A little thing called ‘freedom’

As this is my final blog, it seems only appropriate to wrap up with a note on the proposed national media laws. For those not in the know, government is planning on passing the following two laws through parliament:

• The proposal of a government-run media appeals tribunal (MAT) in place of the current Press Ombudsman and Appeals Panel
• The Protection of Information Bill which will allow for information to be easily classified, and, under initial drafts, warrants a 25-year prison sentence to any journalist who exposes such information

In Noob terms, freedom of expression is under threat and the so-called transparency of our democracy is about to become that much murkier. See The Media Institute of Southern Africa for more info: http://www.misa.org/

A note for the asking

Dear Readers

Firstly, if you are reading this please let me know. I am currently under the impression that only my lecturer and mother read my blog, and well, it would be lovely knowing that someone reads this because they actually want to. So first port of call after reading this would be to post a comment please!

A case of the tweets

Twitter has become a pretty useful tool for journalists; it’s the new platform in the race to break news first, especially when it comes to a series of events like the World Cup or Panjo the tiger running around. Lately, South Africans have been using Twitter to keep fellows tweeters up-to-date with the Jackie Selebi and Brett Kebble trials.