On 11 August 2008, Abdulhamid Adiomoh, the Nigerian publisher and editor of "Today", a privately-owned, Banjul-based newspaper, was arrested again and detained overnight at the Serious Crime Unit of the Gambian Police Force in the capital city, Banjul. Adiomoh was arrested previously in July and accused by the police of "publishing with seditious intentions".

Biz Stone let the world know that Twitter’s SMS service is no longer active in Africa - or anywhere outside of the US, Canada and India. To most people in Africa this means absolutely nothing, as the penetration rate for the service never moved beyond the few fringe users amongst the technology elite.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the Sierra Leonean government to conduct an investigation into the assault by police on reporters by security personnel attached to the State House. “This is unacceptable police behavior that cannot be ignored,” said Gabriel Baglo, the Director of the IFJ Africa office. “We condemn this brutal and deliberate assault and call on the government to conduct an investigation to bring those responsible to justice and to make sure such an incident does not happen again.”

Students and linguists from Makerere University have translated the open source web browser, Mozilla Firefox, into Luganda at a Translate@thon held on the campus in Kampala, Uganda last week. The two-day gathering brought together almost 200 students and allowed them to make a practical contribution to their language’s presence in the digital age.

Using the internet and mobile phones, farmers in East Africa learn to work more efficiently with the traders who buy their goods. The Linking Local Learners method of learning explores how farmers can access market information and get a fairer deal.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) invites applications from suitably qualified African professionals to fill the vacant position of Director of Publications in its pan-African Secretariat located in Dakar, Senegal. The position is a senior one and the successful candidate will work as a member of the Secretariat management team under the overall supervision of the Executive Secretary of the Council. All applications must be received by 31 October, 2008. Any application received after this date will not be considered.

In December 2008, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Internews and the Every Human Has Rights campaign, supported by The Elders, will celebrate a year of collaboration with leading human rights organisations through the Every Human Has Rights Media Awards.

The Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project of the Open Society network of foundations in Africa (AfriMAP) wishes to announce the publication of three papers considering the relevance to Africa of recent constitutional reform proposals from Britain, France and Canada. They are available at: .

Recently, the digging started on Rwanda's new fibre optic network. Local telecom companies want their piece of the ICT pie. Rwanda is getting wired. By the end of next year, the government's new 2,000 kilometer fibre optic network should increase broadband access to the country, linking all districts to high quality voice, data, and video services, according to officials.

After a long wait, Globacom has announced that its Glo cable will reach Ghana by May 2009 and Nigeria shortly thereafter. It is still not clear when the cable will become operational and although company is talking of 14 West African landing points, it seems unlikely that this will happen.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called for the release of Mohamed Nema Omar the publisher and Mohamed Ould Abdelatif journalist of the Arab language weekly newspaper Al Houriya. The two are jailed since 21 July over defamation and insult of three judges. "This long and painful detention looks like reprisals for our colleagues," said Gabriel Baglo the Director of IFJ Africa office. "We condemn the bad detention conditions of Omar and Abdelatif. We call for their immediate release and a fair trial."

A legal battle in Ethiopia over what constitutes contempt of court is likely to test the boundaries of free speech in a country where the liberty of press has deteriorated over the last three years. Abiy Teklemariam, managing editor of privately-owned weekly Addis Neger, said in an emailed statement that the paper would appeal the conviction of its editor in chief, Mesfin Negash, for contempt of court at the country’s supreme tribunal.

The final interview of the Black History Month series is with Horace Campbell, professor of African American studies at Syracuse University, and author of Rasta and Resistance, from Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney, and Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation.

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Africa still relies heavily on expensive satellite connections to gain access to the Internet, according to a report released in July. Over 80 per cent of African Internet use is routed through satellite connections, says the report by the South Africa-based telecommunications analysts BMI-TechKnowledge, who work in 40 African countries.

Reporters Without Borders strongly condemns the decision by Niger’s public prosecutor to appeal against an investigating judge’s decision five days ago to dismiss the charges on which Radio Saraounia manager Moussa Kaka has been held since last September. The authorities would have had to free Kaka if the prosecutor had not filed his appeal.

Reporters Without Borders has written to the head of the Lesotho Communications Authority asking him to reverse his decision to close privately-owned radio Harvest FM for three months.

Reporters Without Borders is worried about recent comments by President Abdoulaye Wade and certain government ministers and ruling party legislators indicating a desire to step up censorship of the independent press. “The repeated scathing comments about the independent media can only aggravate the climate of hostility between the press and government,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We urge the Senegalese authorities to respect the work of the media and allow the media regulatory body to do its job.”

Around 30 journalists demonstrated outside the main lawcourt building in Nouakchott to protest against the way two detained colleagues - Nema Mohamed Omar and Mohamed Abdelatif of the Al Houriya newspaper - are being treated to demand that they be brought before a criminal court. With their hands and ankles manacled, Oumar and Abdelatif were brought before an investigating judge half an hour after the protest.

The decision by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) granting consultative status to two groups that work on sexual orientation and gender identity is a victory in the ongoing struggle for inclusion at the UN, a coalition of six human rights organizations said today. The two groups approved on July 21 and 22, 2008 are COC Netherlands and the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals of Spain (FELGTB), national organizations representing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Netherlands and Spain.

New hope for the jobless in Philippi, Cape Town. has come with the launch of a computer hub which will allow people to register for work, create CVs and get information about job opportunities and skills development. The Umsebenzi Job Opportunities Information hub, which was launched on Tuesday by Western Cape Transport and Public Works MEC Marius Fransman, is situated at Philippi's Tsoga Centre.