Wednesday August 11, 2010

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Eleanor Seggie

Making headlines:

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) insisted on Tuesday that it did not want to curtail press freedom with a proposed Media Appeals Tribunal, but warned that print media did not seem committed to transformation. "It's us who can gloat and say that the freedom you enjoy, is as a result of what we fought for, led by the ANC... We are not about to reverse our legacy in that area," ANC national spokesperson Jackson Mthembu told editors and journalists in Johannesburg. He was briefing the media about the ANC's discussion document to set up a Media Appeals Tribunal for the print media, saying that the current self-regulatory system of the Press Ombudsman did not allow for punitive measures against newspapers. He said that the tribunal would be set up to "assist" editors and that the ANC valued media freedom. Mthembu said that the discussion document did not only revolve around the proposed tribunal, but also looked at media ownership. "Print media does not have, nor is in a process of developing a transformational charter, despite the regrettable degree of transformation."

A rare agreement between foes Israel and Libya will let Libya underwrite the rebuilding of 1250 Gaza Strip homes destroyed in Israel's offensive there last year, United Nations (UN) officials said on Tuesday. But Libya denied that there was any link between the aid agreement and the release this week of an Israeli photographer arrested five months ago in the North African country. Israel and Libya are technically in a state of war, and oil exporter Libya has been one of Israel's most outspoken critics on the international stage for decades. The UN Relief and Works Agency, which looks after Palestinian refugees, said that under a deal between the two countries, Israel would allow Libya's Gaddafi Foundation charity to provide $50-million to rebuild Gaza homes. In notably measured remarks about an age-old enemy, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman this week described Libya as a "reliable partner".

The nationalisation of mines was not necessarily an answer, but there were "areas of concern" in the mining industry, the ruling African National Conrgess (ANC) said in Johannesburg on Tuesday. "On the nationalisation of mines, let me take a step back and say, ‘that's the matter that the Youth League has raised, any branch of the ANC, any region or any province is perfectly entitled to raise a matter on the table for debate'," Enoch Godongwana, the deputy chairperson of the ANC subcommittee on economic transformation, told a press briefing.
"As to whether that becomes a resolution of conference is a different matter... [but] there are areas of concern in regard to the strategy we've adopted in the mining industry," added Godongwana, who is also Deputy Public Enterprises Minister. He said that the government had used the incentive of a licence to get mining houses to subscribe to broad-based black economic empowerment. "[But] I think that should not necessarily be the only consideration... there should be an overriding national interest." He said that there were situations that called for a "debate about models of State intervention".

Also making headlines:
The National Assembly has approved a bill designed to change the way that the South African Reserve Bank is governed and prevent shareholders from disrupting its operations for their own gain.
Rwanda's Paul Kagame is poised for huge win, preliminary results of the recent Presidential election show.
And, National Police Commissioner general Bheki Cele does not oppose a call for the Independent Complaints Directorate to investigate the treatment of the Sunday Times journalist arrested last week, the South African National Editors Forum says.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.