The largest epidemic of polio in recent years has broken out in Nigeria and is spreading across central and western Africa, threatening 74-million children with the paralysing disease and jeopardising hopes of eradicating it from the world by the end of the year.
According to the World Association of Newspapers, cellphones are set to take over PCs as the medium for accessing the ‘net. That’s good news for publishers, says Matthew Buckland, ‘cos cellphones mean revenue.
Max du Preez’s famously shut-down <i>Vrye Weekblad</i> and new tabloid success <i>Kaapse Son</i> have a gesture in common: the big "up yours" to the establishment. But how are the more polite Afrikaans newspapers making out with a distracted and diversified readership? Toast Coetzer digs into the culture.
On Friday June 11 <i>ThisDay</i> was yellow. MTN Yello. Almost every page of the paper had been washed in yellow, as part of a celebratory campaign from MTN, and it has been the talk of the town since it hit the streets. Industry insiders are questioning whether the newspaper ‘sold its soul’ by going yellow.
Some PR practitioners argue that public and private sector communications are unrelated, but the dissenting opinion says there is an unmistakeable relationship between the two. Can government take a leaf out of the PR industry’s book? Lisa Witepski reports.
Where once even the pictures were politically problematic, Afrikaans magazines are unburdening themselves of their historical legacy. Sean O’Toole writes that this sector reflects how the ideological purity of the language is splintering.
The overhaul of Afrikaans broadcast media in the last decade represents a necessary cultural catharsis, writes Andy Davis. But are these radio and television brands adequately catering for the country’s 3,5-million black and coloured Afrikaners?
The threat of journalists’ eviction from their offices in parliament has blown over for now, but it could easily have become a matter for the courts. Reggie Manyakara explains what office space has to do with the right to freedom of expression.
Celebrated Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto boldly claims that Third World poverty can be eradicated by transforming "extra-legal" property ownership into legal ownership, with the Deeds Registry proposed as the vehicle. In response, the Jeremy Cronin writes that De Soto’s recipe for promoting people’s capitalism "is a naïve, even dangerous, mirage". Steven Robins adds his response.
US conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has been a big factor in Republican Party victories over the last decade, but now the shoe is on the other foot. Can left-leaning talk radio oust Bush? Tim Spira phones it in.