Monday, February 15, 2010
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Amy Witherden.
Making headlines:
The media and the judiciary are partners for "open justice", said Constitutional Court Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo at the weekend. His statement follows an address that he made at a gathering of the South African National Editors Forum in Cape Town on Saturday. "Both [the media and judiciary] have a vital role in the improvement of access to justice" said Ngcobo, adding that open justice is the principle that brings the two together. The media helps to give effect to important constitutional values such as the accountability of the judiciary, access to the justice system, and judicial independence. Ngcobo said that he has made "open justice" a policy from the start of his tenure as Chief Justice. This policy seeks to address challenges within the judiciary such as accessibility, efficiency and public confidence with the courts. Court reporters are translators, he explained, as the media makes court proceedings and judgments intelligible to the general public.

Britain and Ethiopia will head a new United Nations (UN) panel that aims to secure $100-billion every year by 2020 to help developing nations cut emissions and adapt to climate change, said UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon on Friday. He explained that the group would work with governments, central bankers and finance experts to find ways to cooperate with public and private companies in raising money pledged at the Copenhagen climate talks in December. Although the summit ended without a legal treaty to curb carbon dioxide emissions, leaders of developed countries agreed to support a goal of jointly finding $100-billion a year to help poorer nations. The money is intended to help them cut emissions, switch to renewable energy and adapt to the impact of global warming, by building new flood defences. The panel will be jointly led by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Ethiopian counterpart Meles Zenawi and will include Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo. The UN chief said that the panel must urgently find innovative sources of finance to fill the gap between the money currently available and the amount pledged by 2020.

South African Trade and Industry Minister Dr Rob Davies will provide insight into the newly approved Industrial Policy Action Plan (Ipap), for the period 2010 to 2013, at a briefing after Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's Budget address. The timing is indicative of the fact that the National Treasury, which had previously been reticent in its support for the Ipap, was ready to lend its weight to the long-awaited upscaling of industrial policy. The new Ipap was approved for implementation by Cabinet at its meeting on February 10, 2010. The Cabinet statement released on Friday said that the new plan was an expansion on the first Ipap, with a greater focus on interventions to alter the structure of the economy to support the creation of "decent work".
Also making headlines:
Antigovernment protesters call on Nigerien President Mamadou Tandja to reverse a constitutional reworking that gave him broader powers.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille describes Western Cape Community Safety Member of Executive Council Lennit Max's alleged extramarital affair as a "private" matter.
Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga suspends two ministers over corruption allegations after President Mwai Kibaki took the same action against eight officials.
And, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says that West Africans are consuming more of the drugs trafficked between South America and Europe.
That's a roundup of news making headlines today.