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INDABA Newsletter | April 2019

Rights of journalists discussed

In the execution of their duties journalists are exposed to risks to their physical and mental health and in some cases to their property. On 10 April the National Press Club was hosted by the Club Advocates’ Chambers in Hazelwood to discuss the rights and risks of journalists.

Virginia Keppler, senior journalist at Vrye Weekblad shared her experience of the challenges she experienced after she broke her knee whilst covering protest action for The Citizen last year.

The panel, consisting of facilitator Ntando Makhubu, news editor of the Pretoria News and executive committee member of the National Press Club; Herman Scholtz, news editor of Rapport and media law expert and Adv Gideon van der Westhuizen of the Club Advocates’ Chambers, who is experienced in Labour Law discussed this important topic.

Photo’s: Virginia Keppler and Adv Gideon van der Westhuizen. Photo’s by Frans Waga Sello Machate.

Thank you to the NZG for hosting the AGM

Thank you to the National Zoological Gardens for hosting our Annual General Meeting end of March. The AGM was well attended by club members. Members reflected on the discussions complimenting the outgoing executive committee on their hard work in the past year.

A new executive committee was elected and they will soon meet to elect the different portfolios as is stipulated by the club’s constitution. A news release will be sent to members to announce this.

There won’t be a networking event at the end of April due to all the public holidays. However, there will be enough events in May to make up for this. Keep an eye on your inbox for invitations to upcoming events.

There are two networking hosting slots open for 2019, please contact us for more information if your company would like to host the NPC.

How to write a winning article

Every second month the NPC runs a journalism competition for full time members. We asked Ntando Makhubu, news editor of the Pretoria News, to give us some tips on how to write a winning article.

These tips will also be useful for any journalist competing in the ever increasing freelancing market or just to revisit your journalistic principles. Click here to read the whole article.

Photo: Ntando Makhubu. Photo by Frans Sello Waga Machate.

Congrats to our March winner

Congratulations to Frans Sello Waga Machate for winning our March 2019 National Hospital Network photographic competition! He won R3000 and a R500 Leriba Hotel voucher.

We asked Frans for his comment on his win: “It’s really an honour for me to be the recipient of this NHN/NPC Photo of the month of March, this is only a testimony to attention to detail, dedication and perseverance. There can only be one winner at a time, so one need not to lose hope for your time to win is coming as long you give attention to the brief!” Thank you to our sponsors for the opportunity to have this competition for our members. Remember this competition is open to all members. Keep your eyes open for the details and theme in May.

Photo: Frans with Morné Myburgh from the National Hospital Network

April competition details

Journalists are invited to enter our April journalism competition, open to paid‐up full members. You stand a chance to win a R2000 cash prize and a R500 restaurant voucher from Leriba Hotel!

To enter you have to submit your best work (any platform or medium) published in March 2019. If you need more details, please send an email to admin@nationalpressclub.co.za.

Entries close on Monday 22 April 2019 and should be sent to competitions@nationalpressclub.co.za

Interesting article from Poynter

Poynter.org recently published an interesting article by Roy Peter Clark: Passing the smell test: How journalists grow a third nostril.

“Let’s hear it for the nose. Journalists have all kinds of noses, or maybe just one nose, but a nose with a third nostril.

Among professionals, journalists are the dogs. They are guide dogs and watchdogs, trackers and pointers, but never lap dogs. They stand guard in the public’s yard. When danger, or even uncertainty, approaches, they bark. It’s a form of news telling. Hey, pay attention! Look at this! This guy doesn’t smell right!”

To read the article click here.

Welcome to new NPC members

The National Press Club welcomes the following new members:
Shadi Puoane ‐ GCIS ‐ Associate member, Promise Ribane ‐ Land Bank ‐ Associate member, Natasha van der Berg ‐ SACPCMP ‐ Associate member.

Welcome and we hope to see you at an event soon.

To join the NPC, click on the link here and complete the form.

