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 Announces Broadcast Plans For UK Elections, Including Special 'Interactive' Debate this Friday Evening

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.

Xenophobic Violence Makes Headline on CNNi's Amanpour

The current Xenophobic outbreak seen across South Africa headlined today's edition on CNNi's (DStv 401) flagship programme, Amanpour (guest hosted by CNN Correspondent Fred Pleitgen ).

Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, was the first guest on the programme, and straight off the bat mentioned that South Africa welcomes immigrants from across the South African continent and that they [ SA citizens I suppose] appreciate their contribution to the country's economy and that nothing justifies the current violence. He also mentioned that the president has put together a task team to deal with the issue.  He then spoke about what has been done, including who they met with, including the Zulu king and groups representing foreigners.

Fred then asked whether the fact that the government was helping those that want to leave the country do so sent a message that they not really wanted in South Africa, to which Gigaba responded that they doing this to not put these individuals in harm's way. Gigaba also mentioned that it was an 'exaggeration' that the leadership of South Africa contributed to the current situation.

The next guest was 'popular' political commentator Eusibius McKaiser [who appeared on SABC3's 3 Talk with Noleen for the final time earlier in the day] who immediately got to respond to Gigaba's comments, which he said though had a few good points, over stated the on the ground presence to deal with the issues. He then continued to paint South Africa with a very negative brush, stating that 'all' South Africans speak the language of violence and highighted that SOuth Africa has the worst inequality 'in the world,' unemployment is 40%, higher than what it actually is (both that of the active and inactive labour force). They could really have found a better guest to discuss the issue, and I will leave it at that.

Overall, the segment which lasted 14 minutes, half of the programme, did not add very much that viewers did not already know and lacked the depth local broadcasters were able to provide.

The segment can be found below:

CNN's Christiane Amanpour and Anderson Cooper Question Boss Over Refusal To Show Cover of Charlie Hebdo

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.