Search for bravest women journalists

WASHINGTON, US: The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) is seeking nominations for its 2013 Courage in Journalism Awards and Lifetime Achievement Award. 22 Feb 2013 10:33

Campaign for Access to Information intensifies

[Catherine Sasman] The Namibian government again has been implored to adopt legislation that makes access to information a legally binding obligation. 22 Aug 2012 15:44

Kasunda elected as MISA regional chair

[Gregory Gondwe: @Kalipochi] Anthony Kasunda, the chairperson of the Malawi chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Malawi) has been elected chairperson of the MISA Regional Governing Council (RGC) at the 2012 Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on 29 July 2012, at the Indaba Hotel and Conference Centre in Fourways, Johannesburg, South Africa. 31 Jul 2012 11:38

Access to quality information needed

Media freedom is undermined by a lack of information infrastructure as well as skills and literacy to access and critically evaluate information. The ability to access vital information, especially government information, makes it difficult for media practitioners and the general public to accurately report on issues that concern them. 21 May 2012 09:39

Journalist wins libel case against SWAPO

[Werner Menges] Legal history was made in the High Court in Windhoek on Friday, 13 April 2012, with a ruling holding SWAPO [South West Africa People's Organisation] legally liable for defamatory statements made on the party's website. 17 Apr 2012 14:49

Social media, popular revolt: cure against African dictators?

[Issa Sikiti da Silva: @sikitimedia] The events and developments of the past six months in Africa have demonstrated that the rise of social media has not only revolutionised the business environment, but also redefined the political scene by shaking the foundation of dictatorship, lack of service delivery and corruption for the first time since the dawn of independences. 5 Jul 2011 10:14

African people disillusioned with leadership - Moeletsi Mbeki

[Issa Sikiti da Silva: @sikitimedia] "African people - like me - are completely disillusioned with the performance of their leaders because of what they have done and what they are doing, and for me these people should not be called leaders, but rather the elite," Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of former South African president Thabo Mbeki and chairman of the SA Institute of International Affairs, said, speaking at the CNN-MultiChoice media forum currently taking place in Bryanston, Johannesburg, on Friday, 24 June 2011. 24 Jun 2011 11:56

Gwen Lister to speak at tonight's Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Awards

Gwen Lister - Namibian journalist, publisher, apartheid opponent and press freedom activist - will tonight, Tuesday, 10 May 2011, at the 10th annual Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Awards reflect upon the 20 years since the signing of the Windhoek Declaration on promoting an independent African press and share her thoughts on the ongoing fight for media freedom. 10 May 2011 13:14

Press freedom celebrations tempered with concerns

Yesterday, Tuesday, 3 May 2011, was the 20th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, begun in Namibia as the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of principles calling for a free, independent and pluralistic media throughout the world. Celebrations around the world were tempered with concerns about the erosion of press freedom and in South Africa, SANEF called on Government to review its proposed legislations that has seen SA downgrade from 'free press' to 'partly free'. 4 May 2011 09:13

Decline in press freedom experienced in key countries - report

WASHINGTON: The number of people worldwide with access to free and independent media declined to its lowest level in over a decade, according a Freedom House study released yesterday, 2 May 2011. The report, Freedom of the Press 2011: A global survey of media independence, found that a number of key countries experienced significant declines, producing a global landscape in which only one in six people live in countries with a press that is designated Free. 3 May 2011 14:00

Concern mounts over missing SA journo as govt scrambles to assist

[Issa Sikiti da Silva] As concern mounts over the fate of Anton Hammerl, a South African photographer missing in Libya alongside two US journalists and one Spanish photographer, the Presidency said yesterday, Wednesday, 20 April 2011, that President Jacob Zuma has been briefed on the attempts made by the SA mission in Libya to locate Hammerl. Reports from Washington DC also suggest that the White House is very concerned about their well-being and it is trying hard to assist them in any way it can. 21 Apr 2011 11:10

African politicians ban media to avoid criticism - Henry Maina

[Issa Sikiti da Silva] The fundamental reason that many African governments ban and harass the media has more to do with personal connotations than other issues, Kenya's Henry Maina, director of Article 19 Eastern Africa, told delegates at the two-day Regulations and Rights media conference last week in Johannesburg. 16 Mar 2011 10:22

Dario Milo and media law: is legal sky a limit for journalists?

[Issa Sikiti da Silva] There is some substantiated regulation of what the media can do and what it cannot do, but the balance must be struck between what the law has prescribed and freedom of expression, Prof Dario Milo, Wits University media law visiting professor and Webber & Wentzel partner, said last week in Johannesburg at the two-day Regulations and Rights media conference. 15 Mar 2011 14:01

What to do with critical media: to regulate or not to regulate?

[Issa Sikiti da Silva] As governments across the African continent come under increasing pressure from critical media, 'vulture' ruling parties believe the only way to deal with this 'surrogate opposition' is to regulate it through statutory mechanisms that will eventually dent its wayward reporting. But some African voices of reason, such as Zambia's Fred M'membe, argue that the restriction of good media never produces good media. 14 Mar 2011 10:50