Here’s a question: Who bans access to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Gmail and pretty much every other social media or social networking site you can think of? China, you say? Well, you’d be right. But the answer could also be: most of corporate South Africa.
Here at Grubstreet I’m my own boss, so I say that I can access anything I like. I’m a great boss! But what about you poor suckers out there? Does your company block sites that you can access from work? Does your company talk about “social media strategies” and then stop everyone at work from actually accessing social media?
Do South African companies appreciate the power of social media as a business tool or do they simply not give a toss? Well, here’s a chance to share your views with the Grubstreet survey. Take a few minutes to complete the survey and let’s see where Corporate SA is on this.

Please retweet this post or share with your friends so we have a good sample. Sharing links at bottom of the page.

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A move by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to regulate the highly lucrative business of sports broadcasting rights came closer to policy last week as the deadline for submission on Icasa’s “preliminary findings and conclusions” closed on Friday.

The arena for this battle – and don’t let anyone tell you that it isn’t a battle – has been Icasa and though the submissions to the regulator from the public and stakeholders are as dry as toast, blood pressure is up on all sides. The money is big and the stakes are high.

On the one hand, there is the government’s determination not to allow pay-TV operations to acquire exclusive rights to broadcast national sporting events that all South Africans should be able to watch and enjoy – and, crucially, for children on all backgrounds to be inspired to grow up to be national sporting heroes.

There are also the national sports bodies, which rely on money from broadcast rights for an average 60% of their revenue. Internationally, sports bodies’ revenue comes from – in descending order of importance – broadcasting rights, sponsorships, ticket sales, merchandising and government subsidies and grants, according to Amanda Armstrong, a director and law specialist in telecommunications and broadcasting at Werksmans Attorneys. In South Africa, the government’s contribution was less than 1% of the annual revenue of most sports bodies in 2008.

There are the free-to-air channels, e.tv and the SABC, for which there are obvious commercial gains – both in terms of audience and advertising – if they can get the first option to bid without competition from pay-TV operations for more live sport. SABC and e.tv say – a tad sanctimoniously – in their Icasa submissions that the “… the broadcast of key sporting events on pay-TV has a negative impact on the participation of many South Africans in sport and could undermine the transformation in sport”. But free-to-air channels can often struggle to find air space to broadcast live events amid their local content programming. It’s worth noting, for instance, that the tripartite agreement between the PSL, SuperSport and the SABC (struck after SuperSport snapped up the exclusive rights in 2007 for the PSL from SABC), the public broadcaster was in fact required to broadcast more games than it did in the previous season when it held all the PSL rights.

The last players in this drama are the pay-TV operators such as DStv’s SuperSport as well as the new guys on the block, ODM and Super 5 Media, which are expected to launch this year. SuperSport, which coughed up about R2bn for the exclusive broadcast rights of PSL soccer games over five years, is hugely concerned about the current Icasa review. Chiefly, the problem is that there’s no point is spending large sums of money if you can’t get them exclusively… TO READ THE FULL COLUMN, CLICK HERE TO GO TO MONEYWEB.

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Here’s some excellent news for the freelance hacks out there — and also for salaried journalists too! Safrea, the association of freelance journalists, editors, designers and copywriters, signed an alliance agreement with the Uasa union on Friday.

Uasa is a well organised, non-politically aligned union with about 75 000 members and the deal entitles Safrea members (and I’m pleased to say I’m one)  to join the union at R64 a month, which will get them access to the union’s legal and labour-related services and discounts on products such as pensions, medical aid, insurance, car and home loans.

Clive Lotter, Safrea’s chairman, says the union has its own legal department led by an in-house advocate and a 24-hour legal hotline. The legal department will review standard freelance contracts and will be able to help freelance journalists in disputes to a certain extent.

From left, Safrea chairman Clive Lotter, UASA chief operating officer Leon Olivier and UASA CEO Koos Oosthuizen putting pen to paper on Friday in Johannesburg.

The key thing, says Lotter, is that the alliance will help freelancers to become more professional – and move out the “working on a handshake” territory – and also create the opportunity for freelance and salaried journalists to join forces. As this is an alliance between Uasa and Safrea – and not an amalgamation – it creates an avenue whereby fulltime hacks will be able to join the union through bodies such as ProJourn and Sanef.

“This is the first step in organising journalists into a force which can defend its own interests,” says Lotter.

Uasa, which is affiliated to the Fedusa federation, has access to Parliament and to Nedlac. This is the first time that Uasa has entered into such an alliance.

Grubstreet thinks this is a hugely positive move. There is more and more demand for freelancing – especially since media organisation cut staff in the recession but are still in need of content – but rates still seem to vary largey R1-R2 a word, which is not great. Many organisation are extremely tardy in paying for work done or indulge in the dirty tricks department such as holding onto copy (with no intention of using it) to keep it out of the hands of rivals.

