Nathaniel
Media independence takes a knock in South Africa, with an apparently retaliatory sacking. While publicly-supported broadcasters are often quite good (the BBC comes to mind), there is a built in risk of government interference, and here it is.
RSF press release, via AllAfrica.Reporters sans Frontières (Paris)
PRESS RELEASE
7 May 2008
Posted to the web 7 May 2008
The board of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) announced today that it has suspended the public broadcaster's CEO, Dali Mpofu, with immediate effect pending an investigation and possible disciplinary measures for "insubordination."
The announcement came just hours after Mpofu suspended SABC's head of news Snuki Zikalala for "divulging confidential information." Zikalala had often been accused of bias in favour of President Thabo Mbeki and an internal report last October accused him of preventing certain government critics from voicing their views as commentators.
Reporters Without Borders
Monday, May 12, 2008
South Africa: Gov't Sacks Media Chief
Friday, April 18, 2008
South Africa: Corruption & Governance Archive
Global Integrity's International Director, Marianne Camerer, shares a link to an archive of coverage and papers addressing corruption in South Africa. All together, the collection spans 11,000 pages assembled in the course of Marianne's PhD dissertation.
Marianne writes:
This collection of research material from South Africa, a new democracy, covers the period from 1994-2006 and includes a range of policy documents on governance and corruption. These include political cartoons; newspaper articles; parliamentary records; Auditor General and Public Protector reports; conference proceedings; policy and strategy documents; corruption surveys and court records of high-profile corruption trials, pertaining to the South African arms deal. The material was collected for my PhD dissertation in Political Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand on "Corruption and Reform in Democratic South Africa". It includes my own published research in this field from 1996 as an applied policy researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, a leading think tank in South Africa and will be a useful resource for scholars and practitioners both in Africa and more widely interested in how new democracies set out to tackle the corruption issue.
The link: Corruption and Governance in Democratic South Africa
Friday, January 11, 2008
What Happens When the Corruption Fighters Are Caught Up in Corruption Scandals?
If you haven't followed the ongoing political tussle between South Africa's national police, their elite Scorpions anti-corruption unit, and the national prosecutor, it's worth reading to understand how corruption charges can be used as political weapons in many countries. Some of the recent coverage:
The Times
The Guardian
Business Day
SABC News
The World's Leading Think Tanks
Global Integrity collaborates with many of the world's leading governance and corruption researchers at some of the top think tanks around the world. We were thrilled to hear that our friends at the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa were just named the top think tank in sub-Saharan Africa!
Friday, December 28, 2007
Friday, December 21, 2007
Zuma/corruption story leads international news
SOUTH AFRICA: Media outlets worldwide carry news of African National Congress president Jacob Zuma's potential indictment on corruption charges by the National Prosecuting Authority.
The Mail and Guardian:
Zuma cries foul over NPA charges