Networking forum
This month’s National Press Club networking forum will be hosted by the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa.
When: Thursday, 30 June 2011
Time: 18:00 for 18:30
Where: Research Building, National Zoological Gardens of South Africa (Pretoria Zoo), 232 Boom Street, Pretoria, GPS coordinates S25 44.349� E028 11.329� (pass the main entrance, go over one traffic light, and use the service entrance after about 50m on the left hand side)
Great prizes to be won! We look forward to seeing you there.
Club continues to host newsmakers
The National Press Club continues to host newsmakers on a regular basis. On 23 June the National Commissioner of Correctional Services, Tom Moyane, addressed the club on transformation, rehabilitation, vulnerable groups in correctional facilities and overcrowding.
Xenophobia and the media
Magdel du Preez
The xenophobic attacks that break out sporadically in townships are, of course, the most violent and visible manifestation of the suffering of foreigners in this country.
Then the media are out in full force, making notes of how shops are looted, taking photographs of how mobs beat defenseless people.
When it�s over � for now � we go back to covering something else.
But the intolerance, prejudice and sheer hatred that refugees have to contend with don�t end.
With World Refugee Day on June 20, we had the opportunity to re-evaluate our role and responsibility. For instance, we are always quick to mention that a Mozambican (or Zimbabwean or Nigerian) was involved in a crime. But are we as quick to do a story about a Mozambican (or Zimbabwean or Nigerian) who was refused treatment at a public hospital because he didn�t have the right papers?
As the media, we cannot stop xenophobic attacks. But we can try to prevent them by turning forgotten, faceless foreigners into people. Real people who came from countries where there is war, famine, genocide to a place where they thought they could find hope. We have a duty to highlight their suffering here, and to raise questions about what authorities are doing, or not doing, to safeguard their rights. We can team up with organisations such as Lawyers for Human Rights and the Centre for Child Law to turn the spotlight on a dark national shame, as the Pretoria News has done with its joint photographic exhibition, Invisible Children.
Refugees are not invisible. They are people and they have rights. And we have responsibilities.
Awards competition for community journos opens
Community journalists are called upon to enter the 2011 Sanlam/MDDA Local Media Awards before Friday, 15 July 2011. The awards aim to encourage excellence and reward meritorious work in community journalism and broadcasting in the period 1 June 2010 to 31 May 2011.
The competition is run under the auspices of the Print Media of South Africa and Sanlam, the Forum of Community Journalists and the Media Development and Diversity Agency. The awards dinner is planned for 21 October 2011.
For more information on the award categories and criteria visit www.sanlam.co.za or www.mdda.org.za.
Well done, Tshepo!
National Press club member Tshepo Matseba, head of brand and strategic communication: sales at the Momentum Group, has been appointed Vice-President of the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa.
The press club salutes you, Tshepo!
New members
The National Press Club welcomes the following new members and hopes to see them at club events soon: Ledile Seema � student at Tshwane University of Technology and Magdel du Preez � The Star.
Photograph of the month
Feedback
Please send any news, suggestions or information for this newsletter to Martin van Niekerk at the secretariat on martin@junxionpr.co.za,
+27 (0)12 804 5199. Visit the website at www.nationalpressclub.co.za.
