I believe in freedom of expression. Our Constitution protects the right to freedom of expression. That is why I cannot welcome the Equality Court’s ruling that Malema was guilty of hate speech when he commented on the young woman who had accused President Jacob Zuma of rape. Please understand that I am not defending Malema. […]
Robert Brand
Robert Brand teaches media law, ethics and economics journalism at Rhodes University. Before joining academia, he worked as a journalist for the Pretoria News, the Star and Bloomberg News.
Posted inNews/Politics
Nyanda as communications minister? Is this some kind of joke?
Some journalists believe that President Jacob Zuma’s inauguration speech signalled a thaw in his relationship with the media. But actions speak louder than words: look who he appointed as his communications minister. Of all the surprising cabinet appointments — and there are many — that of former defence force chief Siphiwe Nyanda as minister of […]
Posted inBusiness
Retailers, please explain: Why do food prices defy gravity?
I am getting just a little bit irritated by food retailers who shed crocodile tears over the difficulties of their cash-strapped customers, while raking in ever-increasing profits. Take, for example, Spar, which reported first-half financial results this week. Doing business in these challenging times, CEO Wayne Hook said, is a “struggle”. With double-digit food inflation […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Do we need the biggest Cabinet in the world?
Can someone explain to me why South Africa needs 31 Cabinet ministers? According to The Times, Jacob Zuma is planning to enlarge the Cabinet from 28 to 31, plus 19 deputy ministers. That would make South Africa’s Cabinet, as far as I could ascertain, the largest in the world. The UK has 22 cabinet ministers; […]
Posted inMedia
Those who want newspapers to die are missing the point
The Rocky Mountain News, Cincinnati Post and New York Sun are gone. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its last edition on Tuesday. The San Francisco Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer and Minneapolis Star-Tribune are in their death throes. Even the mighty New York Times had to go hat in hand to a shady Mexican billionaire recently to keep […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Niehaus provides the entertainment but what’s the real story?
I can’t help feeling sorry for Carl Niehaus. Not that anything can excuse the man’s behaviour, but you have to understand where he’s coming from. Niehaus spent his early adulthood in jail for his anti-apartheid convictions while the rest of us were getting started in life, accumulating wealth, property and building our careers. When he […]
Posted inBusiness
What goes up, never comes down
Why do we keep paying more for food at supermarkets even as the petrol price and producer prices fall? Business Day’s explanation in an editorial this week is far from convincing. It starts off praising Woolworths for cutting the price of 245 “selected food lines” (what is the difference between food lines and food?) — […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics
The ANC’s newspaper for people who don’t read newspapers
The easiest way to make a small fortune from newspapers, a wise man once said, is to start with a large fortune. The ANC would do well to keep this advice in mind as it considers a proposal to acquire its own newspaper. Despite the sensational headline in The Times, the so-called “detailed plans” to […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics
Damned lies, journalism and private healthcare
What is it about journalists and numbers? Mathematical incompetence among journalists is, as the American media scholar Steve Maier once put it, ‘legendary”. Actually, Maier was wrong. Far from being legendary, the numerical cluelessness of journalists has been empirically established in a number of studies, including one of my own, soon to be published in […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Save us from the Save David Bullard brigade
By Robert Brand and Anne Taylor We’ve had to put up with David Bullard for years, so it was with delight that we heard he’d been fired. But it seems there are those who are rallying to his defence, citing Machiavellian corporate and political machinations as the real reason for his axing. It’s all bullshit, […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics
A tale of two singers, a child molester, the media and the law
Now here’s a story. A few years ago the high-jump star Hestrie Cloete left her husband for the Afrikaans singer Jurie Els. Last month, the newly married couple announced that they were emigrating to New Zealand. Els said they were fed-up with crime, lack of service delivery and bad management. “I am tired of driving […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Zuma, Nzimande clash … over media effects
Signs of division appeared in Jacob Zuma’s camp this week when the ANC president disagreed publicly with one of his staunchest supporters over media effects. While SACP leader Blade Nzimande accused City Press of sowing division and confusion within ANC ranks, Zuma has come to the conclusion that nobody much bothers about what they read […]