and mobile journalists, citizen reporters, new media practitioners, online industry experts and civil society representatives. Read more >>Theydon International and STATS LLC, a sports information provider, have announced the release of three fantasy football games. The free-to-play, manager-based games are called My African 11, My Premier 11 and My Champions XI. Read more >>Education and Training
The Siyavula Project, an initiative launched by the Shuttleworth Foundation, to support teachers in working together to share and develop openly licensed resources under a Creative Commons copyright license, held its first workshop on Open Education Resources last month, August 2009. Read more >>[Desmond Ekeh] Journalism, and indeed, media practice in Nigeria, is set to take a huge leap into the future as the Pan African University, Lagos recently concluded a three-day intensive and intellectually driven conference on “Journalism and the new media technologies in Africa: new technologies, new practices and the renewal of media training in Africa.” Read more >> [Gregory Gondwe] Multichoice Malawi, which previously connected 27 secondary schools in the first phase of its corporate social responsibility project, has connected seven more schools in the second phase totaling to 34. Read more >> [Lyndi Lawson] Distance learning, like anything, offers pros and cons and there's no doubt that it can be challenging for the student and for the teacher. Firstly, communication is always a concern. Without face-to-face contact, there is no easy relationship between students and their educators and, for many people, these relationships are important. Without this, students can feel unsupported and like they have nowhere to turn when they are facing difficulties. Read more >> WINDHOEK: UNESCO and the Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies have partnered to strengthen African journalism education in September 2009. The joint activities planned over a week-long period include a training programme for African journalism teachers in using new media and a research colloquium as part of the African preparations for the World Journalism Education Congress to be organised by Rhodes University in July 2010. Read more >>Eventing
The NEPAD Business Foundation (NBF) and the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) will be hosting the NBF African Leadership Programme: Building African Competitiveness executive breakfast. The event will be held on Wednesday, 16 September 2009 at Roodepoort, Gauteng, South Africa. Read more >>AFRICA Jhb to host Power & Electricity World Africa 2010Power & Electricity World Africa will take place from 15 - 19 March 2010 at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. The forum plans to host talks on investment, development and opportunities within the power sector, bringing together; African utilities, regulators, governments, financiers, developers, investors and decision-makers. Exhibitions
Specialised Exhibitions and Imago Communications, joint organisers of IP Africa Expo, have announced the postponement of the event that was due to run in September until 2010. The event is based upon the event organised in London by Imago, addressing enterprise corporate network infrastructure, virtualisation, unified communications. Read more >>The DStv Getaway Show, run in association with Jacaranda 94.2, at the Coca-Cola Dome Northgate opens at 11am on Friday, 11 September 2009, and runs until Sunday, 13 September. Over 300 exhibitors will showcase everything for travel and outdoor related fun under the sun for young and old alike. Read more >>Media
[Issa Sikiti da Silva] Things will never be the same again at the SABC. Ruined by years of, among others, financial mismanagement, excessive overspending, internal power struggles, political interference, inadequate state funding and lately a litany of court battles, the once-profitable public broadcaster - now a financial skeleton - has embarked on a severe cost-cutting exercise. Its latest decision includes the closing of five foreign news bureaux and the scaling down of news operations in several countries. Read more >> [Walter Wafula] Ugandan journalists have been urged to be more pro-active to increase the level of awareness and deepen the understanding of events at home and worldwide. David Sseppuuya, a former editor-in-chief of the New Vision called on business and financial journalists to lay a foundation for economic financial reporting by being more analytical. Read more >> The 13th Highway Africa conference, themed 'Reporting Africa: 2010, development and democracy', will be launching four books during the four-day event and invites delegates on a tour of one of the 2010 stadia. Highway Africa takes place in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa from 5 - 8 September 2009. Read more >>Three editors from a Ugandan magazine were questioned yesterday over a cartoon criticising President Yoweri Museveni. The Criminal Investigations Directorate is investigating reports of sedition after a caricature of the president appeared in The Independent magazine last week. Read more >>Mobile
