CNNi (DStv 401) today announced that the channel will be adding a new American politics news show to its schedule.
The show, to be anchored by Congressional correspondent, Kate Bolduan, will be called 'State of the race' and will air daily at 8:30pm CAT on CNNi. It will broadcast from New York.
“This has already been a race like no other, and it is clear there is a lot more to come,” said Bolduan. “Every night we’re going to bring our international audiences along for the ride – offering the very latest developments from the campaign trail and giving them the inside scoop of what is really going on within the campaigns and in the minds of American vote
'State of the Race' joins the channels now growing coverage on the race to the white house, which includes the daily 'Wolf' (7pm CAT) and the weekly Political Mann (various air times).
The channel has not said what will happen to Zain Asher, who previously anchored the timeslot.
Wednesday, 24 February 2016
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 ]
CNN's current Beijing correspondent, David McKenzie will soon be relocating to the news organisation's Johannesburg bureau.
This comes months after Robyn Curnow, along with her husband and former bureau head, Kim Norgaard, both relocated from the Johannesburg bureau to take up positions at CNN's global headquarters in Atlanta, GA.
Since Curnow left, various international correspondents would make their way to South Africa to cover news events to fill the void.
Now, McKenzie, who was previously based in Johannesburg before being moved elsewhere, takes up the position of Johannesburg correspondent permanently.
eNCA's excellent Chief African Correspondent, Robyn Kriel, has left South Africa's most watched news channel to take up the position of East African Correspondent at CNN.
This follows about a month after she reported for CNN on the Kenyan university massacre. At the time she reported for CNN as part of CNN's affiliation agreement with eNCA.
Robyn Kriel holds degrees in broadcast journalism and musical theatre from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Her first job in broadcast journalism was at Texas station KWTX. In 2007 she moved back to her home country of Zimbabwe and did freelance reporting for networks like CNN, ABC in the US, BBC, and M-Net's Carte Blanche, among others.
She moved to South Africa to join what was then called the eNews Channel (now eNCA) in June of 2008 and was a weekend, late night, holiday and fill in anchor. In 2010 Robyn attended Duke University as a Menell Fellow, representing eNCA. In August of 2011, she took up the position of East Africa Bureau Chief at the time the channel was expanding its coverage on African issues. In October last year when the Africa division was restructured, Robyn was given the title of Chief African correspondent, though still based in Kenya.
Below is a video from 2011 when US first lady Michell Obama paid tribute to her at the Young African Women Leaders Forum:
One could speculate that her jumping to CNN could have something to do with eNCA recently shutting down its African division, which has resulted in staff layoffs and the cancellation of the long running African news magazine show, Africa 360.
At CNN Kriel will continue to provide the excellent coverage of happenings in East Afican countries like Kenya, where the government is continuing to tackle the issue of militant group al-Shabaab, among other news.
A few of Robyn's now former colleagues and other personalities have taken to Twitter to congratulate her on the move. Here are some of them:
eNCA's Social Media Editor (and fill in anchor), Gareth Edwards tweeted:
I could not be prouder of my (now former) colleague @robynkrielCNN who has joined @cnni as a Correspondent. Talented beyond measure!!
CNNi, DStv 401, has announced their broadcast plans for the May 7th UK Elections.
The channel's coverage on the evening will be anchored by The World Right Now's Hala Gorani and also Max Foster who will be anchoring from across the Thames from the Palace of Westminster, providing viewers with on the ground coverage on what is to be the UK's most hotly contested election in quite a few years.
The eccentric Richard Quest from Quest Means Business will fly to London and provide rolling reportage from the top of one of London's signature open top buses as it travels around the city to voter hotspots picking up a diverse group of guests en route.
Chief International Correspondent, Christiane Amanpour will be stationed outside the House of Parliament where she will be joined by analysts who will be providing commentary throughout the night.
The Business View's Nina dos Santos will be in the comfort of the CNN London studio from which she will be doing the number crunching and touch screen analysis that is now standard with the coverage of any election.
Lastly, correspondent Phil Black will be stationed in Edinbugh providing insight as things unfold for the Scottish national Party.