Well done Clive and all the committee members at Safrea!

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Now here’s a sign of the times. The Media Online reports today that a Chinese language newspaper has been launched in Botswana that will gradually be circulated throughout other African countries.

Much is made of the  Geel Gevaar and it’s true China cares not one jot for human rights but they are a  rising  superpower and it’s interesting to watch the balance shift.

Moneyweb ran an interesting piece a couple of weeks back about the increasing number of Chinese nationals doing business in Zimbabwe but the best insight I’ve had recently into China and its economic and political future is from a book published last year called "The Dragon and The Elephant" by David Smith, the economics editor of The Sunday Times in London. 

In the book, Smith looks at the future of the Chinese and the Indian economies. Of course, it’s complex stuff but not the doomsday  some would have us believe.

Yes, China is a huge economy and still growing, Smith says in the book, but it also has fundamental weaknesses such as it’s banking system, which is so up the pole that few multinationals are keen on being listed in China and that’s why the Shanghai stock exchange of little consequence.

Another point Smith made in the book was that he thought it perfectly acceptable — in fact desirable — for developing economies (such as South Africa’s) to protect their industries against cheaply made Chinese imports (think of our textile and garment industries) until the country is able to compete globally on a more equal footing.

David Smith has a blog, which is excellent for those with a basic understanding of economics.

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One has to wonder what will happen to IOL if the newspapers of the Independent group are sold off separately, which is looking increasingly likely as the Irish parent company, Independent News & Media, has asked Deloitte to be on standby as the administrator in the event that the firm fails to restructure its debt.  Read the story at Accountancy Age.

This is required by Irish insolvency law in case the debt talks fail and one Irish-American news organisation is reporting that sources say the company is unlikely to make the deadline of July 24 (by which time they have to refinance a 200-million euro bond — or probably face bankruptcy). Read the story at Irish Central.

It is unlikely that the SA operation will be snapped up in its entirety as it will come with a hefty price tag and the Competition Commission would be unlikely to approve an existing media player buying the whole shebang.

There will, however, be much interest from Caxton, Media24 and particularly Avusa, which is hemmed in to Gauteng and the Eastern Cape,  in buying some of the Independent newspapers that include The Star, Pretoria News, Cape Times, Cape Argus and Durban’s The Mercury and Daily News. But what will happen to IOL?

The new owner of the Cape Times or The Star, for instance, will want its content feeding its own operation so I presume this will spell the end of IOL, which has shaped up to being a reasonably successful entity and something of a pioneer in SA. I wonder how all the back content will be disentagled from the the IOL archive — maybe the tecchies out there could speculate? 

Personally, as an Internet user I’m not overly keen on these big news portals. Except for News24, which is a handy translation service from the group’s excellent Afrikaans titles, I’m often irriated by IOL as I can’t get a handle on what each newspaper is serving up, on its feel and its character. I would like to dip in and see Joburg through The Star’s eyes, for instance, and Cape Town through The Cape Times’s eyes. Looks I might get my way.

While we’re in Media Land, somethings clearly afoot at Avusa, as suggested by the pledge by the Sunday Times that accompanied the  "Hi there, I’m here to serve you" story by the new public editor, Thabo Leshilo, on Sunday. 

Mention was made "of preparations to merge our print (Sunday and daily newspapers), online and mobile platforms" so we’ll see what comes of that.    

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So a British soccer journalist for The Guardian newspaper has posted a blog saying she is terrified about coming to SA for the World Cup next year because of the high crime.

Louise Taylor’s post is bound to get patriotic hackles up (and there are reams of comments on the blog) but she does have a point. Read the blog here and see what you think.

It seems to me perfectly reasonable that a foreigner would be nervous about coming to SA and this journalist is no ignorant chop.

She’s done her research and this is what her fears are based on. Just like when I read about Colombia, I think to myself:  “Jeez, that sounds so dangerous. I don’t ever want to go there." Well, Colombia and South Africa have pretty much the same rate of murder and violent crime — and now we know that the cops in SA are fiddling the crime stats to suppress the reporting of violent crimes.

And Taylor’s not going to be here as a tourist sticking to the main routes but as a working reporter, she will have to be all over the place chasing the story. As a freelance journalist who must work alone these days (rather than with a photographer) there are many story ideas I just shelve as it won’t be safe for me to pursue them.

As an ordinary citizen, I wouldn’t walk across the park (about 200m) next to my house by myself as you never who’s lurking in the bush and there’s only one beach in the whole city I go to by myself or with my young daughter during the week as it has full-time security and life guards.

