Rapport newspaper editorialised on Sunday against self-regulation in favour of what it called "independent regulation". Ouch.
The idea is something between self-regulation on the one hand, and ruling party regulation (via parliament) on the other.

Hail to The Namibian newspaper - a model of viability, as testified by its 25th commemorative magazine.* And a tribute to its founder, Gwen Lister.

Angolan youth orchestra open the SABA conference on 13 September... playing Pachebel and Simon & Garfunkel. (Not kidding)

IT'S A CLICHE, but content is still King. That's what I said as the keynote speaker at the Southern African Broadcasting Association conference in Luanda, Angola. (Here's the powerpoint version.

But, what's new today are questions around broadcast "Kingship":

Rhodes Political Studies has organised a teach-in this week on the World Cup, with speakers ranging from the celebratory to the denigratory. I'm giving the concluding talk, which I've titled: "Race & representation in the meaning/s of the 2010 World Cup" (note: 3.8mb ppt file).

In summary, the event was intended (in part) by South African government to create "symbolic engineering" - to re-image South Africa in the first instance, and the interdependent semiotic connection with Africa more broadly in the second instance.

SABC has launched a new orientation for its news - called the Social Reconstruction Initiative (SRI).

The document outlining the strategy paints a picture of SABC trying to determine its own news agenda along developmental lines. That's to be commended for a public broadcaster, except for the very troubling ommission of democratic objectives.