Full-time Staff       William Bird Director   William studied at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg where he obtained his BA and Honours degree in Drama and Film. He worked in television after completing his studies. Unable to resist the lure of media monitoring, William started with some part time monitoring for the MMP in 1995 and after leaving television joined the MMP as a researcher. At MMP William has overseen or been directly involved in over 100 media monitoring projects on subjects ranging from gender based violence, HIV, and racism to children and the media. William has also completed overseeing the data analysis of the biggest civil society media monitoring exercise in the world – the Global Media Monitoring Project. For this project 76 countries monitored gender around the world.   In his spare time William likes to monitor the media when not otherwise distracted by his young son. George Kalu Special Projects Coordinator George was born and grew up in Kenya before moving to South Africa in 1995.He attained his BA Degree from Rhodes University Grahamstown majoring in Journalism & Media Studies and Political Science. In 2002 he graduated with a Post Graduate Diploma in International Studies also from Rhodes University. George joined the Media Monitoring Project late 2003 as a seasonal worker, but in 2004 he became full time staff member at MMP. At MMP, George monitors and analyses news content, he has also been involved in administrating and overseeing various monitoring projects. He gives limited technical support and does all the electronic media recording and archiving. Sandra Roberts Projects Coordinator Sandra Roberts got her BA Information Science from the Rand Afrikaans University in 2001 with majors in Sociology and Information Science. To her parents’ horror, she did not stop studying.  She received her MA cum laude in Sociology in 2006 from the University of Johannesburg.  She began working in her dream sector, the non-profit, ‘save the world’ sector in 2003. Firstly, for SANGONeT, as a research / information coordinator, then as the organisation’s research coordinator, overseeing all research related activities. She  joined the Media Monitoring Project in 2005 as a project coordinator. Sandra has started reading her doctorate on Mozambican migrants in Johannesburg at the University of Johannesburg.         Callies Matlala Researcher: Race and Racism Callies has an honours in dramatic arts and is currently studying his Masters in Media Studies.  He joined the MMP in 2004 as a part-time monitor and has worked for the last six months on our SABC radio news project for the SABC. Callies is an ardent reader of anything he can get his hands on to get to know the world better, inspired by former president Nelson Mandela who once said “if you want to go to America and you do not have money, reading will make you know America”.

Tanya Owen

Organisational Development Officer

Tanya is an Australian volunteer (AVI). She will be assisting MMP with organisational development. Previously, Tanya has worked with NGOs in Australia and Asia in a variety of fields including homeless youth, the environment, and trafficking in women and children.

Tanya knows nothing about sport and since being with MMP, has come to believe that South Africa has the world’s number one cricket team.

Babeth Knol

Media Analyst

Babeth is a volunteer in the NIZA (Dutch Institute for Southern Africa) starters programme for young journalists. She obtained a Masters degree in Media and Journalism at Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands) in 2005, specializing in media influence and image forming.

 In her spare time Babeth likes to watch lots of visual arts, dance and films. She also loves being outdoors, especially in the nice Johannesburg weather.