Debora Patta reports from inside Aleppo

Debora Patta, CBS News' Foreign Correspondent usually based in Africa has been reporting out of the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo over these last few days.

This as the Syrian army continues to make strides in reclaiming the City.

Very few American news organisations ever send their own reporters to locations like Aleppo, instead opting to use stock footage and voice overs for reporting that feels very disconnected from the people on the ground.

However, with Patta on the ground, CBS News users get a very real and hands-on experience of what things are like in the City, like in the above picture where she takes viewers inside one of the tunnels once controlled by the rebels.

You can follow Debora's esperience on her Twitter account, @debora_patta

Debora Patta Nominated for News and Documentary Emmy Award

Former eNews editor, Debora Patta has been announced as a nominee for this year's News and Documentary Emmys, which aims to recognise outstanding achievement in broadcast journalism.

Currently Debora serves as CBS News' Foreign Correspondent based in Africa where she covers major stories and breaking news from across the continent.

She is nominated for "The War Against Ebola," a story documenting Liberia's struggle with the Ebola virus. You can find a written version of the story by clicking here.

Since joining CBS News in early 2013, Debora has traveled across the continent covering major news stories like Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al Shabab in Kenya, Oscar Pistorius and the passing of Nelson  Mandela in South Africa, and the Ebola story from countries few other journalists were going to.

The News and Documentary Emmy Awards takes place on September 28th from the Lincoln Centre.

eNews Channel Africa Turns 7

The date was Sunday, June 1st 2008. The venue was Melrose Arch. As 7pm approached, the crowd started counting down: 10, 9, 8...

At the end of the countdown, the screens in the venue beamed live visuals of Jeremy Maggs and Redi Direko (now Thlabi) welcoming viewers to the very first news bulletin on South Africa's first 24 hour news channel, The eNews Channel.

Debora Patta speaking at the launch of the eNews Channel

On the launch of the channel, then eNews Gorup Editor, Debora Patta, said, "Today is a historic day not only for e.tv, but for the whole of South Africa.This is a homegrown channel. We conceived it, built it and now we are delivering it to you. We will criticise if needs be and we will give credit where credit is deserved. If you are doing something good, people out there will hear about it and if not, things might get a little harder for you. This is a platform where we will debate issues with no fear, no favour and cover stories with integrity, as we believe that this is a way of making a contribution to make SA a better place to live in. "

One of the contributing factors to the success of the channel was the eNews brand and on air presentation that was attached to it from the start, a brand that at the time was seeing ratings on free to air broadcaster eTV continuously grow.

Behind the scenes at eNCA on Election Day

Another factor was the quality of broadcast journalism seen on the channel, with the channel setting the benchmark when it comes to South African news broadcasts.

Since launch, the eNews Channel has continuously grown. In August of 2012, the channel changed its name from the eNews Channel to eNCA, to coincide with the channel's launch on the SKY Digital platform in the UK and news streaming service livestation.com outside of South Africa.

Now just a memory

The channel has not been without its hiccups though. Firstly, there was the strange and unexpected exit of former editor in chief, Debora Patta, in May 2013, about a year after she decided to relinquish her duties as group editor and only do her investigative show, 3rd Degree. Then there is also the whole saga with Marcel Golding that led to the revelation that government did indeed sponsor an infrastructure series that aired in 201, among other allegations made by Golding.

In October last year, the channel  decided to come off of the SKY Digital platform as a result of a cost cutting measure (though they will spin it differently). Another cost cutting measure experienced by the channel was the shutting of its growing Africa division earlier this year, basically reversing the expansion that the channel has been experiencing since launching on SKY.

Though competition has increased over time, currently in South Africa eNCA is competing with the SABC's third attempt at a news channel, The SABC News Channel (following the poor performances by its predecessors SABC Africa and SABC News International) and new comer ANN7, eNCA has continued to maintain a dominant position in the local broadcast news industry, still comfortably boasting more than half of the market share.

