First published in Business Day 13 June 2018 Growth of online platforms in SA means national polls may not be immune to campaigns of disinformation William Bird, MMA The eyes of the world are, rightly, focused on ongoing debates in the US about the role Russia may have played in getting Donald Trump...
First appeared in Daily Maverick here This open letter to Cyril Ramaphosa is a plea for a better media and communications strategy – and no more useless office bearers. By WILLIAM BIRD. Dear President Ramaphosa, I know your plate is already full and there will be more requests placed on you than...
Today is a really important day, and unlike other big political meetings there will actually be some real outcomes. Safer Internet Day (SID) is a day that will grow in importance. Why? Because while many in the room today are digitally savvy, and while many if not most now have digital devices as ex...
First published in Daily Maverick 10/11/2017 The latest Minister of Communications has decided to appeal a ground-breaking judgment that gave the SABC Board independence. Here we go again. Shooting ourselves in the foot just as we thought we might have a chance to stand up and walk. The sad thing is...
...
Written By: William Bird, MMA Director (First published in Daily Maverick, 10 October 2017) As we approach 19 October we can be sure that the issue of media freedom will gain more coverage in our media, and rightly so, for many of the reasons articulated by Glenda Daniels here. The exposé by our me...
Written by: William Bird We are gathered today for the 2nd Isu Elihle awards! Thank you all so much for being here. I promise you if you knew the hard work and stress around making these happen you would share our joy at the fact that they are a reality. But the good news is […]...
Support our media, pay subscriptions, write to journalists when they do well and also when they let you down, and most importantly remind people who trash out media that they may have their faults but our democracy would be a millions times poorer without them. (William Bird) We have a lot to cele...
Having monitored the SABC’s coverage in the run-up to all our democratic elections, in 2016 Media Monitoring Africa found evidence for the first time of systemic bias. This is a clear and present threat to our democracy. Yet MMA’s evidence to the inquiry was omitted from the findings. (William B...