Tag Archives: CNN International

CNN Int’l promotes SA correspondent

June 2, 2021NewsCNN International, Eleni GiokosJohn Winfield

CNN International’s South Africa correspondent Eleni Giokos has been given a new role as anchor and correspondent on the news channel and will be moving to the United Arab Emirates for the job.

Giokos was born in Greece and raised in South Africa. In the new position, she will work with Becky Anderson on the WarnerMedia-owned network’s flagship Middle East programme, Connect the World.

According to CNN, Giokos will also continue to anchor her show, Connecting Africa, as well as being involved in the new CNN Marketplace Middle East programme that will launch later in the year.

Giokos has more than 15 years’ international reporting experience in TV, digital, radio and print media. She joined CNN in 2015 and has since reported on the ground across Africa, from Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Zimbabwe, to Rwanda, Senegal, Ghana, Lesotho and elsewhere.

Meara Erdozain, senior VP of programming at CNN International, said: “Eleni is an outstanding anchor as well as a skilful and exceptionally versatile correspondent. This move will bring that talent and experience to a new region. Being based in Dubai, one of the world’s most connected cities, will also mean she can maintain her presence in Africa and build on the success of her Connecting Africa show.”

Giokos added: “This is such an exciting time to be moving to the UAE. There are so many interesting business and cultural stories there, and with Dubai Expo on the horizon it is a really dynamic moment. I’m also incredibly passionate about Africa, and the beauty of this move is that I will be able to travel easily across the continent from my new home.”

tagged in: CNN International, Eleni Giokos

FG to fine Nigerian brands for foreign ads

April 1, 2021NewsCNN International, Good Morning Nigeria, Lai Mohammed, TV With ThinusGary

Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, is clamping down on brands that advertise during international football matches but not Nigerian ones.

The minister has announced that Nigerian brands that run TV commercials during foreign football matches must advertise to an equal extent during Nigeria Premier League games or pay a N100,000 (US$262) fine each time the ad appears on television.

This development was revealed recently during an interview on NTA’s Good Morning Nigeria programme, according to South African blog TV With Thinus.

In the NTA show, Mohammed said: “Let’s assume you have brought in La Liga, and during the matches Guinness is advertised. We will compel you, we will compel Guinness to also advertise when we are playing a local league. That is the only way we can grow this industry, but as can be expected, we have had very few supporters.

“If you do an advert in South Africa, you put it on CNN International and we look at that advert and we see that the advert was not made in Nigeria but actually made in South Africa, or you see that five times a day on CNN, you pay half-a-million [naira] to us. The half-a-million will go to the content development fund.”

The minister added that this was in line with Nigeria’s previously amended Broadcasting Code, which states that ads for products meant for Nigerian audience must be made in Nigeria.

“What is common today is to see products made in Nigeria but the advert for those products are actually probably done in South Africa or in the US. So we amended the Code to say that if a product you want to advertise in Nigeria is made in Nigeria, grown in Nigeria or processed in Nigeria, then you must make sure that the advert is also produced in Nigeria,” said Mohammed.

“[Beer brand] Gulder is made and processed in Nigeria. If you go to South Africa to produce an advert which you are going to air to Nigerians because Nigerians consume Gulder, what we have amended the code to say that for every time that advert is aired in Nigeria, either on radio or television, you pay a fine of N100,000.

“We went further to say that if a company should invest US$1m in bringing the English Premier League [EPL] to Nigeria, that company must also be ready to spend 30% of that US$1m in producing a local content along the same line. In other words, if Maltina or Guinness decides to bring in EPL we have no problem with that. But they must also invest in covering our local league to the tune of 30% of what he has paid.”

tagged in: CNN International, Good Morning Nigeria, Lai Mohammed, TV With Thinus

CNN spotlights Toke Makinwa

May 15, 2018NewsCNN African Voices, CNN International, Toke MakinwaGary

Nigerian media personality Toke Makinwa has featured on CNN International’s show CNN African Voices, speaking about her journey in the industry, her experiences, expectations and aspirations.

According to Toke, being featured on the weekly half-hour magazine programme is a dream come true, and her desire to appear on it was one of the things that pushed her to be better at her craft.

“I remember sitting up in bed a couple of years ago watching African Voices on CNN. It was Tiwa Savage’s episode and I was intrigued just watching her talk about her craft. I won’t forget in a hurry. She was in a studio and I just kept thinking to myself, ‘One day, one day CNN will interview me too and it will be ever so inspiring,’” she said.

“Watching my journey humbled me. It’s easy for us to focus on what we haven’t achieved yet without taking stock and giving ourselves credit for how far we’ve come.

“To everyone out there with a dream, give yourself a break, work at your goals but be in the moment always. It may not look like much is happening but look back – you are not where you started.”

tagged in: CNN African Voices, CNN International, Toke Makinwa