Membership fees unchanged from 2018

Thank you to those press club members who have already paid their membership fees for 2019.

It was announced at the AGM that membership fees won’t be raised this year. Members who have not yet paid for 2019, are requested to pay their fees as soon as possible.

Membership fees are R300 for full members, R500 for associate members and R150 for student members.

Feedback

Please send any news, suggestions or information for this newsletter to admin@nationalpressclub.co.za.
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Meet our competition judge: Doreen Gough

She receives all the competition entries every month and has the meticulous task to go through them and judge them according to the guidelines provided by the executive committee.

Doreen Gough is a founding and honorary member of the NPC. We asked her a few questions to find out more about her life and to get a few tips on what she is looking for in those competition entries.

Doreen Gough is a founding and honorary member of the NPC. We asked her a few questions to find out more about her life and to get a few tips on what she is looking for in those competition entries.

Can you give us a quick summary of your career?

My journalism career spanned court, crime, education, medical reporting. I was first woman to be appointed acting news editor at the Pretoria News. I started off as a tracer in a drawing office, finished my matric part time, became a secretary (touch typing and shorthand benefited my later career!), and finally went into journalism in 1976. I completed my BA (English and Communication through Unisa) and later joined Unisa PR department in 1985.

You worked as a journalist during turbulent times. How was it being a journo in the 1980’s?

I started, as I said in 1976 – very interesting times – with authorities trying to clamp down on media. The newspapers The World and Weekend World were banned while I was a journalist. Censorship was draconian and we were constantly approached by either Bureau of State Security or Security Police to spy on each other.

I covered the Biko Inquest (Helen Zille was at the Rand Daily Mail and sat in front of me at the inquest), the various ‘terror trials’. But we had a wonderful sense of comradeship on the newsroom.

Do you think it was easier or more difficult to be a journalist in those years?

I think social media and the technology has in many ways made it easier. However, as a result the approach to getting stories has changed. I have noticed reporters stay at their desks and rely on emails to get stories. Personal networking still pays off best.

You were also a founding member of the National (then Pretoria) Press Club. Can you share a good memory with us?

There are many. One of the first was our club being addressed in the Pretoria Club in Paul Kruger Street. Women were only allowed in the side entrance – needless to say we women journalists refused. Those early days the public relations and media industries needed to build relationships with each other more so than today. The time FW Botha was newsmaker and he was late because he was negotiating Nelson Mandela’s release. He sent a message that we should please start without him and he would join later. However, by the time he joined much wine had been consumed. The less said the better…

What are you looking for when you judge the competition entries?

In articles I’m looking for the angle that makes us look at issues differently. Stories on wildlife, poaching has appeared so often that people are getting desensitised and this is a big challenge to reporters. Photographers also face a big challenge – telling a story without a caption. Video entries have a double challenge – the content, the angle and the camerawork all play a part in the final product.

Do you have any advice to the entrants of the Journalist of the Month or Photographer of the Month competitions?

Yes, I have been impressed by many of the entries so far. They were well written, good interviews. Don’t stop learning, no matter how experienced you are. Study the content and photography of top publications and the camerawork and interview of top news channels. The media play such an important role in our lives. It is vital to strive for quality. Never forget you are opinion formers.

INDABA Newsletter | March 2019

Busy month ahead for the Press Club

The National Press Club is looking forward to a busy month. We have several events confirmed. Please check your emails for details of specific events, some of them will have exciting raffle prizes to win! We also share these events on our Facebook Page, feel free to share with colleagues.

The following dates have been confirmed for March:

  • 14 March: discussion evening with Vault2120 at Court Classique Hotel.
  • 18 March: discussion evening with the National Consumer Tribunal at at Court Classique Hotel.
  • 28 March: Annual General Meeting at the National Zoological Gardens (official invitation and necessary documents will be circulated in time).

There are two networking hosting slots open for 2019, please contact us for more information if your company would like to host the NPC.

