South Africa

2012

  
SABC acting Chief Operating Officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng answers questions about censorship at the broadcaster on December 6. (Madelene Cronjé/MG)

Worrying trends at South Africa’s public broadcaster

South Africa is in the midst of one of its most important political events–the ruling African National Congress’s Mangaung elective conference, which takes place once every five years to shape policy and elect new leadership.  Because of the power of the ANC as South Africa’s leading political party, the conference holds not only the future…

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Alf Kumalo being arrested at a boxing match in Johannesburg in May 1976. (Alf Kumalo Foundation and Photographic Museum)

Remembering South African photojournalist Alf Kumalo

Photojournalist Alf Kumalo, whose career chronicled the inception, injustice, and demise of apartheid in South Africa, passed away on Sunday in a Johannesburg hospital at the age of 82.

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A protest against the Protection of Information Bill outside parliament in Cape Town, November 22, 2011. (Reuters/Mike Hutchings)

South African Secrecy Bill kept at bay, for now

South African journalists and civil society groups were uneasy this month amid rumors that the Protection of State Information Bill, commonly known as the Secrecy Bill, would pass the Upper House of parliament, the last step before a presidential signature. Since 2008, journalists and civil society have lobbied against the bill, which many fear would…

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A screen shot of a graphic released by City Press' parent company that samples tweets from around the country. (Media24/Andrew Trench)

South Africans clash on Twitter over #Zumaspear

South African journalist and arts critic Charl Blignaut made what turned out to be an excellent prediction. “Of all the work on show, it’s this depiction of the president that will set the most tongues wagging and most likely generate some howls of disapproval,” he wrote on May 13 in a review of an art…

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Audio slideshow: Supporting family of Anton Hammerl

Freelance photographer Anton Hammerl was killed in Libya on April 5, 2011. Friends of Hammerl are holding an auction May 15 to raise funds for his three children. James Foley elaborates.

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CCTV's East Africa operations are headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. (CCTV)

China’s media footprint in Kenya

Will China’s quickly expanding media presence in Africa result in a fresh, alternative, and balanced perspective on the continent–much as Al-Jazeera altered the broadcast landscape with the launch of its English service in 2006–or will it be essentially an exercise in propaganda?

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South African President Jacob Zuma, center, and other members of the ANC cut a cake celebrating the 100th year of the party. (EPA/Elmond Jiyane)

#ANC100 debate lays bare divisions over South Africa media

On January 8, 1912, South African intellectuals–including pioneering black newspaper publishers Pixley ka Isaka Seme, editor of Abantu-Batho, and John Langalibalele Dube, editor of Ilanga lase Natal–formed Africa’s oldest liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), in the Wesleyan Church in Bloemfontein.

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Henry Nxumalo in 1953. (Jurgen Schadeberg)

Remembering Henry Nxumalo, pioneer under apartheid

Just over 55 years ago, on New Year’s Eve 1957, trailblazing South African journalist Henry Nxumalo was murdered while investigating suspicious deaths at an abortion clinic in Sophiatown, a suburb west of Johannesburg.

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2012