News
- Children’s Radio Foundation gets youth’s opinion on the upcoming elections
Four young South Africans give their frank and considered opinion on the elections. They tell us whether or not they’ll be making their mark, and why. We also hear from George Kalu, head of Children’s Projects at Media Monitoring Africa who explains how politicians overlook children as an election issue and as the future electorate.
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- His Master’s Voice and the perennial question of SABC bias
The DA’s at the SABC’s throat, citing bias after the public broadcaster gave the ruling party live coverage for the ANC’s final Siyanqoba rally on Sunday, days before voters go to the polls. The SABC, of course, says the DA’s talking nonsense. The law says electoral coverage should be equitable, but is vague enough to make deciding what is equitable fairly malleable. And yes, we’ve heard this all before.
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- MMA analysis finds Morning Live broadcast guilty of ANC bias
Media Monitoring Africa (MMA has concluded its investigation of biased reporting on the part of an SABC 2 Morning Live show broadcast on May 11 after concerns were raised by a member of the SOS Coalition (Support Public Broadcasting), and found that that particular broadcast did in fact favour the ruling ANC. It said the broadcast was “in the interests of the ANC, and not the voter”.
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- Sunday Times and me, Part II: The Empire strikes back, sort of
More than a month ago, Michelle Solomon submitted her first Promotion of Access to Information (PAI) Act application to make public the 2008 Sunday Times report by the Harber commission. On 3 May, World Press Freedom day, Avusa informed Solomon her application had been denied.
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- SA media tested by Andries Tatane’s death
What thoughts and considerations went through editors’ minds when they chose to put the horrific images of the beating and subsequent death of Andries Tatane on television and on front pages?
With violence a national staple in South Africa, how do editors weigh up what best serves the public interest?
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- Invite to: Children – An Election Issue?
There are 19 million children in South Africa
12 million of them live below the poverty line – on less than R570 a month
But are local politicians’ plans for helping our children making the headlines ahead of polling day?
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- SAPS like hit squads of apartheid – union
ANDRIES Tatane’s death in Ficksburg has been condemned not only by political parties, but unions and civil society too.
“What we saw last night was a reminder of the notorious apartheid hit squads that used to kill and torture our people in townships and factories during the heights of apartheid,” the Free State branch of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa said.
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- Fiksburg killing slammed
Forty-five protesters arrested for public violence in Ficksburg were released on a warning by the local magistrate’s court on Thursday, Free State police said.
Spokesman Captain Phumelelo Dlamini said they were warned to appear in court again on May 24.
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- Police brutality: SABC ‘in trouble’ over footage of dead protester
The SABC is in ‘deep trouble’ over the footage of a brutal beating to death of a Free State protester by cops, shown this week on its TV news bulletins.
As the images grip the nation with grief and anger, the ruling ANC has called on regulator ICASA to investigate the public broadcaster for a possible breach of its mandate, while Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) said it was concerned about discrepancies in how the story was reported.
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