[Noticeably absent from the coverage is Becky Anderson]
The coverage will go right through the night, preempting all scheduled programming including all programmes anchored by the anchors of the covergae and also shows like CNN Today with Michael Holmes and Amara Walker and also Anderson Cooper 360, which airs at 2am.
But before then, CNN will be broadcasting a special interactive debate with the contenders in the election this Friday evening, April 24th, anchored by Christiane Amanpour and Max Foster.
Conservative peer Baroness Neville Jones, Labour’s Chris Bryant, Liberal
Democrat peer Lord Steel, UKIP’s Louise Bours, and the SNP’s Humza
Yousaf will participate in the debate.
The debate will take place at the McLaren Technology Group’s new
Thought Leadership Centre, in front of a specially selected audience
designed to represent the UK electorate.
As part of the debate the studio audience will be invited to give its
take on key issues, with the results displayed in real time on the
debate floor. Topics such as immigration, Europe, the health service,
the economy, and Britain’s place in the world are up for discussion.
Gill Penlington, Director of Programming, EMEA, at CNN International
said in a statement: “There is huge interest in the UK election from an international
perspective, especially with so many issues that transcend this
country’s borders. This debate is the perfect chance to explore those
issues, as well as get a genuinely representative picture of the UK
electorate’s views on them. It should be a fascinating debate at a key
point in the campaign.”
The debate airs this Friday on CNNi (DStv 401) at 8pm.
Robyn Kriel, eNCA's cheif African correspondent, today reported multiple times for CNNi (DStv 401) on the tragedy that has been unfolding in Kenya today. The link between CNN and Kriel in Kenya was a standard broadband feed, meaning the connection was a bit problematic (sound and picture break ups), though one could fully understand her excellent reportage.
What makes CNN's continued use of Robyn throughout the day more impressive is that their own Soni Methu is in Nairobi as well, yet they opting to go with Robyn for more live shots.
eNCA is, of course, a CNN affiliate, which means that the two news channels occasionally use each other's resources like live camera shots or, in this case, a very talented journalist. The affiliation deal is similar to what CNN has with local news channels in many countries and American states which allows both CNN and the local news organisation to leverage the others resources in their coverage.
eNCA is also in the process of scaling back their Africa division as part of a company wide review.
eNCA's Chief Africa Correspondent, Robyn Kriel, talking to CNN's Michael Holmes and Amara Walker on CNN Today
(Though eNCA has been a CNN affiliate for very long, the only previous times I remember them actually using each other's resources was a very long time ago when Deborah Patta's 3rd Degree aired an Amanpour episode that featured Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and again a few years ago immediately after the passing of Nelson Mandela when CNN would ocassionally dip into eNCA's feed to provide their viewers with an on the ground perspective)
CNNi (DStv 401) has announced that they will be relaunching their CNN Newsroom block that airs on weekday mornings between 7am and 11am CAT.
This follows months of testing various anchor lineups to see what gels best and they have finally settled on a permanent anchor lineup.
From 7am to 9am African viewers can look.forward to veteran anchor John Vause, who is joined by Zain Asher, who joined CNNi a few months ago from CNN Money.
From 9am to 11am, viewers can look forward to longtime anchor Rosemary Church alongside former African-based correspondent, Errol Barnnett.
They will thankfully be abandoning the dreaded bluebscreen backgrounds and will fully adapt the look of CNN Today, which airs after midnight in the African region.
Other than that, viewers can expect the news they have become used to seeing at those times on CNNi.
CNNi, DStv 401, has added a new taped programme from Erin Burnett to the channel's weekend schedule.
The show is called Erin Burnett Outfront, the exact same name as her weekday show on the US version of CNN.
It will feature mainly in depth interviews with international news makers, most of which would just be interviews that was on her weekday show but has not yet been seen by the CNN audience outside of the US.
Because most of the interviews are just airings of interviews she did on her US shows, the topics discussed does come across as very US-centric, even though it is billed as taking on international issues.
It will also feature some exclusive interviews as well.
The earliest hints of a show on the international CNN came last year, when she renegotiated her contract with CNN, which stipulated that she would get a show on CNN International as well. At the time, most media outlets assumed that the show would be a weekday, primetime show, but that is obviously not the case now.
