Okay, so it’s not only the 20th century we’re talking about, but this week sees a milestone many movie directors won’t be celebrating: it’s 100 years since the birth of film criticism. We take a look at a few of the most memorable reviews. By REBECCA DAVIS.

Boekehuis, a well-loved bookstore in Johannesburg, is set to shut its doors this month after Media24 Books, a subsidiary of Naspers, decided the store’s failure to turn a profit could not be sustained any longer.  KHADIJA PATEL spoke to manager, Corina van der Spoel, about the store’s legacy.

Many of the young men who served their military conscription were damaged by the experience. Physically and emotionally, they were scarred by the brutal way their superiors treated them, or from the moral abhorrence of killing an enemy because their skin was a different colour. By LESLEY STONES.

What would you say if we told you that a Michael Moore-style documentary, with Indiana heartlanders weeping over lost factories and foreclosed homes, made a villain of Mitt Romney and his former company, Bain? What if I told you the documentary was made by far-right Republicans? By RICHARD POPLAK.

As Muhammad Ali turns 70 on Tuesday, some commentators suggest that the ageing boxer’s career holds little resonance or interest for young people today. REBECCA DAVIS reminds us why the man they called “The Greatest” is one of the most famous people on Earth.

For decades, James Joyce’s sole living descendant has presided over his grandfather’s literary estate like a resentful bouncer at a Dublin strip club. But as of New Year’s Day 2012, European Union copyright on the master’s published work expired, and soon the unpublished works will come out of copyright in the Unites States. So who is Stephen “James” Joyce, and what was his problem? By KEVIN BLOOM.

With the ANC planning to rule until Jesus returns, it’s worth asking what Jesus would think if he did actually materialise in South Africa today. LESLEY STONES believes he’d probably think much the same as he would have done in 1981 when the play Woza Albert! was written.

We’ve had heaps for the tasteless jokes on Top Gear before. Yes, we’re fans, but we also like things to have a point. Even if those “things” are politically incorrect jokes. Also, it’s become par for the course for any Top Gear Special – with the exception of the one shot in Botswana – to generate diplomatic difficulties between Britain and the host country. And as things go, political correctness is often capable of unwanted consequences, such as turning Jeremy Clarkson (or Julius Malema, for that matter) into a talisman for freedom of speech. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

Since he took to the network news airwaves in January last year, Piers Morgan has inspired many column inches on his style and braggadocio. Now, however, the Nielsen averages for 2011 are out. So how has the man who came up as Rupert Murdoch’s editorial wunderkind really done in his first year as Larry King’s replacement on CNN? By KEVIN BLOOM.

The elected President of Gabon, Ali Bongo Odimba, doesn't like it when the self-proclaimed president, André Mba Obame, receives media coverage about his claim. His reaction is to shoot the messenger – or, in this case, shut the television station. By THERESA MALLINSON.

The Leveson Inquiry, investigating media ethics in the UK following the demise of the News of the World, is back in session after a holiday break. Monday saw another Murdoch tabloid, The Sun, in the hot seat. By REBECCA DAVIS.

A new book about Barack and Michelle Obama suggests that America’s First Lady didn’t initially adapt as smoothly to her role as her polished appearances would suggest today. By REBECCA DAVIS.

If the ANC was hoping that the lavish sums it spent on centenary celebrations this weekend would buy it some favourable global PR, the party may be disappointed. REBECCA DAVIS took a look at the international coverage of the centenary, and found it distinctly mixed.

It’s going to be the biggest initial public offering since Google listed in 2004, and it’s likely to happen in the next few months. So how has Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg been preparing for the event that could value his company at $100 billion? By vacationing like the craziest rich guy on Earth, of course. By KEVIN BLOOM.

Who knows what happens to a media baron when he gets humiliated by the very government he helped shepherd into power. Does he lie awake at night mumbling to himself? Does he hear voices and see dead people? Does he discover Twitter and decide it’s the perfect vehicle to take his madness to the masses? Or is the truth of his presence on one of the world’s most successful social networks more sinister than that? By KEVIN BLOOM. 

Journalism isn't a profession you get into if you want an easy ride. This has certainly proven true for journalists covering Africa in 2011, many of whom paid with their lives. Challenges in 2012 include covering ongoing conflict zones, election periods, and continuing the fight for access to information. By THERESA MALLINSON.

