.....:::::::...The Media Institute...::::.....

Missing journalists identified

The Australian and Canadian journalists and their Somali counterpart and their driver who went missing in Somalia on Saturday have been identified. According to the National Union of Somali Journalists, (NUSOJ) Australian Nigel Brenan and Amanda Lindhout (Canadian), Abdifatah Elmi, and their driver, Mahad had left their hotel to visit displaced people outside the city by road but did not return.

Top journalist arrested, then released

Top political journalist Andrew Mwenda was dramaticaly arrested during the weekend by Ugandan security forces and later released on bond after being taken through a thorough search-and-harass session. Read more

Andrew Mwenda's dramatic arrest.

Wallace Gichere is dead

Photojournalist Wallace Gichere, who symbolised the persecution of journalists under the Kanu regime, died last night (Saturday) at the Kenyatta National Hospital where he had been admitted for treatment two weeks ago. He was aged 53.

Andrew Mwenda's dramatic arrest

In a two-pronged operation, police and operatives from the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), Joint Anti-Terrorism Taskforce (JATT) and the Black Mamba squad raided The Independent again, exactly a month after the first raid.

Uganda Media Council boss buried

Father John Mary Waliggo, the Uganda Media Council chairman and Human Rights commissioner, died aboard a South African Airways flight from Johannesburg to Entebbe on Friday, 18 April 2008.

Top journalist arrested, then released

Andrew Mwenda's dramatic arrest

FM Mess

A December 2007 research by two veteran journalists into the electronic media in Uganda has revealed disturbing data, Ibrahim Ssemujju reports .

Uganda Cabinet moves against the media

In one month's time from May 22, a cabinet sub committee is expected to come up with a paper on the best way the government can manage the media in Uganda.

The sub committee was set up May 22, during an unprecedented Cabinet retreat at Statistics House in Kampala chaired by President Yoweri Museveni who rarely attends such meetings - proof that the matter was so serious that it needed his guidance.

Analysis on Museveni vs the media

Now Mwenda forced out of Capital Gang

Top Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda has been forced off a popular talk show in what has all the hallmarks of a systematic and sustained targeting by the State.

Museveni vs the media

The Uganda government has agreed on a major crack down on critical media, especially FM radio stations. The only issue still lingering on the minds of President Yoweri Museveni and his Cabinet, masterminds of the move, is the format it should take. Find out the personal and political reasons for the impending crack down on Ugandan media.

