Frederick Charles "Charlie" Fripp is a South African Editor-in-Chief, journalist, photographer, entertainment and technology writer. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief for Opera Software's AI-driven news application, Opera News, in South Africa.
Journalism career
Fripp started his journalism career as a motoring journalist for The Lowvelder in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga in 2006. Relocating to Johannesburg, he took up a position as general journalist for The Fourways Review. While there, two of his photographs came in contention for a Caxton Excellence Award in the category Best Feature Photograph. While working at Caxton Newspapers, he was assigned the position of chief photographer for Get It magazine, and in 2008 he re-entered the newsroom as a journalist for The RandburgSun. In early 2009, he started writing entertainment news and reviews for the now-defunct EntertainmentAfrica.com. A small portion of his content on Entertainment Africa was eventually re-purposed for sister website iAfrica.com. Apart from being appointed Consumer Tech Editor for a number of publications, he also served as freelance video game reviewer for the free South African online video game magazine , and in a full-time capacity, he was appointed News Editor for htxt.africa, a technology news website published by Hypertext Media. After that, he served as Managing Editor and eSports journalist for a pan-Africa television and broadcasting company, and also served as eSports contributor for ESPN Africa. He has also written a number of articles for Canadian-based website AskMen.com on world events from a South African perspective. These included articles on South African sprint runner and convicted killer Oscar Pistorius and the death of Nelson Mandela. Fripp has appeared on numerous television segments involving technology, such as eNews Africa and Good Morning Africa, while also commenting on technology on a semi-regular basis for radio station SAfm. Fripp also makes regular appearances on the Dstv channel ED's Edge technology show.
