Cellphone operator MTN had not yet been able to meet its obligations to give away 2,5-million SIM cards and 125000 handsets to poor people, or to roll out internet access to 8000 schools, the company said recently. The social upliftment obligations were imposed as licence conditions when the cellular networks were awarded the 1800MHz spectrum and the high-speed third generation (3G) spectrum to boost their coverage.

African civil society organisations have asked the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to help it participate in forum meetings. In an open letter to the IGF, organisations represented by the African Civil Society for the Information Society Network on ICT4D say they can't afford to be in Athens in October for the first meeting of the IGF.

The 31 telecommunications companies involved in developing and implementing the East African Submarine system (EASSy) cable system have said that the 23-nation protocol to build the under-sea cable is unacceptable to them and could lead to them abandoning the project.

On 4 October 2006, Reporters Without Borders published the full report of the fact-finding visit it made to Libya from 13 to 17 September. It was first time the press freedom organisation has been able to go to Libya in 20 years. This in itself is one of the signs of the changes taking place under the "Brother Leader," Muammar Gaddafi.

In this book, a number of scholars, human rights activists and practitioners examine the links between information and communication technology (ICT) and human rights, exploring the ways in which the information society can either advance human rights around the world or threaten them.

Two white commercial farmers have become the first to be tried for defying eviction orders after they appeared in a Karoi magistrates’ court. Although Izak Daniel Nel and Gert Cornelius Terblanche, who are brothers-in-law, won an interim order three months ago to stay on their farms, State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa is reported to have personally issued them with a 90 day eviction order. The order was handed to them four days after winning the temporary reprieve by the High Court.

Nigeria will spend about 30 million naira on the construction of a national Internet Exchange Point. The exchange point, which is expected to be commissioned by Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo within days, will make it possible to keep local internet traffic within the country.

'Outside the Lines' is a radio drama about gay and lesbian lives in South Africa. The radio drama is available for broadcast. The drama may be used in its entirety, or in part as a segment in a programme about LGBTI issues or as a lead in to a call in show.

The public were being misled about the true intentions of the censorship provisions of the Film and Publication Amendment Bill, critics said on Friday. Public hearings on the amendment bill have been taking place countrywide under the auspices of Parliament's home affairs portfolio committee. An avalanche of opposition to the bill was unleashed by media houses and watchdog organisations when the censorship provisions became public.

Research conducted by Amnesty International and the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) reveals that the practice of forced evictions has reached epidemic proportions in Africa, with more than three million Africans forcibly evicted from their homes since 2000. The two organizations have called on African governments to halt forced evictions and abide by their international human rights obligations.

United Nations agencies in Burkina Faso have provided the government with 1,000 tents to house victims of flooding from seasonal heavy rains. Some 11,170 people have sought shelter in schools and government buildings. Officials had feared that school would be disrupted because classes are set to resume in early October.

"The FXI is disappointed with today's judgment of the Constitutional Court (CC) dismissing an appeal by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to broadcast the appeals of Schabir Shaik and others in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). The FXI has read the judgment and considers it to be retrogressive for media freedom and open justice in South Africa."

A critical conversation was the theme of the International Media Summit held in Accra, Ghana, recently. If a conference with that theme had taken place in East Africa, half the participants would have bemoaned the fact that Africa is portrayed unfairly by the Western media as a continent of famine, wars, poverty, corruption, and insane rulers.

On 23 September 2006, Gambian president Yahya Jammeh repeated one of his long standing anti-press statements, hinting that he would be more ruthless in dealing with journalists and the media in his third five-year term of office.

The Western media is portraying Africa in a negative light and fails to cover positive economic and democratic developments, according to some of the continent's top journalists. Africa has traditionally made the news for all the wrong reasons with reports on famine, civil war or the blight of HIV/Aids dominating international news coverage from the world's poorest continent.

SANGONeT's Thetha Forums provide NGOs with the opportunity to discuss information communication technology (ICT), including challenges facing the NGO sector, highlighting and promoting practical benefits, opportunities and lessons learned. The forums highlight ICT policy issues and promote practical applications, and form part of SANGONeT's broader objective to increase the use and awareness of ICTs within the NGO sector in Southern Africa.

Between 1980 and 2005, the number of telephone subscribers in developing countries rose 30 times. In 1980, developing countries accounted for only 20% of the world's telephone lines; by 2005, 60% of the world's phones were in developing countries.

The ITU report was unveiled during a special session on "Integrating Least Developed Countries (LDCs) into the world economy through telecommunications/ICT" in New York. According to the report, teledensity has more than doubled in the majority of least developed countries since 2000 with some of them boosting connectivity by as much as 20 times.

The authors of this paper investigate the causal relationship between information and communication technology (ICT) investments and foreign direct investment (FDI) flows, with regard to the relationship's implications on economic growth.

To vanquish poverty, Africa needs a new cadre of policy researchers with expertise in the role of science and technology in development, argues Osita Ogbu. Few people inside or outside African government fully understand the importance of science and technology policy. As a result, the continent lacks capacity in the field.