Headlines

1/10

In the August 2008 ET Magazine
Cover Story News@Nine Young, fast paced, upbeat and sexy are the buzz words for prime time news today. Is this the latest strategy by stations to pull in audiences? It's no longer just the parents watching news; the younger generation has caught up too. While parents may be nodding approvingly at the clear testament to just how sage and mature their offspring are, the kids are tuning in for entirely different reasons: a date with their favourite, hottest, sexiest TV anchor for a whole glorious hour. More: Time for content regulation The faces of news & the news behind the faces Pretty as peaches but tough as nails ETc How to create your own African reality Tv show The reign of melodramatic, second-tier soap operas is gradually coming to an end in East Africa. Soon to be relegated to history are evenings spent around their television sets watching glossy, head-spinning, incestuous stories of mothers becoming their daughters' mothers in law and their grandchildren's step mothers after stealing their husbands and fathers, or jilted lovers mysteriously surviving fires, feigning death and disguising themselves as humble servants to bid time for revenge will be long gone. It's official. Reality shows are now the hottest tart in East African entertainment television. Uganda Museveni�s call The Uganda government has agreed on a major crack down on critical media, especially FM radio stations. The only issue still lingering on the minds of President Yoweri Museveni and his Cabinet, who are masterminding the move, is the format it should take. More: M7 and I Red Pepper highly connected Blacklisted from radio in Uganda Rwanda Stringent press law enacted in Rwanda Rwanda's lower Parliament has passed a stringent law that will force journalists to reveal their sources of information before the courts of law. Furthermore, under the new law, one has to pay a fee of USD20,000 to establish a newspaper and 10 times that amount for a television and radio station. The Profession Missing Whispers Whatever happened to humor and fiction in newspapers? For five years since his death, humor in the Kenyan media has remained dead - although the characters of Mutahi's episodes live on. Whispers stood out in the Kenyan media for its unmatched wit and humor. Media Review Retelling the African story Some time in June, a Kenyan television station screened a reality show centered on the lives of three idyllic New York couples placed in a San community in the vast Kalahari Desert. In the movie cameras follow the agonies and joys of the Americans as they walk for kilometers to fetch water from muddy pools, experiment with loincloths, smear ochre on their bodies and build stick huts from scratch. The primitive cultural ways of the Bushmen make for excellent around-the-fire talk. The men are lazy and lie all day in the sun talking; the women are overworked. Although shot in their land, the bush people remain largely absent from the scenes unless needed to verify their ignorance with one-word English sentences. More: Buwembo �retires� from Monitor Jitters over new govt information officers Red Pepper peels off another tabloid Press Freedom Media watchdogs protest harassment of journalists Incensed by the recent deportation of Uganda's Daily Monitor reporter, Robert Mukomboozi, and the bundling of three journalists out of a news briefing, international media watchdogs have protested against increasing infringements on media freedom by the Rwandan government. The situation is compounded by the unexplained closure of The Weekly Post last year after the paper's maiden issue and the starving of media houses of government advertisements. More: Raunchy tabloid attacked Tanzania Partiality questions dog Mengi�s media A Sad tale is unfolding at IPP Media, the most famous publishing house in Tanzania, which unless arrested could reduce it to a rubble. As an indication of the sort of trouble the company is steeped in, for the past few months, staff at The Guardian Ltd and Media Solutions, both subsidiaries of IPP, have been paid salaries late and in two installments, leaving many of them discouraged. That has been the trend for some months. Profile Julie is off Meet Julie Gichuru, until June news anchor and host of NTV’s political talk show, On the Spot. Gichuru has cut a niche for herself as the intelligent, decorous, nice and politer-than-polite TV personality. She has certainly never been accused of being brash, outspoken or shooting from the hip like her male contemporaries. Nevertheless she gets the questions asked and is definitely no shrinking violet.

In the August 2008 ET Magazine

Cover Story

News@Nine

Young, fast paced, upbeat and sexy are the buzz words for prime time news today. Is this the latest strategy by stations to pull in audiences?

It's no longer just the parents watching news; the younger generation has caught up too. While parents may be nodding approvingly at the clear testament to just how sage and mature their offspring are, the kids are tuning in for entirely different reasons: a date with their favourite, hottest, sexiest TV anchor for a whole glorious hour.

More:

ETc

How to create your own African reality Tv show

The reign of melodramatic, second-tier soap operas is gradually coming to an end in East Africa. Soon to be relegated to history are evenings spent around their television sets watching glossy, head-spinning, incestuous stories of mothers becoming their daughters' mothers in law and their grandchildren's step mothers after stealing their husbands and fathers, or jilted lovers mysteriously surviving fires, feigning death and disguising themselves as humble servants to bid time for revenge will be long gone. It's official. Reality shows are now the hottest tart in East African entertainment television.

Uganda

Museveni�s call

The Uganda government has agreed on a major crack down on critical media, especially FM radio stations. The only issue still lingering on the minds of President Yoweri Museveni and his Cabinet, who are masterminding the move, is the format it should take.

More:

Rwanda

Stringent press law enacted in Rwanda

Rwanda's lower Parliament has passed a stringent law that will force journalists to reveal their sources of information before the courts of law.
Furthermore, under the new law, one has to pay a fee of USD20,000 to establish a newspaper and 10 times that amount for a television and radio station.

