The Media Institute of Southern Africa, a regional media and freedom of expression advocacy organisation, based in Windhoek and working through national chapters in 11 Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries joins the rest of the world in marking the World Press Freedom Day on May 3 2010. MISA commemorates May 3 under the theme “Access to Information: The Right to Know”.The 2010 World Press Freedom Day comes at a time when the enjoyment and respect for media and freedom of expression has taken a serious downturn in Southern Africa. We mark May 3 under the shadow of a deterioration of media freedoms throughout the region notably in Swaziland, Zambia and Botswana.The optimism and renewed hope that came with the Government of Unity in Zimbabwe did not last. All seemed so bright; a promise of a new chapter in the media environment of freedom and media law reform for a country that has known repression for too long. The Government of Unity did not deliver. Not yet.[more]

Zimbabwe's power-sharing government has not carried out critical media reforms as promised under the country's September 2008 Global Political Agreement, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.The 26-page report, "Sleight of Hand: Repression of the Media and the Illusion of Reform in Zimbabwe," says that the Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the former sole ruling party, still holds the balance of power in the coalition government forged with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the former opposition movement, in February 2009. ZANU-PF promotes political propaganda and restricts independent reporting through repressive laws that remain unchanged, and it retains its control of security forces and key resources, Human Rights Watch said. "The Global Political Agreement promised reforms that would guarantee transparency and promote free, fair, and credible elections," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "But these have turned out to be empty promises. The power-sharing government is taking no serious steps toward reform."[more]

When 28 000 flights a day to and from Europe are cancelled because of a far-away island’s volcano dust, the people directly affected turn to social media big time.

As one of the many people stranded by the ash cloud, and unable to get home for five days, I also checked out the Internet buzz. Not much punch by the online media, but Twitter was humming with posts, including humour. Amongst the searchable keywords, known as “hashtags” in reference the # before a chosen term, was “#ashtag”. Following that keyword online, you could summon a chuckle at quips being tweeted and re-tweeted, like these: * “All that smoke from the Iceland volcano is God’s way of trying to elect a new pope”. * “Iceland's volcano is called Eyjafjallajokull. And pronounced your-travel-plan-is-screwed”. One website ( see www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/04/iceland_volcano_eyjafjallajoku.html) the US-based National Public Radio, helped out on the name of the culprit, explaining that you simply say: "AY-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul." They further included audio clips online, just to show that It doesn’t always have to sound like a swearword. [more]

Titled “The feet of the chameleon”, Ian Hawkey’s recent book on African football could equally be dubbed the “feat” of the chameleon. That’s because of the way soccer players on the continent have had to change their national colours in building their careers in exile – and usually against great odds. This book reckons that some 2000 Africans have made it to currently work as professional footballers in Europe. As evidence of the colour-change, Hawkey cites the 2002 World Cup where “the Senegalese team-sheet showed every single player had an address in France, all employed by clubs in the French league.” Feeding this pipeline, according to the book, are thousands of small African football “academies” – perhaps 450 in Cote D’Ivoire’s capital alone. Some big foreign-owned talent-spotting clubs and agencies are also in on the trafficking.[more]