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/ 16 January 2006
Despite consumer inflation being consistently lower than "adflation", Harry Herber thinks media prices in South Africa are just too low. Who wants to buy him a whiskey?
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/ 16 January 2006
<i>New York Times</i> reporter Judith Miller abetted the illegal activities of White House officials in a campaign to smear a whistle-blower. Sean Jacobs writes that her jail sentence was more a statement on the sorry state of journalism than a heroic protection of her sources.
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/ 16 January 2006
There are many theories why big conglomerates are suddenly buying up independent "community" newspapers, but the answer appears simply to lie in the sector’s exponential growth in revenues. Raymond Joseph considers what this means for the grassroots voice.
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/ 16 January 2006
Having come under fire for flouting the hallowed rules of South African journalism by bringing his own experiences into his columns, David Bullard says what’s good enough for the likes of Bernard Levin is good enough for him.
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/ 16 January 2006
First there was the decolonisation process that started in the ’50s, then came the deregulation of the ’90s. The "third wind" to change the African print landscape could be driven by pan-African projects out of South African companies like Johncom and Naspers. Wallace Chuma reports.
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/ 16 January 2006
The sense Kim Novick gets on talking to the big players in the African outdoor environment is that there’s every reason for optimism, but tough lessons await the unwary. Less gung-ho and more softly-softly is the new order.
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/ 16 January 2006
This year, as a variation on the theme in last December’s African issue, we have decided to focus solely on the South African media companies doing business north of our borders. We have done this because it’s far more relevant to our readers.
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/ 16 January 2006
The new CEO of the SABC Dali Mpofu has a plan to take the public broadcaster into Africa on an unprecedented scale. It involves two 24-hour channels in a range of colonial and indigenous languages. It involves content tailor-made for each of the continent’s economic blocs. It involves the aspirations of Nepad and the African Union. It will take massive political and financial clout to achieve. Kevin Bloom reports.
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/ 16 January 2006
The government’s slogan of "Batho Pele" promises a return to our cultural values of putting people before all else. But anyone who uses public health services knows that people are generally put last — often after nurses’ tea breaks and chats. Children cry uncontrollably, the infirm slump in wheelchairs, and the elderly sprawl on the benches.
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/ 16 January 2006
If the point of journalism is to "speak truth to power", the month of October reconfirmed the purpose of South African media. Expressions of surprise at the candour of certain editorial pieces (implying frankness is not something we’re used to?) were rife across the industry, followed closely by guesses as to what the eventual consequences might be.