Justice Malala on CNN

Tonight, February 24th, South Africa's prison system was featured on CNNi's (DStv 401) flagship show, Amanpour. The segment started with CNN's South African based correspondent, David McKenzie, going inside Pollsmoor prison, speaking to inmates about conditions there. Hd also spoke to officials about the prison system.

This was then followed by a live discussion with Justice Malala, who was in Johannesburg and is the host of eNCA's The Justice Factor, and Peter Hain, a South African political analyst.

Malala was listed as being a 'South African Political Analyst.' Something I found eyebrow raising from Malala's commentary is that he openly supported the #ZumaMustFall movement, which is strange from someone that is expected to host a down the middle politcal chat show every week on eNCA, without ever mentioning that he supports one side more than the other. How do you conduct an impartial interview with an ANC official after that?

Malala was joined by Peter Hain, who was in CNN's London studio and spoke about how the ANC has betrayed Mandela's legacy.

Both analysts displayed somewhat of an optimism for South Africa's future. Malala felt that race will continue to be an issue going forward considering that the country is made up of both black and white individuals, not a colonist that left the country.

At the end of the segment, Christiane noted that the show had reached out to the South African government to comment, but was told no one was available.

You can watch the full segment at amanpour.com

[As most long form South African features on the show, I found the segment to be a bit too negative and exaggerated. I also don't get where this segment came from just so randomly. There were other more contemporary issues to discuss, like the economy and the budget which was tabled to there, or the student movement, which included the event sat UFS this past Monday, but they focused on the prison system for some reason ]

ANN7 relaunches Straight Talk, adds Chelsea Lotz as anchor/presenter

ANN7 will be relaunching their Striaght Talk brand come 1 March.

Straight Talk, which was ANN7's main weekly in depth interview program in 2015, was started to fill the void left by Hajra Omarjee's Political Edge when she left the organisation. It has been hosted by multiple hosts for its 2015 run, including the likes of Ricky Naidoo and Moegsien Williams.

Now the channel has named Chelsea Lotz as the anchor/presenter of the show. Chelsea joined the channel at the start of the month and has been doing some fill in anchoring whilst prepping for the start of the new season of Straight Talk.

Looking at her LinkedIn page reveals she is quite well accomplished already. She has represented the youth of the continent at major international gatherings, worked on UN reports and is currently the Co-Director for the South Africa India Business and Friendship Association (SAIBFA)

The new season of Straight Talk kicks off March 1st (Odd that it is a weekday and not the previous weekend slot the show occupied)

News and Current Affiars SAFTA Highlights

The SAFTA nominees were announced this past week with various news and current affairs programming featured and nominated.

The best South African show you probably not watching, ZA News: Puppet Nation, received eight nods, being nominated in the Best Comedy Category, alongside Ga Ra Dumele, Kota Life Crisis, and Those Who Can't. They also featured in the Best Achievement by Supporting Actor in a TV Comedy for their puppeteers ( I don't know if all the puppeteers are male), Best Achievement in Art/Production Design in a TV Comedy, Best Achievement Costume Design in a TV Comedy, Best Achievement in Cinematography in a TV Comedy, Best Achievement in Editing in a TV Comedy,  Best Achievement in Sound Design in a TV Comedy and Best Achievement in Scriptwriting in a TV Comedy. If you want to know what the fuss is about, they do upload all their episodes onto YouTube.
In addition, ZANews has additional nominees in the Best Achievement by a Lead Actor in a TV Comedy category for Aggrey Loake  and Nik Rabinowitz. The director, Alex Fynn, is also nominated for  Best Achievement in Directing in a TV Comedy.

The current affairs nominees are:
Best Current Affairs Actuality Programme
It’s a Zama Zama (if you know where I can find this show, please let me know)
Dying for Water in Madibeng (Carte Blanche)
Insurance Taken for a Ride (Carte Blanche)

Best Factual Education Programme
Each One Teach One – Dancer
Groen Namibia
Durban Beach Rescue
Siyaya – Come Wild with Us: Season 2

Best Documentary Full Length
Shore Break Movie (Pty) Ltd (The Shore Break)
Undercurrent Film & Television (The Dream of Shahrazad)
WB Productions (204: Getting Away with Murder)

Best Documentary Short
Film Industry Learner Mentorship Programme (F.I.L.M) (Cape Town Carnival 2015: Elemental)
EMS Productions (Indians Can’t Fly)
VIA – Vision In Africa (Emo Adams – Tall, Dark & Afrikaans)

No nods for eNCA (whose documentary division was shuttered a while ago), SABC News Channel or ANN7.