The jailing of a Moroccan rapper Mouad Belrhouate, aka LHAKED L7A9AD, popularly known as The Indignant, has outraged cultural activists across Africa. LHAKED is celebrated as the February 20 Movement’s “Voice of freedom” and his imprisonment has sparked a creative social-media campaign calling for his release. By SUZY BELL.

The world’s great contrarian has passed away from esophageal cancer at the age of 62. What will we do without him? By RICHARD POPLAK.

On the 4 July, The Guardian led with the explosive news that journalists or investigators working for the News of the World had deleted voicemails from the phone of missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, giving her parents false hope that she was alive. Last week it turned out this wasn’t quite true. By REBECCA DAVIS.

Jailed Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd El Fattah – known on Twitter simply as @alaa – made yet another court appearance on Tuesday. And, yet again, his jail time was extended by 15 days. El Fattah lived for some time in Pretoria, and  THERESA MALLINSON spoke to his South African friends about their recollections of him – and what steps can be taken to secure his release.

It's called the African News Innovation Challenge, and it has $1-million to award in start-up grants. Anic, which was announced in October, and had its soft launch in last week, will formally launch in January. THERESA MALLINSON talked to project manager Justin Arenstein about the thinking behind the initiative.

There are currently 52 journalists imprisoned in Africa, in nine countries. More than half the jailed journalists are held in that scourge of media freedom – Eritrea. The most disturbing news to come out of CPJ's recent report on journalists behind bars, is that the trend of imprisoning journalists – often on trumped-up charges – has seen a sharp increase over the last decade. And if the Protection of State Information Bill is passed next year, the 2012 CPJ report could very well see South African journalists join their colleagues across the continent in serving prison time for doing their job. By THERESA MALLINSON.

Sweden regularly tops the media freedom and transparency indices, and is one of the most politically stable, economically prosperous and ethically staunch countries in the world. MANDY DE WAAL speaks to Peter Tejler, Sweden’s ambassador to South Africa, about its rich heritage of open access to information.

The message that South Africa is sending across the continent with a Protection of State Information Bill that is severely detrimental to the freedom of information is one of the reasons why the government needs to reconsider the bill. This was according to two leading lights of the Committee to Protect Journalists, who were in South Africa on a fact-finding mission on the bill, but also to lobby the ANC to change its stance on the bill. And that’s only the beginning of CPJ’s concerns. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

When the DA received a letter earlier this week inviting it to advertise in Independent Newspapers' special feature on the ANC's centenary, it kicked up a bit of a fuss and laid a complaint with the press ombudsman. But as the special feature is advertorial and, says editorial director Moegsien Williams, advertorial is clearly marked as such, the DA's had no joy on this one. By THERESA MALLINSON.

Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Abd El Fattah has been detained in prison on trumped-up charges since 30 October. An appeal on Monday for him to be released immediately was dismissed. On Tueday his wife and fellow activist Manal Bahey Al Din Hassan gave birth to the couple's first son, Khaled. El Fattah remained behind bars, rather than being able to attend the birth of child. By THERESA MALLINSON.

On Sunday, three advocacy officers from Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe were arrested by the police. Then on Monday, the MMPZ's Harare offices were searched, and Andrew Moyse, the MMPZ project co-ordinator, was also detained. Although Moyse was released yesterday, his three colleagues are still imprisoned. The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition is demanding their immediate release. Doesn't seem the government is listening though. By THERESA MALLINSON.

It just had to come to this: the ANC is to start judging and classifying journalists. Not that we're surprised. No surprise that our shy and retiring character, STEPHEN GROOTES, has a strong opinion about it. And more questions, of course.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, Charles Ingabire, a Rwandan journalist in exile in Kampala, Uganda, was fatally shot. The murder weapon? No less than a submachine gun. In fairness, it's probably too early to say who was behind Ingabire's death; still, it seems reasonable to assume this was no random killing. By THERESA MALLINSON.

It flopped when DSTV tried to do it last year. The now-defunct Free2View also couldn’t get it up on our screens, nor could OtherChoice when it tried to ride MultiChoice’s infrastructure back in 2002. Now another upstart is trying to give the people what they want but are too sheepish to demand, surfacing the dilemma with which we view sex and sexuality. By OSIAME MOLEFE.