South African Press Club Announces Rhino as Newsmaker of 2012

The National Press club of South Africa announced rhinoceros as the newsmaker of the year 2012, following extensive media coverage of the endangered animals, reports Agence France-Presse news agency.

The announcement has come just days after poaching figures showed a record high last year in the country. According to recent statistics released by the government, a record number of 668 rhinos were killed last year in South Africa. This is a staggering 50 percent rise over 2011, and a 5,000 percent rise since 2007, when the number of rhinos poached was 13.

There is a huge demand for rhino horns, which command high prices as they are believed to possess medicinal properties to cure diseases like cancer. Following recent data about the poaching figures, there was widespread coverage of rhino poaching by several media houses.

"Stories of rhino poaching dominated the headlines throughout the year, the story was covered extensively locally and internationally," Antoinette Slabbert, chairperson of South Africa's National Press Club, told AFP.

"We made this decision after a long and serious thought," Slabbert said, adding, "there wasn't any other bigger story than this."

However, the NPC's declaration of rhinos as the newsmaker eclipsing the shooting of 34 miners by police in Marikana last August, and a series of political news such as the eviction of ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, has come under heavy criticism, a report in ioL news said.

Several people took to social networking site Twitter to express their disagreement with the announcement. 

"The NPC didn't really declare The Rhino Newsmaker of 2012 did it? I'd sooner declare (at)chestermissing Newsmaker of 2012!," political analyst Eusebius McKaiser wrote on Twitter.

South Africa is home to nearly 85 percent of the rhino population in the African continent. High demand for rhino horns in some Asian countries has paved the way for an illegal trading business to thrive. Vietnam has been identified as the main market for the illegal trading of rhino horns.

Recently, the South African government and the Vietnam government signed a deal to take joint efforts in curbing poaching and the illegal sale of rhino horns, a move welcomed by many conservationist groups.