February 2, 2009

[No comment] Upholding media freedom

By Simone Puterman in Editor's column, Marketing, Media, advertising, press freedom | 0 comments

I think we can all heave a sigh of relief that President Motlanthe has returned the Films & Publications Amendment Bill back to Parliament unsigned, much against the wishes of the ANC. This is a great step forward towards upholding our media freedom in South Africa, which will be featured later this year on Dutch national TV.

Talking about the press, a new journalism competition to honour excellence in health journalism has been launched by Discovery Health. I do find it odd, though, in this digital day and age, that digital journalism is not one of the categories, although online material syndicated in print media may be entered in the relevant category. This is in direct comparison to the Cannes Lions 2009 call to enter, which went out late last week. It specifies that there are now more ways to enter digital work within Outdoor, Design, Direct, Media and Promo Lions.

Of course, the acquisition by WPP of a 49% stake in The Jupiter Drawing Room group - and DDB SA having to part ways with Jupiter - must be the talk of the town in the advertising industry currently. It is noteworthy that Jupiter will retain its status as a standalone brand in the WPP family and will not be incorporated into a branded network. Let’s see what happens in the future.

Here’s to the power of digital!

Simone Puterman, assistant editor

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This column originally published 2 February 2009.

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