Tonight on Al Jazeera's talk show South2North, Haru Mutasa chats to Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the Pulitzer Prize-winning online new site, The Huffington Post, and James Chau, a CCTV news presenter based in Beijing. The episode was filmed alongside The One Young World Summit at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Media has to play a very different role than it's been playing, says Arianna. As well as doing all the things it does do, like holding the powers-that-be accountable and speaking truth to power, the media has to put the spotlight on the good things, on what is working. That is a huge responsibility and we are not doing a good enough job. We have the opportunity to help good things scale, to help them replicate, and we need to approach that with as much seriousness and as many resources as we are investing in covering bad news.
She says The Huffington Post's dedicated Good News section is one of their most popular. In fact, people prefer to share good news, she says.
Arianna, James and Haru discuss The Huffington Post's recent decision to ban online anonymity after struggling with online trolls.
We make a big effort to keep the conversation civil, says Arianna. The Huffington Post has had almost 300m comments since we launched. We have an incredibly active community and we treasure that. If you come on a site and there are all these nasty comments, you don't want to participate . There have to be protections for whistle-blowers, for people speaking truth to power, exposing corruption at a risk to their own safety or livelihood. That we are going to maintain. But trolls who simply want to hide behind anonymity to indulge in ad hominem attacks basically spoil it for us, and there is no reason to allow that.
James says that in China, while new media is expanding rapidly, television is still the most reliable source of information. TV is still the bedrock in China, says James. A lot of people don't have stable electricity supplies, don't have access to computers and wouldn't even know how to use it if you put one in their hand. Mobile is breaking the barriers, but I think the television is still the root.
Discussing the perceptions of limited media freedom in China, James says, I haven't been asked personally to change something, to drop a story. I'm living proof - as not only a journalist but as an AIDS activist, who can anchor on the news, mainstream in the evening, very publically, and can bring my stories onto all the programmes - that things do progress and that things are in flux.
Arianna says that bringing The Huffington Post to an African country like South Africa would be easy.
Shall we do it? she asks Haru. The Huffington Post now has a template - of technology, of how we work editorially - so we have found it very easy to launch in other countries. With the exception of the UK and Canada, where we launched by ourselves, we've launched with media partners... They are 50/50 joint venture partnerships Basically we hire together jointly the journalists who are going to run The Huffington Post in that country. It's entirely rooted in that country's culture. In Japan, the editor doesn't speak English; when we speak, we have to have a translator. It's like having a global media presence. When something happens in one country, like they are choosing the pope in Rome, we have all the journalists on the ground who can cover it and then we can translate it into the other languages. The same goes with blogs - if we have the President of France's blog on the French site, we can translate it and have it available on all the other sites.
Haru, a Zimbabwean-born Africa correspondent for Al Jazeera English, is filling in for Redi Tlhabi, who is on maternity leave.
This week's episode of South2North premieres at 19:30 GMT on Friday, 25 October 2013 and also screens on Saturday at 14h30, Sunday 04h30 and Monday 08h30. For more info, visit www.aljazeera.com/programmes/south2north/.
You can also tweet your questions, comments and opinions to @AJSouth2North or find South2North on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/South-2-North/255419671252120.
Catch up on last week's episode, where Haru chatted to rock star philanthropist Bob Geldof, below.
00:00
--
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
23/10/2025
The new solution is industry's first multi-channel receiver available for L3Harris's resilient tactical high-frequency data waveforms....
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile as its preferred communications provider and said all of its reporters will be equipped with SuperM...
23/10/2025
RASTATT, Germany Broadcast and media workflow technology vendor Lawo has tapped Mike Wright as VP of sales, North America....
23/10/2025
MONTREAL European cultural broadcaster ARTE has selected Grass Valley LDX 135 cameras and Creative Grading solution as part of its move from SDI/1080i to a nati...
23/10/2025
CINCINNATI The E.W. Scripps Company has named Daniel Parsons as its new chief information security officer, effective Oct. 20....
23/10/2025
ALAMEDA, Calif. Northern Michigan broadcaster WWTV recently completed a major IP-based upgrade that connects its new Traverse City studio with its control room ...
23/10/2025
A deadline is looming for a new carriage deal between Verizon's Fios TV and Nexstar, with both Verizon and the pay TV-backed American Television Alliance bl...
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile has as its preferred communications provider and announced that all Fox Weather reporters are being...
23/10/2025
PBS will use generative AI from Amazon Web Services to provide enhanced search results to viewers on the PBS App and PBS LearningMedia platforms, the network an...
23/10/2025
Back to All News
The Resurrected' Marks First Chinese-Language Series to L...
23/10/2025
RT is today publishing a statistical summary from the Register of External Activities for the second quarter of 2025.
The RT Register of External Activities ...
23/10/2025
Series three of the award winning, hit comedy entertainment series The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In is back on your screens, celebrating the very best of all t...
23/10/2025
Performances by Michael Flatley, Andy Irvine, Cuckoo's Nest, Foster and Allen and more
Friday 24 October, 8pm on RT One and RT Player
Fleadh Cheoil re...
23/10/2025
The nights grow longer and the shadows get bolder with Vampire The Masquerade: B...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
Tonight on Al Jazeera's talk show South2North, Haru Mutasa chats to Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the Pulitzer Prize-winning online new site, The Huffington Post, and James Chau, a CCTV news presenter based in Beijing. The episode was filmed alongside The One Young World Summit at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. 
