This training handbook has been designed for print and broadcast journalists and journalism students in developing countries around the world, to help gain practical skills in using the internet for day-to-day journalistic assignments. It provides a step-by-step guide to understanding and utilising the many and varied aspects of the internet. The major part of the book is devoted to explaining how to search the internet.

Education is key to preventing the spread of HIV. But while sex education in Uganda covers effectively the biology of HIV, it fails to prompt behaviour change. Action research from Birmingham University, undertaken in Uganda, engaged pupils in choosing the content and delivery of the curriculum in an attempt to fulfil this need. Sex education is included within the Uganda curriculum, but not as a topic on its own. Lessons are teacher-centred and emphasise abstaining from sex until marriage and shunning homosexuality. Structured questionnaires, focus group discussions and personal accounts reveal that pupils see these lessons as boring, irrelevant and a waste of time.

As part of a series on housing in South Africa, the BBC News website's Justin Pearce speaks to residents of overcrowded Alexandra township in north-eastern Johannesburg.

1st International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training: "eLearning Africa", a conference to be held annually in Africa, intends to become the African eLearning capacity building event and – at the same time – a forum for all stakeholders engaged in the planning and implementation of technology supported learning and training on the African continent.

The Algerian regulator ARPT took the brave step of allowing 24 ISPs an experimental licence at the end of April 2004. After the revision its licensing framework, the first VoIP operator (EEPAD) was granted authorization to operate a year later in April 2005. Russell Southwood reports on how this legalisation has begun to transform the market.

To mark World Press Freedom Day, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has launched an online information package for newspapers around the world. Articles, case studies, cartoons, advertisements, graphics and statistics on jailed journalists can be downloaded for publishing on 3 May 2006.

This three day workshop, held in Accra, Ghana, is organised by PenPlusBytes, in conjunction with the French Embassy in Ghana. The workshop seeks to address the need for major transformation of the Ghanaian journalists in their training and attitude towards using new media technology.

There are three main areas of web technology innovation in Africa, three regions that define it. They are split geographically, have different focuses and are the recognized technology leaders in their region. All three contain a strong sense of identity and a continued drive to change the continent. These three countries are Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has conferred the 2006 Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award to Mohamed Hashem, an Egyptian publisher who has been threatened and harassed for defending the right to freedom of expression. Hashem is the owner and managing director of Merit Publishing House, an independent company he co-founded in 1998. Merit supports and encourages new writers.

Alfred Egbegi, publisher of the weekly newspaper "Izon Link", who was arrested by the police in Yenogoa, the Bayelsa state capital in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria on 12 April 2006, has been released from custody, but is now facing criminal charges in court. The publisher was arrested and charged over a story published in the Volume 7, Number 8 edition of the newspaper, carrying the headline "Ebebi cries out: Jonathan is stabbing me". The story alleged political intrigue involving the state governor, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, and his deputy, Mr. Peremobowei Ebebi, over who would govern the state after the 2007 general elections.

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the brutal treatment of BBC correspondent René Dillah Yombirim, severely beaten by soldiers before he was released several hours later. Public radio journalist and French service correspondent for the BBC, Yombirim was arrested by members of the presidential guard on 15 April.

The Malawi government has objected to cartoons in the country's two main newspapers, calling them offensive and in conflict with Malawian culture, writes Samuel Makaka on the website The government spokesperson, Patricia Kaliati, Minister of Information, held two press conferences in less than two weeks condemning the Nation and the Daily Times. The cartoon in the Nation depicted Archbishop Ziyaye administering Eucharist to President Bingu wa Mutharika, himself a catholic. Kneeling down immediately behind him, obviously in readiness for the same, is Vice President, Cassim Chilumpha, who is a Moslem.

Women'sNet - a South African NGO- is looking for a dynamic and motivated woman to join our team as Information and Media Officer. The post involves developing information both internally, and within the South African women's movement. Reporting to the Executive Director the Information & Media Manager is responsible for the smooth flow of current and relevant information to the website through membership of particular lists or through desktop research or attending ICT conferences.

Computer prices in Uganda have reduced due to an increasingly competitive market ushered in by the growing number of assembling units in the recent years. These units have come up as a result of available good assembling market terms from manufacturers of various brands. In Kampala, computer-assembling businesses dot the shopping lanes and streets with a mix of branded and cloned computers being assembled and sold to 'hungry' customers.

This intensive 3 week training programme in human rights and media law with a focus on litigation and advocacy skills is run by PCMLP in collaboration with the Open Society Justice Initiative and other organisations. The course is designed for lawyers from any country who are interested in deepening their understanding of the various regional and international human rights systems, focusing on the protection and promotion of the exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and information. 

If you want to register a domain name with a Ugandan country code, .ug, the man to speak to is Charles Musisi, an Internet entrepreneur who has managed the country's domain names over the past decade. However, Mr Musisi is now engaged in a dispute with the industry regulator, Uganda Communications Commission, over the right to manage the domain registry. UCC officials want to take over the administration of the registry in order to make domain names cheaper and to increase Internet use in Uganda.

The latest e-comesa newsletter highlights:
- Burundi Pledges To Be More Active in Regional Integration Agenda
- Rationalise Economic Blocs – African Union
- Burundi One of the Biggest Beneficiaries of ATI
- Preps for 11th COMESA Heads of State Summit Underway in Djibouti
Visit for more information.

In Kenya calls to a competing network are so expensive that most people simply do not call across mobile phone networks. A chief executive of one of the mobile phone companies candidly admits that the high tariffs are a marketing strategy to keep subscribers. "It's a marketing decision. We want more people on our network. It started out as a cost issue but this is no longer the case." His counterpart at a competing network is even more blunt. "It's a tool to trap the customer inside the network, this is the rationale behind it."

The Federal Government has approved a directive that only 'Made in Nigeria' software should run on the IT systems of the nation's public offices and institutions. The approval follows an intense lobby by the Nigeria Software Development Initiative (NSDI), an industry lobby group led by CEO of Zenith Bank Plc, Jim Ovia.

A second year media student with the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo, was arrested while taking photographs during demonstrations by students at the university campus, according to a release from Misa. The student, Fungai Machirori, had been assigned to take photographs of the demonstration as part of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies' training programme when the police pounced on her for "taking photographs without their consent."