ANN7's free-to-air ambitions face major hurdles

A few months ago I reported that ANN7 had applied to receive a broadcast licence so that it can take its signal to the masses by being a free to air channel, like SABC and e.tv, when digital terrestrial broadcasting goes live.

Prior to that, a diagram showing the channel's ownership structure surfaced online. Well, now City Press has done what no one else did, even though it was in clear daylight, by putting two and two together by revealing that ANN7 cannot receive a free to air broadcast licence, given current legislation in South Africa.

Under South African law, no tv channel with an ownership structure consisting of more than 25% foreign ownership is allowed to be issued with a free to air broadcasting licence. If you have a good memory, you will remember that in the early days of e.tv, Warner Bros. sold their 25% ownership in the red letter network because South African law prohibited them from owning anymore.

In the case of ANN7, the channel is owned by the Gupta's (who have South African citizenship, by the way), Duduzane Zuma (President Zuma's son) and Essel Media, an Indian company which also owns the likes of Zee Networks. [There are other minority shareholders, like editor-in-chief, Moegsien Williams, as well as a dodgy Dubai based company]

All in all, the channel is owned by 37.5% foreign owndership, way above the 25% cap. To combat this, the channel stated that they will adjust their ownership structure to fall in the guidelines, but will do so after the broadcast licence is awarded.

[Personally, I hope they get the broadcast licence just for the sake of mass market access to news broadcasts. e.tv seems to be going out of their way to stop eNCA from showing up on their free to air platform, OpenviewHD, whilst here ANN7 really wants to do the opposite]

Ayanda-Allie Paine Leaves SABC and Morning Live for PowerFM

Morning Live's (SABC News Channel 6am) news reader, Ayanda-Allie Paine will be leaving the breakfast show at the end of the month.

She will be leaving the SABC's flagship breakfast show, which averages over a million viewers daily throughout the country, for Gauteng's PowerFM, which is now a serious contender when it comes to attracting top notch broadcast journalists.

Prior to joining the SABC, Ayanda-Allie was a news anchor at eNCA, where she was initially a weekend anchor (one Saturday she fell asleep behind the desk, something that has become infamous) and then anchor of the channel's daily breakfast show, Morning News Today. 

Then, in August 2013, Ayanda jumped from eNCA to the newly launched SABC News Channel, where she was the newsreader of Morning Live. At the time, she attributed the jump to the fact that Morning Live is seen in way more homes than Morning News Today (Morning Live is available on the second most distributed channel in the country, SABC2) and this would allow her personal brand to be elevated to levels where she can make a greater social impact through more people being aware of her (seriously. No jokes).

Other than Morning Live, Ayanda also had many other opportunities at the SABC. She anchored the channel's coverage of the State of the Nation Address, which she probably would not get to do at eNCA, and also hosted the popular Crown Gospel Awards [At the time, the searc term 'who was presenter of crown gospel awards' drove a lot of traffic to this site]. In addition to that, she also hosted a prime time chat show, Visionaries Lounge on SABC2.

Now Ayanda will be embarking on a new journey to PowerFM where she will be hosting (do you call the hosts of a news radio station DJ's or anchors?) the breakfast show, Power Breakfast, with cohost, Lawrence Tlhabane.

So far, a replacement for Paine on Morning Live is yet to be announced.

[The name is 'Ayanda-Allie Paine,' not 'Ayanda Allie-Paine.' She said she chose this name because she doesn't want her children to have double barrel surnames but she also did not want to leave behind the rich lineage of the Allie name]

CNNMoney expands globally with Richard Quest named Editor at Large

CNN today, 15 February announced that it will be rolling out its commerce-centric news brand, CNNMoney, internationally.

The move comes 20 months after CNN bought out Money Magazine and Fortune's stake in the business (the business was a joint venture between the three Time Warner-owned enterprises) back in June 2014, with CNN president, Jeff Zucker, promising better synergies of the brand across all of CNN's properties, of which CNNi (DStv 401) is one.

As CNN has been cutting costs across the business, one division that has constantly been expanding is CNNMoney, which today announced further new hires in London, Dubai, New Delhi and Hong Kong.

“By uniting our portfolio of U.S. and international business reporting under the CNNMoney brand, we now offer an even more compelling product to globally-minded consumers hungry for a smart, accessible business and financial news experience – everywhere in the world,” said CNN International senior vice president and general manager Mike McCarthy in a statement.

