Not a vuvuzela was to be heard at the Public Viewing Area at Grahamstown’s Miki Yili field during the high-stakes Portugal-Spain game on Wednesday night. The large screen flickered desolately as seven spectators sat silently on the benches. An equal number stayed in their parked cars as if at a Drive-In cinema. There were more police and ambulance personnel present than the viewers. In contrast, the opening game of the Cup attracted crowds of thousands to the same facility. Wednesday night’s weather was pretty mild for Grahamstown, so that wasn’t the reason for the no show. In the city centre, public viewership was slightly higher. Fifteen people watched the game from the High Street pavement – on a TV set in the shopfront window of Grocott’s Mail newspaper. [more]

Four months in jail with hard labour is hardly the kind of punishment you’d expect to be meted out to a mere journalist. It’s a form of repression you may have thought belonged to the distant past. But in delivering exactly this draconian sentence to a media person earlier this month, a Zambian court has seen fit to defy modern enlightened opinion. The victim of such a Neanderthal attitude is the heroic editor Fred M’membe, founder of the Post. The paper is a long-standing independent crusader for democracy in his country. The “crime” that earned him this barbaric retribution was to publish a column by a US-based commentator criticising the Zambian judiciary for a reactionary decision.[more]

The proposed amendment to the Ugandan Press and Journalist Law has caused quite a stir in the international media and provoked condemnation by international advocacy organizations and diplomats. It would amongst other allow the statutory media council to licence newspapers and revoke licences if they determine that “material …is prejudicial to national security, stability and unity”, which is vague enough to be abused by the powers that be. Yet, international “pressure” cannot get anywhere without a national outcry. Missing local voices give governments ammunition to write off valid criticism as foreign imports, which do not resonate voices on the ground. Andrew M. Mwenda , editor and owner of the Ugandan Weekly “ The Independent” takes civil society and journalists severely to task and asks how local journalists and civil society can claim ownership, if they are not willing to invest money, time or efforts in campaigns to defend their freedom of expression. Read his column titled "Who Will Defend Our Freedoms?"[more]

Hundreds of thousands of viewers around the world will be watching the World Cup kick-off on a pirate basis, and there’s not much that FIFA or the broadcasters can do about it. Global copyright authorities are still debating ways to combat broadcast piracy. The issue is whether to extend protection of property in the content itself, to the ownership of the electronic signal that carries the content. The issue is ongoing at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), and driven by vested interests who are specially affected by unauthorised re-streaming of live sports events. This piracy cuts into the business models of the broadcasters who have paid for the rights, and it also cheapens the value of the rights for the key sporting associations. An example of such piracy was in the 2008 Olympic Games, where 453 online infringement cases were reported. In the European football season prior to that, one source recorded 364 unauthorised web-streaming sites (mainly peer-to-peer based).[more]