The Swaziland Government has been accused of trying to close down the press with the publication of a new Bill to bar public servants from disclosing any information about their work that relates to ‘public policy’. They will also be prevented from talking about the economic strategy of the kingdom. The new Public Service Bill also states civil servants must not ‘publish in any manner anything which may be reasonably regarded as of a political or administrative nature’.

Hundreds of families living in a camp for internally displaced people in Carrefour, in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, are being harassed and intimidated and are at imminent risk of forced eviction. Residents at Grace Village camp, in the Carrefour area of Metropolitan Port-au-Prince are at imminent risk of forced eviction. At least 30 families have already been forcibly evicted, after their shelters and belongings were destroyed during the night of 28 April. They were forced to leave their properties without any due process and without being offered any alternative accommodation.

Struggle to end Israel’s oppression and international complicity continues.

Something fishy is definitely going on in the belated trial of journalist Ramiro Aleixo over articles he wrote nearly five years ago. It is an extraordinary opportunity to evaluate the Angolan judicial system.

The Chinese government is eager to balance the international media coverage of Chinese image and this approach is becoming more and more urgent for Beijing’s strategy of engagement in Africa.

Independent TV director Amon Thembo Wa’Mupaghasya was shot dead at around 1am on 12 May as he was returning to his home on the outskirts of the western city of Kasese after covering a wedding. Thembo was gunned down by unidentified individuals who took his bag and video camera. The police have arrested several suspects but have not yet said what they think the motive was. Kasese is located near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

InsightsAfrica is an interactive tool providing critical data about the online behavior of urban consumers in six key African markets: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.

Niger employees of Areva must benefit from the same compensation as their French colleagues, a Niger non-governmental organisation said Friday after a court near Paris said the French state-owned nuclear firm was liable. The court at Melun ordered 200,000 euros ($260,000) in damages to be paid by France's state health fund to the widow of an employee of the Areva subsidiary Cominak, a Niger company which runs an Areva uranium mine at Akokan. The deceased, Serge Venel, died of lung cancer in July 2009 at the age of 59.

The sentencing of a rapper on 11 May 2012 to one year in prison for 'insulting the police' shows the gap between the strong free-expression language in Morocco's 2011 constitution and the continuing intolerance for those who criticize state institutions, Human Rights Watch said. The sentence was handed down one week before the opening of the international Mawazine music festival in Rabat, which is held under the patronage of King Mohammed VI. Mouad Belghouat, better known as 'al-Haqed' (the sullen one), has been in pretrial custody since March 29 because of his rap song 'Kilab ed-Dowla' (Dogs of the State), which denounces police corruption, and a YouTube video set to the song.

Reporters Without Borders has deplored community radio presenter Habarugira Epaphrodite's detention since 24 April in the main prison of Gitarama, the capital of Muhanga district, on a charge of 'minimizing' the 1994 Tutsi genocide and 'spreading genocide ideology'. Epaphrodite was arrested because, while reading a report about ceremonies marking the 18th anniversary of the genocide on community radio Huguka's morning new broadcast on 22 April, he mixed up the Kinyarwanda words for 'victims' and 'survivors', making it sound as though he approved of the genocide.

On 30 April 2012, Chairperson of the Technical Committee On Drafting The Zambian Constitution (TCDZC), Justice Annel Silungwe launched the 2012 First Draft Constitution for purposes of wide consultation with the public. The committee started work on the draft charter on 1 December 2011 and was supposed to have produced the draft in February 2012 but failed to do so. Regardless, this first draft consists of several progressive articles and clauses on media freedom, freedom of express, right to access information and even freedom to state-owned media.

There is still much poverty in Mozambique and president Armando Emilio Guebuza has twice had to deal with outbreaks of social unrest. Since the end of the 16-year civil war, the country has been ruled by his Frelimo party - the main opposition are their former enemies Renamo, led by Alfonso Dlkhama. The relationship between the two has become uneasy in recent times - Mr Dlkhama recently threatened to overthrow the government. In this BBC podcast, Guebuza in interviewed by Audrey Brown.

In this BBC video, Komla Dumor reports that luxury cars are selling fast Luanda, the capital of Angola. In fact, the local Porsche dealership cannot keep up with demand.

The trial of journalist Ramiro Aleixo began on 11 May, 2012, at the Luanda Provincial Court, in Angola. Aleixo stands accused of the crimes of defamation, slander and injury against the military justice system, namely its Supreme Court and office of the military attorney. From a legal standpoint, the accusation against Mr. Aleixo has two serious flaws, says the blog makaangola.org.

A Zimbabwean minister has ordered traditional leaders to seize land belonging to homosexuals and expel them from their communities. Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo, who belongs to President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, said homosexuality was a 'foreign value'.

Ethiopia's main, state-owned printing company has directed newspaper publishers to censor any content that may draw government prosecution under the country's anti-terrorism law or face cancellation of their printing contracts, according to local journalists and news reports.

State prosecutors requested a life sentence for Burundian radio reporter Hassan Ruvakiki who was imprisoned after airing a November interview with a purported rebel leader, according to news reports. Chief Prosecutor Barbatus Ntakarusho made the request during a hearing at a court in Cankuzo, a city in eastern Burundi, saying the reporter had engaged in 'acts of terrorism', the journalist's defense lawyer, Onesime Kabayabaya, told CPJ. Ruvakiki is a reporter for the French government-funded Radio France Internationale and the local station Radio Bonesha FM.

On 8 May 2012, the Johannesburg High Court declared that a girl taken in and treated as a daughter by a woman in Soweto could inherit as her customary law heir. Judge Coppin declared the daughter (who prefers to remain anonymous and will be referred to as ‘Ms K’) to be the descendant of a woman who died intestate in 2006. This was despite the fact that the woman never formally adopted Ms K and was not her birth mother. Lawyers for the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) successfully argued that Ms K had been adopted in terms of customary law and should be recognised as her mother’s descendant in terms of the Reform of Customary Law and Succession and Regulation of Related Matters Act 11 of 2009.

Guinea-Bissau coup leaders and west African mediators agreed on Friday that parliamentary speaker Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo will lead a transition government, ruling out the return of the toppled team. The Nigerian official leading the west African mediation effort said there was no chance the former government would be restored.

Conducting research requires funding, and today's research follows the golden rule: The one with the gold makes the rules. A report just released by Food and Water Watch examines the role of corporate funding of agricultural research at land grant universities. The report found that nearly one quarter of research funding at land grant universities now comes from corporations.