When the CNNMoney brand was introduced on the US feed of CNN, various on air programmes and segments were rebranded. The same now applies to the international expansion:


World Business Today (4pm CAT, DStv 401) is now CNNMoney with Maggie Lake

 The Business View with Nina dos Santos is now CNN Money View, which is a rather odd name.

Also, you can expect a few tweaks on Quest Means Business.

There have also been new titles allocated to various personalities:
Richard Quest, anchor of Quest Means Business (daily, 23:00 CAT) becomes the division's editor-at-large
John Deftarios is now the CNNMoney Emerging Markets Editor
Eleni Giokos is now formally the African business correspondent based in Johannesburg

SONA2016: Coverage Notes

eNCA
- Cathy Mohlahlana did her usual slot with a few live crossings to parliament. Following her, Amy McIver filled in on News Day with regular anchor Michelle Craig at parliament.

-Iman took over from Amy McIver at 4pm, with coverage switching to parliament alone.

-Live visuals of protests whilst providing in studio analysis by Judith February with Iman Rappetti

- The etv simulcast started at 6:57, because viewers needed to watch Rhythm City and Scandal first

- When the EFF were thrown out, eNCA's audio feed was suspiciously cut, then the video feed. They then were forced to use the feed proivded by the Parliamentary Service until 8:14pm when things normalised.

- As soon as the president was done speaking, Iman Rappetti said goodbye to etv viewers, because some Valentines themed movie must be more important than SONA analysis. eNCA also went to a commercial break immediately, something the other news channels did not do.

- Post SONA, eNCA's first interview (by Thulasizwe Simelane) was with ANC secretary generay, Gwede Mantashe

After the State of the Nation Address, the channel swapped their analysts, with Mcebisi Ndletyana and Angelo Fick providing analysis from the Parliamentary precinct.

- Mmusi Maimane spoke to eNCA's Thulasizwe Simelane only after speaking to SABC News and ANN7 already.

Later, Lester Kiewit speaks to Trade and Industry Minister, Rob Davies.

-eNCA is the second channel to sign off at 10pm.

- Florence Letoaba, who is now simply just Flo Letoaba for some reason, took over just after ten pm from the Johannesburg studio.

SABC News
-Newsroom anchor, Ebem Jansen and primetime business anchor, Francis Herd started anchoring from Auckland Park at 3pm, with Vuyo Mvoko and Leanne Manas doing live crossings at parliament with the latter pair anchoring more coverage as time passed.

- Near complete ignorance of protests, once again opting to cover the state of the nation from the parade on a blow by blow basis, providing in depth analysis on the parade instead of the protests.

- The faint sound of protesting is not even mentioned. When the protesting EFF MP's were shown on screen, Leanne Manas said, "We letting the pictures speak for themselves," as if she was prohibited from mentioning what was happening.

- The 6:30pm English bulletin on SABC3 went ahead, being broadcast from the studio usually used for SABC2's news programming.

- The insert on the English news bulletin that covered the SONA address seemed to emphasise the strength of the security, not even mentioning why security has been beefed up

While ANN7 and eNCA have experts on discussing what they want to hear in the address, SABC News is covering the cheers and excitment and the celebration of the evening.

- Post SONA, SABC News had the first interview with DA leader, Mmusi Maimane

SABC News' post SONA coverage is really on the ground with reporters doing interviews and then just throwing to each other for the next interview without an anchor between them or analysis.

Afterall, you have a long time to do anaylisis but only a few minutes to get 'exclusinve' responses.

- SABC News' Vuyo Mvoko got the first interview with Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, post SONA. They really covered a lot of topics comprehensively.

- Coverage on SABC2 ends at 9:30pm, for today's edition of 7de Laan.

- After the Finance Minister, Gwede Mantashe joins Mvoko in his lounge for a nice softball filled long interview.

- SABC News has the first interview with the Public Protector, who stated she would have liked more to have been said about governance.

SABC News channel signs off at 9:57pm with Your World picking up just after ten pm from Auckland Park.

ANN7
-Vuka Africa anchor, Abigail Visagie anchored for four hours, followed by Karabo Yibe for four hours, then Chante Jantjies took over into prime time until after 10pm. Wow these people, along with their reporters, worked long hours, especially Chante. While other news channels had a morning team and an evening team at parliament, these guys did the whole day.

-Live anchoring from parliament was covered by Peter van Onselen and Clement Manyathela, who also did red carpet duty.