CNN's Richard Quest alongside then eNCA anchor Eleni Giokos

However (at least according to me), the biggest legacy of the eNews Channel Africa is not the channel itself, but rather the excellent journalists who have passed through their Hyde Park doors and have gone on to other things following their time at the channel:

•  Former News Night anchor, Redi Thlabi, is now a host of a current affairs show at Al Jazzera.
• Former Cape Town based sports anchor, Robin Adams is now a sports anchor at Al Jazeera
• Former Chief Meteorologist, Derek van Dam, has gone on to CNN
• Former Chief Africa Correspondent, Robyn Kriel, has gone on to become CNN's first ever East Africa Correspondent
• Former eNCA Business anchor Eleni Giokos is now at Bloomberg TV Africa
• Former Editor in Chief, Debora Patta, is now a foreign correspondent at CBS News in the US
• Former reporter Shahan Ramkissoon is now Arise News' US Correspondent
• Nkepile Mabuse went from eNews to CNN and is now back at eNCA where she presents Checkpoint

eNCA journalists are also head hunted by other local news channels:

• Ayanda Allie Paine is now an anchor at SABC News' Morning Live
• Peter Stemmet is now the primetime sports anchor at ANN7
• Edwin Kgaswe is now the Sports Editor at ANN7
• Peter van Onselen anchors ANN7's breakfast show
• Francis Herd hosts a daily business show on the SABC News Channel
• Hajra Omarjee left eNCA to become the political editor at ANN7, but vacated that job after about a year and is now the political editor at PowerFM
• Julia Stewart is now at Supersport

But I am most excited about the journalists still at eNCA and to see how they continue to set the gold standard when it comes to covering South African news. 

Debora Patta In Kenya

With the recent attacks in Kenya, news organsations have been scrambling to provide on the ground coverage from Kenya. CBS News' Debora Patta is in Kenya as well covering the tragedy and its aftermath.


Debora was, of course, eNews' editor in chief (and anchor in chief) until her unexpected exit from the organisation back in May 2013.

If you miss Debora on your tv as much as I do, here is two of her reports on the Kenyan tragedy for her [relatively] new home, America's CBS News, where she holds the title of foreign correspondent:

Jessica Pitchford Joins eNCA's Check Point

Picture from TVSA

Award winning broadcast journalist, Jessica Pitchford has joined eNCA's investigative journalism program, Checkpoint, show presenter Nkepile Mabuse announced via Twitter earlier today.

Jessica graduated from Rhodes University in the 80's, then began her career in radio news in 1986 and then to television in the early 90's. She is a former CNN African Journalist of the Year for Political Reporting. Her CV also includes other investigative shows like Special Assignment, which she joined in 2000. At the SABC she not only contributed to Special Assignment but also other news and actuality programming as both a reporter and a producer.

 She later moved to MNet's long running investigative magazine show, Carte Blanche, where she was most recently a managing editor. At Carte Blanche, she also penned the show's highly publicised memoir, so to speak, Carte Blanche: The Stories Behind The Stories. (More on that book here).

Checkpoint, which is broadcast on both eNCA and free-to-air channel eTV, launched on the 8th of April this year as the broadcaster's replacement to longrunning investigative magazine show 3rd Degree, which ended when host Deborah Patta left eNCA to join CBS News as a correspondent. Pitchford's addition to Checkpoint will add a certain level of credibility to a show that still trying to gain prominence in a market with other investigative magazine shows like Carte Blanch and Special Assignment.  

Mandela News Coverage: eNews/eNCA

When I look at the coverage provided by this news organisation, I cannot decide on whether it is a hit or a miss.
This is because, yes, they provide exceptional coverage on Mandela's death, but when they go into documentary mode, they do that for way too long, forgetting to keep the people informed.

Their coverage has been nonstop on both eNCA and eTV (along with Livestation outside of SA and free on their official website and Youtube) with only a promo thrown in now and then.

Since the unfortunate news broke, Sally Burdett coverd late Thursday Night and also the overnight hours. According to Iman Rappeti's Twitter account, she was live at 3am. She along with Jeremy covered through thee standard breakfast hours. The usual breakfast team of Dan Moyane and Uveka Rangappa covered 10am-3pm, followed by Joanne Jospeh that spent the next three hours solo, before handing back over to Jeremy Maggs and Iman Rappetti who did double duty on Friday.

I was quite surprised that by 11:58 Friday morning, eNCA had a special set constructed and did their coverage from there. Their graphics also changed to have more Earthy colours at some point in the morning.

Special Note: I was so surprised to see them show Debora Patta in one of their inserts (considering the manner in which she left) and was quite interesting to see her being billed as an 'Investigative Journalist' and not Former Head of eNews or Anchor in Chielf or any special title that she had whilst with them.

Though their coverage simulcasted on eTV once more overnight, I was quite surprised that they did not continue live coverage, rather opting for documentaries.

Coverage continued on Saturday, where Joanne Josephs did her usual hours followed by Duduzile Ramele. Iman Rappetti picked up at the usual hours of NewsNight.

Overall, not too bad from them though I expected a bit more