Erin Burnett Outfront airs at 4pm Central African Time on Saturdays, and then gets repeated at 10pm the same day and then a new episode airs on Sunday at 5pm and then gets repeated at 2:30am Monday morning again
Christiane Amanpour, CNN's Chief International Correspondent and host of the daily Amanpour (9pm CAT) as well as "Golden Boy" Anderson Cooper, who hosts Anderson Cooper 360 (3am CAT) both questioned CNN Worldwide President, Jeff Zucker, on the network's refusal to show the cover of the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo.
They questioned Zucker infront of all CNN's staff internationally at the organisation's annual town hall special that is broadcast to all its bureaus.
Politico has more: CNN's Christiane Amanpour questioned network president Jeff Zucker in
front of CNN's global staff on Wednesday over his decision not to air
images of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, sources at the network told
POLITICO.
In a "town hall" simulcast to CNN bureaus worldwide, the chief
international correspondent informed her boss that the Quran does not
prohibit showing images of Mohammed and questioned the network's refusal
to show the most recent Charlie Hebdo magazine cover on the grounds
that it might offend Muslims. Despite conventional wisdom, many Islamic
scholars say that the Quran does not explicitly prohibit images of the
prophet Mohammed. The view that such depictions should be prohibited is
one that has evolved over time in certain strands of the religion. (More
on all that here, here and here.)
In response to an earlier question about the depiction of Mohammed,
from Anderson Cooper, Zucker had cited staff safety as a key reason for
not showing the cartoons. On air, however, CNN has attributed the
decision to a network policy "not to show potentially offensive images
of the prophet." Unfortunately for our readers, Zucker's response to Amanpour was
unmemorable, several sources said. "Basically he had no response," said
one staffer. CNN declined to comment for this piece. We've invited
Zucker to respond to Amanpour's point about the Quran, and will update
if and when we hear back.
You can read the rest of the article, which includes the rest of what was said at the townhall here.
CNN (DStv 401) has reached an agreement with the US's FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) which would allow them to start using unmanned drones with cameras on board.
The move follows the FAA's decision back in September to allow movies to use the technology but, at the time, not any news organsisation or any other media entities.
Drones have been mostly banned for commercial use since back in 2007 and it is only now that restrictions on their use are being eased, following heavy debate.
In South Africa, drones had been used to provide breathtaking visuals in news coverage, like Carte Blanche's coverage of the Oscar trial, documentaries, like the ones made by eNCA (which I must say were the best drone images I have ever seen, especially the ones floating over the scenic Eastern Cape), and movies, including a Leon Schuster prank.
But the drone trend came to a grinding halt when the South Africa by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) banned all use of the technology at the start of June last year.
That move was met by great outcry by many in the affected industries, especially highlighting how it would make South Africa a less atractive location for foreign film projects.
The reason for the ban was apparently due to a "lack of regulations."
It is unclear when drones will return to the skys of South Africa, but here is CNN's full press release on their new agreement to start using the technology in the US:
CNN has entered into a Cooperative Research and
Development Agreement (CRDA) with the Federal Aviation Administration to
advance efforts to integrate Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) into
newsgathering and reporting.
The cooperation arrangement will integrate efforts from CNN’s
existing research partnership with the Georgia Tech Research Institute
(GTRI). Coordination between and among CNN, GTRI and the FAA has already
begun. The FAA will use data collected from this initiative to
formulate a framework for various types of UAVs to be safely integrated
into newsgathering operations.
“Our aim is to get beyond hobby-grade equipment and to establish what
options are available and workable to produce high quality video
journalism using various types of UAVs and camera setups,” said CNN
Senior Vice President David Vigilante. “Our hope is that these efforts
contribute to the development of a vibrant ecosystem where operators of
various types and sizes can safely operate in the US airspace.”
“Unmanned aircraft offer news organizations significant
opportunities,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. “We hope this
agreement with CNN and the work we are doing with other news
organizations and associations will help safely integrate unmanned
newsgathering technology and operating procedures into the National
Airspace System.”