- Kalden Ongmu has  been doing excellent coverage on the protests, speaking to protestors on the ground and providing updates as they happen.

- Post SONA ANN7's first interview was with Dr Groenewald from the Freedom Front Plus

- After speaking to SABC News, Mmusi Maimane spoke to ANN7.

- ANN7 had more accredited staff for SONA than eNCA, but for some reason their broadcast is once again being done from their studio in Midrand, whilst their prime time anchor, Peter van Onselen, are doing interviews at parliament.

- Their transitioning from one reporter to another needs improving. Too much silent air.

- After speaking to SABC News, the public protector speaks to ANN7, again highlighting issues surrounding governance.

CNBC Africa
- The channel will cover the state of the nation address once Janet Yellin is done delivering her monetary policy report

- Was the only broadcaster to not carry the live national anthem

- Post SONA, CNBC Africa focused, once more, on financial analysis of the debate from the Joburg studio.

- Ralph Mothekga, who just doesn't seem able to stay off tv, is part of the panel.

BDTV
Business Day TV is once again not covering the event at all.

Special Mention: Islam TV Networks (DStv 347) provided wall to wall coverage on the event. I unfortunately realised this too late. They are, however, hosting a presidential debate later this year which will be covered here. So far, Mmusi Maimane has been confirmed to attend that event

ANN7 runs a disclaimer onscreen whilst covering the Constitutional Court hearings today

"ANN7 wants to inform its viewers that due to the threats to the safety of its journalists the network will not directly cover to ConCourt proceedings and the EFF march today. ANN7 brings you the coverage of the ConCourt case through a third party video feed and expert opinion on our network."

Those were the words that scrolled across the screen today on ANN7 whenever the news channel broadcast coverage on the constitutional court hearings today.

It follows threats by EFF leader Julius Malema whereby he stated that he cannot guarentee the safety of ANN7 and The New Age staff that attend EFF gatherings.

What exactly the disclaimer means is up to interpretation though.

Whenever the channel showed visuals from inside the constitutional court, it showed a 'Courtesy: SABC' credit in the top corner. If this whole thing with the EFF had not happened, they would still carry the feed provided by the SABC, as other news channels do too, as it is just cost effective to do so and it would not make sense to have many cameras in a venue when one can do the job for everyone. That is why organisations like the SABC provide things like 'pool feeds.' The only difference is they would not have ran that strap on the screen nor would they have stated 'Courtesy: SABC.'

If ANN7 was editorially biased, I don't think they could have doctored the live visuals to cover certain individuals more favourably, so I don't know what they were covering their bases from.

Furthermore, the strap implies that the on air analysis would be proived by third party 'experts.'  However, as seen in the picture above, the only 'expert' providing analysis when this strap was running was Michael Appel. Though I think Michael is an exceptional reporter and analyst (he really is), he is still paid by ANN7 and thus is not 'third party' enough to calm the recent allegations made by the EFF.

The strap was just a waste. It was as over dramatic as ANN7's coverage of the whole situation. Though the story between ANN7 and the EFF warrants airtime, it is being unfairly fav
oured for on air coverage ahead of other news worthy stories simply because the people reporting the story are part of the story. That is one thing every journalist should avoid as far as possible. not embrace.

ANN7 owners file, and is granted, urgent court interdict against the EFF

At 2pm today the North Gauteng high Court heard an urgent interdict agains EFF leader, Julius Malema [in case you did not know], by the CEO of Oakbay Investments, Nazeem Howa. [Oakbay is one of the main shareholders of ANN7 and the New Age].

The interdict follows Malema's comments last week whereby he made statements which incited violence against the journalists of ANN7 and the New Age, calling them the public relations department of the controversial Gupta family, ANN7 and The New Age's main shareholders. He further went on to ban them from attending EFF events in the name of ANN7 and The New Age.

The interdict is to  restrain EFF members from committing acts of violence against the company’s shareholders, staff and property. "Malema lashed out at the Gupta brothers and their commercial interests with a clear and unambiguous threat of violence and xenophobia," Oakbay Investments CEO Nazeem Howa said

The interdict was granted by Judge Johan Louw, 'with amendments.' What those amendments are will be clarified at a later date.

 "Our employees have the right to go to work and do their jobs without the threat of violence. We welcome today’s ruling and hope that the EFF will cease its threats and intimidation of our staff immediately,” said ANN7 editor-in-chief, Moegsien Williams,

SONA2016: Media Accreditation List Highlights

With the State of the Nation Address coming up this week on the 11th, news fans like myself are often excited to see how the broadcast news channels will be covering the event. The media accreditation list, which was released this past week, is often a good indication of whaat the channels have planned.