NEW YORK, LONDON, UK, SINGAPORE, SAO PAULO: The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has announced the extension of the nomination deadline for its annual Global Awards. Entrants now have until 14 September 2009 to put forward submissions. The awards is open to all industry players and recognises significant contributions within the mobile marketing industry worldwide. Read more >>[Carole Kimutai] Essar Telecom Kenya's (ETKL) Yu brand now has countrywide network coverage. Yu is Kenya's fourth GSM brand that was launched in November 2008. Read more >> [Dumisani Ndlela] Zimbabwe's smallest mobile network operator Telecel Zimbabwe has added 350,000 more lines to the network, taking it to second spot ahead of struggling state-owned NetOne whose subscriber numbers have remained mired at 350,000. Read more >> Newspapers
NEW YORK: A magistrate in Zambia issued a summons today for the entire editorial staff of the southern African country's largest independent newspaper to appear in court on Wednesday, 2 September 2009 on contempt charges, according to local journalists and news reports. The ruling was prompted by an op-ed commenting on the prosecution of the paper's news editor. Read more >>Online Media
LONDON: A graphic British police video about the dangers of sending text messages while driving has become a worldwide hit on the Internet. Read more >>Out Of Home
JOHANNESBURG: SP Media has completed the process of wrapping single and double-decker buses as part of the advertising campaign for the Swaziland Tourism Authority (STA). The STA recently embarked on a ‘Visit Swaziland' marketing campaign; seeking to position the country as a preferred tourist destination with a quantifiable increase in the number of visitors and tourists' spend. Read more >>Public Relations
Mark Schumann, recently appointed chair of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in June 2009, is a keynote speaker at the 2009 IABC Africa conference. The conference will be held at the Kievits Kroon Conference Centre, Pretoria, South Africa, 7 - 9 October 2009. Read more >>Research
[Alison Walkley] The international media development organisation, Internews Network, has begun a study in conjunction with the World Bank Institute (WBI) to collect evidence and research on how support for local media may positively impact governance and development. Read more >> Retail
[Gregory Gondwe] Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe have taken a step to intensify the existing cross-border trade by establishing a simplified trade regime (STR) under the auspices of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). Read more >> [Sasha Planting] In the grip of extraordinarily difficult trading conditions, SA's biggest and third-biggest retailer by market capitalisation delivered strong results. Read more >> The UCT Graduate School of Business (UCT GSB) is launching a new course in October 2009 aiming to advance global supply chain skills in Africa. The course runs from 21 - 22 October 2009 at the UCT GSB in Cape Town, South Africa. Read more >>[Menesia Muinjo and Geline Fuko] In the past, Celina Cossa would queue for days and even nights just waiting to buy a bag of maize. But that did not even guarantee she would be able to purchase it. Some nights her two children, her husband and her would go to sleep on empty stomachs. Read more >> [Jessie Boylan] LAGO DISTRICT: August is peak tomato season in the Niassa province of northwest Mozambique, and farmers are bringing bucket-loads of tomatoes to sell to Nkwichi Lodge, one of the few buyers of local produce in the region. Read more >> Sponsorship
Founding sponsor of the Highway Africa conference, Telkom, will be renewing and increasing its sponsorship at the 2009 event, 5 - 8 September 2009, Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa. A new three-year sponsorship agreement will be formalised at the signing ceremony between Rhodes University and Telkom. Read more >>TV
[Desmond Ekeh] About six weeks ago, a young man, Uche Nwazeapu bolted from nothingness to national limelight after winning this year's edition of Gulder Ultimate Search. Although, the hullabaloo generated by this years search might not be comparable to the early versions, the seven million-naira prize money would be enough to make him a very happy man for a long time. Read more >> The Big Brother Africa house has been re-designed for the fourth edition which is set to launch this Sunday, 6 September 2009. The house is said to have been renovated from its technology to its texture and décor. Read more >> "Our work is the presentation of our capabilities." - Edward Gibbon"We never know the worth of water till the well is dry." - Thomas Fuller"Most people think “selling” is the same as “talking”. But the most effective salespeople know that listening is the most important part of their job." - Roy Bartell
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