So Louise, I have this advice for you from a fellow female hack who happens to be a South African: Bring yourself a large, imposing male photographer because unless you know where you’re going or are sticking to the suburbs, South Africa is very dangerous for lone women.

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Productivity drops over the school holidays for the parent who works from home, especially in winter when inclement weather keeps the kids indoors. There are just so many puzzles that can be done, pictures drawn and videos watched on a rainy day until cabin fever sets in.

Let’s face it. What would you do? Test your imagination to come up with a new game or go bug mom or dad? At the very least you’ll squeeze a sweetie out of them as they buy 10 minutes more on their computer.  

I have an ace up sleeve and escape to a friend’s office two days a week so I can get some quality graft time — and adult banter but it has got me wondering why, when most of us can afford to spend so little time with our children, they drive us crazy when we do have the luxury of a lengthy stretch of quality time with them?

Like many parents, I view the school holidays with some trepidation and, I do not lie, if you’ve ever wondered into a shopping mall on the first day of term you can see visably joyous mothers relishing being out and unemcumbered their little bundles of demands.

In the last summer holidays, I ran into a friend of mine (a father of a  6-year-old boy) who was taking two weeks off work to be solo parent. He confessed he was at the end of his tether so I suggested he come round to my place in the afternoon and we’d drink beers at the pool side while the kids frolicked in the water.

He turned up brandishing a bottle of vodka, saying he needed something stronger. I unearthed a bottle of gin but couldn’t locate the shaker (my martini daze are long behind me) nor did I have vermouth so we mixed the hooch up with ice in a tea pot and knocked it back with a twist of lemon rind.

The fraught father  was visably relaxed after his second. 

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The best thing about Law & Order is they don’t pisswilly about with character development. It’s just plot, plot, plot — and what we learn about the characters rides on the back of this. 

Isn’t it amazing, then, that if you’re a  Law & Order fan that you become so fond of some of characters when we know very little about their personal lives.

I adore Jack McCoy and Lennie Briscoe and have a real soft spot for Adam Schiff  while Arthur Branch makes me laugh. Fred Thompson, the actor who plays Branch, I discovered recently, is in fact also a politician and was a US senator when he accepted the role. He even made a bid for 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Click here to have a look at his nomination website. 

And for a different view of Fred Thompson, watch this December 2008 video of him talking about the economy. I reckon the cigar-brandishing Thompson he would have given Obama a run his money in the charisma stakes:

Anyway,  I fell on the UK version of Law & Order last night on DSTV with delight. It was the second episode and follows the formula of the US one — which is good. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, I say, and Law & Order is the longest running American TV series in history.  The UK version was excellent and already I can see the older cop is going to become my favourite character.  If you haven’t seen it yet, here are the opening credits (duno about the music but they kept the clanging prison doors before the vocie over starts though you don’t hear them on this vid):

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The soon-to-be ex-Alaskan Gov, Sarah Palin, is apparently tweeting up a storm since surprising Americans by announcing that she is quitting her job, reports the Christian Science Monitor, 

She’s got more than 90 000 followers, and she’s clearly feeling a lot more relaxed now that she’s stepping out of the governor’s residence. Recent tweets range from the weighty:

“Act in accordance to your conscience -risk- by pursuing larger vision in opposition to popular, powerful pressure”-unknown

to the barely legible:

Kotz trip gave Labor Commish & me opp to speak to young AKns re resource develop. jobs we want AKns to have 1st shot bc work ethic is there

Read more at the Christian Science Monitor but before Ms Palin takes to writing moose-stew recipe books, here’s the fabulous Tina Fey doing one of her election campaign skits:

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Forget your nightly date with the Tour de  France highlights on DSTV. The most incredible endurance event is happening on Friday night in South Africa and you’ve probably never heard of it.

The Washie 100 ultra-marathon run done in the light of the full moon on the 160km road between Port Alfred and East London is such an interesting event it even gets sports dummies like me going …. and yes, you did read it right … they run 160 km!

If you’re thinking the Washie runners are mad, then get this — there is no prize money! They do it for the challenge and get a hand-made trophy when they stagger into East London on the Saturday morning.

This year it’s going to be a real cooker as everyone will be watching last year’s winner, Vanessa Wayland, the first woman to win the race since its inception in 1977. Last year she did it in 16 hours, 19 minutes and 52 seconds — and the Dispatch reporter (and marathon runner) sent to do the last 10km with the leader for a feature, battled to keep up with Wayland. Read the feature here.

Massimo respecto for this tough cookie.  The Dispatch always does a pretty good job of covering the Washie so log on to www.dispatch.co.za  at the weekend and Monday if you want to find out what happens.

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