ANN7
Last year ANN7 decided to go against the trend and anchor their entire broadcast from their studio in Midrand. Though they had about two reporters on the ground, and good analysis in studio I will admit, it just seemed very disjointed.
Well this year, the channel will be broadcasting completely from Cape Town with new ANN7 Prime anchor, Peter van Onselen anchoring from within the parliamentary precinct.
ANN7 must be planning fireworks because their 61 personnel accredited for the SONA eclipses even eNCA's 32.

Express Luch anchor, Chante Jantjies will also be making her SONA debut this year. So too will late afternoon anchor, Karabo Yibe.

Like last year, Cape Town based reporter, Ken Brandt, will be in the precinct as well, as will Clement Manyathela.
Their reporters that will also be at the precinct include Michael Appel, Sinazo Cele, Nobuhle Nkhoma and senior reporter Kalden Ongmu.

Assignments editor, Cecilia Russel, will also be on hand. Remember last year Russel did something which I have never saw before, a breaking news story being anchored by telephone. She has also not shied away from giving what is really insightful commentary on air.

News channels often have various analysts from different fields present at their SONA coverage. ANN7's list includes Pumeza Bam, Dennis Cruywagen (Political commentator that has appeared on SABC News and Kyknet's news programming before) and Professor Sipho Seepe.

Surprisingly, ANN7 wont have any entertainment reporters covering the often controversial red carpet.

eNCA
As previously stated, eNCA will have roughly half the amount of accredited personel in the parliamentary precinct compared to ANN7, though quantity does not always equal quality ad I am sure we can expect something high quality from eNCA.

It seems like the channel will be broadcasting from the parliamentary precinct for hours: all anchors from 1pm are accredited to be there (Andrew Barnes and Michelle Craig from News Day, Joanne Joseph and Iman Rappetti. Jeremy Maggs will probably be, once again, based in the Joburg studio with whatever fad the channel is planning for this year)

Being based in Cape Town means you will probably be working on SONA night. Cape Town based reporters that will be at the precinct include Percivale Young, Leigh Anne Jansen,Lester Kiewit and Annika Larsen. Reporters being brought in include Thulasizwe Simelane, Dianne Hawker, Athi Nthongana and Bonga Dlulane.

Analysis and commentary will be provided by the likes of Judith February and Angelo Fick.

Notable exceptions include the exciting Yusuf Omar and Siki Mgabadeli. I am also going to miss Chester Missing, who always attracted a crowd on the precinct whenever he would interview someone.

SABC News
SABC News, being the public broadcaster at a state event, has the biggest team planned to converge on the precinct, as one would expect. 219 individuals are registered to represent the broadcaster at the event, excluding anyone who might have registered in the name of their SABC radio station.
Morning Live's Leanne Manas will be broadcasting live from parliament.

It seems like once again, Contributing Editor, Vuyo Mvoko, will be anchoring the prime time broadcast. Though many names are listed, its the ones that are not there that stand out. These include Ayanda-Allie Paine, who coanchored the broadcast last year, along with the entire prime time news team (Vabakshnee Chetty, Peter Ndoro and Francis Herd, the business anchor). Ndoro traditionally anchors/moderates the The News Age Business Briefing the next morning.

The actual head of news, Jimi Matthews, will be there too.

CNBC Africa
CNBC Africa, who usually covers the address live with analysis from their Joburg studio, will have Benedict Pather, Wandile Tonqa and Andile Tukwayo on  the ground.


Religious Broadcasters
Yes, you read it right, religious broadcasters are continuing to increase the size of their news divisions with many of them represented at the State of the Union Address, even though they do not carry the address live.
Faith Broadcasting Network (DStv341) will have five reporters covering the event from parliament.
LoveWorldSAT (Free To Air satellite), who I must admit can put on a high quality news bulletin, will have two reporters present with Islamic TV having four present.
In other words, religious television channels will have more represetitives present at the SONA Address than  both the Business news channels.
[These exclude the religious radio stations that will be there.]

International News Channels
International networks will be represented as well. Al Jazeera will have six individuals present, the same amount as ANN7's whole team last year. The BBC will have ten more than that.
Bloomberg, which shuttered Bloomberg Africa last year, will have two reporters on hand. So too will the news organisation that covers African news better than African news organisations do, CCTV Africa.
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Kyknet Verslag will also be represented