Media

15 March 2019

Facebook, the world's biggest social network, is gearing up to tackle fake news and misinformation ahead of the South African elections.

General elections will be held in SA on 8 May to elect a new National Assembly and new provincial legislatures in each province. This will be the sixth election held since the end of the apartheid system in 1994.

Concerns about “fake news” have dominated discussions about the relationship between the media and politics in the developed world in recent years. The extraordinary amount of attention paid in scholarship and in public debates to questions around truth, veracity and deception can be connected to the role of “fake news” in the 2016 US presidential election, and US President Donald Trump’s use of the term to dismiss his critics.

The term “fake news” itself is controversial because it’s poorly defined.

14 November 2018

South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board chairperson Bongumusa Makhathini told Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) that all the state broadcaster needed was a R3-billion government guarantee to avoid looming collapse in March.

The board briefed Scopa on Wednesday morning, following a meeting on Tuesday where board member and veteran journalist and editor Mathatha Tsedu told the portfolio committee on finance that the SABC’s ability to pay full salaries would be in doubt as early as February next year.

President Jacob Zuma, his son Duduzane, the infamous Gupta family and others implicated in the state capture inquiry, could be forced to testify if the legal team at the inquiry has its way.

However, chairperson of the commission of inquiry Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo will reveal all on Tuesday after he hears full argument on the issue and makes a ruling.

Media24 and HuffPost announced on Monday that they are mutually ending their partnership in South Africa.

“We regularly review our portfolio of brands. The HuffPost SA audience numbers are strong and consistently hold steady on the list of top-10 news sites in South Africa,” Media24 CEO Esmaré Weideman said in a statement.

The debate on the Department of Communications covered familiar terrain as the SABC dominated MPs' speeches, much as it has in recent years.

But this year, the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) also received much attention.