A rude awakening in the news that Vodacom is becoming a media company.

It's not about the firm's distribution of a bouquet of other people's TV via 3G (and in future DVB-H). It's not even about content as such.

IN THE BEGINNING:

Sunday 14 October, the SA National Editors Forum released a press statement on the possible arrest of Sunday Times staffers, with the somewhat confusing remark:

“This latest development will present the Sunday Times and the aggrieved parties to present their full cases before an independent arbiter, whose decision we expect them to embrace.”

ALONG THE WAY:

Everyone who works in industry, journalism or academia needs to blog to stay relevant and informed, argues Robin Hamman, a senior BBC journalist who works within the organisation to promote an understanding and awareness of social media.

Vincent pointed out an interesting post about tabloid journalism by Yfm's current CEO Kanthan Pillay. While I had a urination yesterday in one of ablution facilities in the African Media Matrix I noticed a fantastic quote (the bathrooms are littered with quotes and pretty pictures, in fact, by the CSHons rating scale I would give them an 8/10, they lose out because the hand driers are dismal). The quote looks like this (you can also scroll over the image, or click to make it big):

After lots of slog, a study of media law in ten African countries has seen the light of online day.

It's been a project of the Rhodes School of Journalism and Media Studies, under commission from UNESCO. It was launched during the Highway Africa conference in hard copy, and 200 have been sent out to African journalism schools so far.