The Profession

Missing Whispers

Whatever happened to humor and fiction in newspapers?

For five years since his death, humor in the Kenyan media has remained dead - although the characters of Mutahi's episodes live on. Whispers stood out in the Kenyan media for its unmatched wit and humor.

Media Review

Retelling the African story

Some time in June, a Kenyan television station screened a reality show centered on the lives of three idyllic New York couples placed in a San community in the vast Kalahari Desert. In the movie cameras follow the agonies and joys of the Americans as they walk for kilometers to fetch water from muddy pools, experiment with loincloths, smear ochre on their bodies and build stick huts from scratch. The primitive cultural ways of the Bushmen make for excellent around-the-fire talk. The men are lazy and lie all day in the sun talking; the women are overworked. Although shot in their land, the bush people remain largely absent from the scenes unless needed to verify their ignorance with one-word English sentences.

More:

Press Freedom

Media watchdogs protest harassment of journalists

Incensed by the recent deportation of Uganda's Daily Monitor reporter, Robert Mukomboozi, and the bundling of three journalists out of a news briefing, international media watchdogs have protested against increasing infringements on media freedom by the Rwandan government.

The situation is compounded by the unexplained closure of The Weekly Post last year after the paper's maiden issue and the starving of media houses of government advertisements.

More:

Raunchy tabloid attacked

Tanzania

Partiality questions dog Mengi�s media

A Sad tale is unfolding at IPP Media, the most famous publishing house in Tanzania, which unless arrested could reduce it to a rubble. As an indication of the sort of trouble the company is steeped in, for the past few months, staff at The Guardian Ltd and Media Solutions, both subsidiaries of IPP, have been paid salaries late and in two installments, leaving many of them discouraged. That has been the trend for some months.

Profile

Julie is off

Meet Julie Gichuru, until June news anchor and host of NTV’s political talk show, On the Spot. Gichuru has cut a niche for herself as the intelligent, decorous, nice and politer-than-polite TV personality. She has certainly never been accused of being brash, outspoken or shooting from the hip like her male contemporaries. Nevertheless she gets the questions asked and is definitely no shrinking violet.

Here and There

UP close with Jeff Koinange

If you have been watching K24 avidly, you may have been noticing something queer with Jeff Koinange during his cosy ‘Capital talk'. Indeed, cosy only begins to describe it. Jeff curls his lith...
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UNDP launches communication for development project

The Kenya government in partnership with United Nations Development Programme June 20 launched a project to upgrade skills of journalists to make them more effective as agents for development. The C...
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Shuffled up and down and about The Nation`s ways

Assault by competition creates jitters Luke Mulunda was in June appointed business editor at the Daily Nation to preempt his imminent departure. Earlier, Peter Okong'o, a sub editor on the bus...
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Rwanda sports scribes form association

A group of local sports journalists in Rwanda early June set up an independent sports body, Rwanda Independent Sport Journalists Association (RISJA) to promote sports in the country. The more than 5...
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New@Standard

The Standard was finally re-launched on 7 July in a colorful ceremony graced by corporate heads, politicians and some diplomats. The new elegant Standard comes with a new motto - For fairness and ju...
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New Habari poaches two editors

Meanwhile New Habari has poached two editors; Daniel Mwakiteleko from Mwananchi Communications and Antony Eric from Free Media, publishers of Tanzania Daima and Sayari. Mwakiteleko becomes the edito...
Read more...
Nation seeks culture change

Stung by frequent staff complaints about a stifling work environment, the Nation Media Group has finally taken concrete action to foster a new corporate culture of shared values, behaviour and team ...
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Muhingo ousted

Muhingo Rweyemamu is no longer w...
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MTN to sponsor 2010 world Cup campaign

Africa's leading mobile telephony provider, MTN, has injected $100 million into the 2010 FIFA World Cup to be held in South Africa, as part of its initiative to promote African football. Launching the...
Read more...

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