SANParks sponsors prizes

South African National Parks has agreed to sponsor three prizes for 2019 for the Journalist or Photographer of the month competitions. SANParks agreed to sponsor three three-night midweek stays in any national park for two people.

Jos Charle, chairperson of the NPC, says they are thankful for this sponsorship and says this adds even more value for members entering the monthly competitions.

Please look out for this additional prize in future competitions.

CFDC hosts Press Club

Thank you very much to the Council for Debt Collectors for hosting a very successful press club networking forum at their new offices in Menlo Park.

Advocate Andries Cornelius addressed the club members on the state of debt collection in South Africa.

Photo: Tshego Monyamane, freelance journalist and Merriam Mahlangu, from the Debt Collectors networking at the event.

Meet our competition judge

Doreen Gough has been appointed by the executive committee to judge the Journalist and Photographer of the month competitions. Both competitions are sponsored by the National Hospital Network.

Doreen has the meticulous task to go through them and judge them according to the guidelines provided by the executive committee. She is an founding and honorary member of the NPC.

We asked her a few questions to find out more about her life and to get a few tips on what she is looking for in those competition entries. Read the whole article here and take note of her tips!

Winner donates her prize

Congratulations to Nation Nyoka who won our February journalism competition with her article Precarious lives of recyclers!

She received R2000 cash and a R500 Leriba Hotel voucher. Nation decided to give her prize money to the subject of one of her articles she entered, Godfrey Mngomezulu, who is unemployed. You can read the article about Godfrey here.

Doreen Gough, judge of the competition said it was difficult to choose a winner as the quality of entries was high, well-written and focused on many current issues. However, she decided that Nation Nyoka was the winner with her article Precarious lives of recyclers.

Doreen said: “It addressed a big issue of waste and recycling and the human beings who eke out a living by picking up our trash to exchange for whatever money they can get in order to survive. It is sympathetically written and highlights a section of the community who are invisible to those of us lucky enough to live securely and comfortably.” Read the winning article here..

Enter the March competition

Enter our March 2019 photographic competition open to ALL paid-up members – in partnership with the National Hospital Network. You could win a R3000 cash prize and R500 Leriba Hotel restaurant voucher!

Send your entry to admin@nationalpressclub.co.za by Sunday 24 March 2019. Please do not include more than three photographs in your entry. The theme of the competition: Hands that care. Please state in your entry that this is your own original work.

Photo: Winning photo of the January competition by Tanya Aucamp.

Welcome to new NPC members

The National Press Club welcomes the following new members: Shalate Portia Davhana ‐ TUT, Douglas Ntozakhe ‐ freelance, Tsholofetso Seeletsa ‐ UNISA, Manash Jyoti Das ‐ Laudium Sun, Xoliswa Salman ‐ DPME, Sipho Mkhwanazi ‐ SANParks, Ursula Human ‐ Plaas Media, Leonie Bolleurs ‐ University of the Free State, Abdelghani Aouifia ‐ Moroccan News Agency, Phokela Lebea ‐ SANParks, Janine Raftopoulos ‐ SANParks, Tshimangazdo Precious Mphaphuli ‐ UNISA, Jack Mokoena ‐ Brandmii Group, Amohelang O’arabile Nathan ‐ Helderberg College of Higher Education, Lacea Loader ‐ University of the Free State, Oyewo Adetola Elizabeth ‐ SMME News, Khensani Mahlangu ‐ Enterprises University of Pretoria, Felicia Nkhwashu ‐ Capital Media, Jo Munnik ‐ CNN, Helena Lobato da Jornada ‐ Ministry of Foreign Relations of Brazil.

Thank you for paying membership fees

Thank you to those press club members who have already paid their membership fees for 2019. Members who have not yet done so, are requested to pay their fees as soon as possible. Membership fees are R300 for full members, R500 for associate members and R150 for student members.

Feedback

Please send any news, suggestions or information for this newsletter to admin@nationalpressclub.co.za.
Website | Facebook | Twitter

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