The Zimbabwean aims to produce and distribute a newspaper dedicated to freedom of expression and access to information for all the peoples of Zimbabwe, founded on the sacred principles of journalism - fairness and honesty.

Kaitira Kandjii, 43, has been appointed the new Regional Director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) as from 1 April 2006, according to a report in the Namibia Economist. Kandjii takes over from Luckson Chipare, a Zimbabwean, who has worked for MISA for the last 10 years, five of the last ones as Regional Director. Before his appointment, Kandjii, the first Namibian to hold the senior post, was the head of Freedom of Expression at the MISA Regional Secretariat in Windhoek.

This paper offers an examination of international justice from the perspective of rape survivors from the Rwandan genocide, and exposes the squandered opportunities that have characterised sexual violence prosecutions over the past decade at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). This paper is based on interviews with Rwandan rape survivors, including some who have testified as witnesses before the ICTR.

Anti-software patent supporters are meeting to discuss the formation of a non-profit organisation to tackle the issue of software patents in South Africa. Tectonic caught up with University of South Africa senior lecturer, Bob Jolliffe, who is currently driving the process.

The Government of Morocco is planning to deploy a new e-government system to streamline public procurement processes, increase competitive bidding and save money for Moroccan taxpayers, with support of the Development Gateway's e-Government Grants Program. Technical assistance and seed funding for the project will come from the Grants Program, a partnership with the Government of Italy.

After the World Summit on the Information Society ended in Tunisia last November, the Civil Society Statement commented: "Overall, it is impossible not to conclude that WSIS has failed to live up to (its) expectations." In a more-recent article titled 'Pushing and prodding, goading and hand-holding', the APC presents its verdict. It comes from a perspective which believes that the ability to access, produce and share information is a key requirement for creating more equal and just societies.

Community Radio updates you on recent community radio related programme activities, awards, training, evaluation and research results, networks, books, and other materials recently placed on Soul Beat Africa.

Africa currently has to pay for some of the most expensive bandwidth in the world. The region currently only has one major international fibre cable (SAT3) that connects countries in West and Southern Africa but East Africa has no fibre connection. All this will change if the proposed East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) cable is built as it will connect countries on the eastern side of the continent and if this new capacity is offered in a way that maximises use and lowers price. To help make this possible, APC is launching a new website “Fibre-for-Africa” and on March 10 will hold a consultation with more than 80 key stakeholders from all over Eastern and Southern Africa to ensure that access to EASSy -which will serve eight coastal and eleven land-locked countries- is ‘easy’, affordable and open.

Rights groups have condemned several Arab governments for blocking websites devoted to freedom of speech on political and social issues, calling the move an attempt to limit the free exchange of information. “Most Arab governments largely oppress freedoms of the press and expression,” said Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information's (HRinfo) Programme Coordinator Sally Sami. The criticisms came after a number of Egypt-based websites were recently blocked, as well as several sites in Saudi Arabia and Tunisia.

Thousands of Kenyans took to the streets of Nairobi and four major towns Wednesday in an emotive defence of Press freedom following the shocking raid of Standard Group's premises by hooded police commandos. Led by Orange Democratic Movement leaders, they spilled into the streets of Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret, Kisumu and Nakuru, to demand the resignation of Security minister John Michuki and his Information and Communications counterpart, Mutahi Kagwe.
* Related Link
'Standard' takes complaint to human rights commission

Organised by the Uganda Network for AIDS Service Organisations (UNASO) and Health and Development Networks (HDN), in collaboration with the Constellation for AIDS Competence, the discussion “AIDS Competence – sharing, using and strengthening experience with local responses in Uganda” will take place on the Partners Uganda electronic discussion forum (eForum) between March – July 2006.

Reporters Without Borders has noted the decision of the former housing minister, Mohamed Soliman to withdraw 37 defamation complaints that he had lodged against journalists. This gesture is the result of mediation, undertaken by the information minister and the press council between the housing minister and President of the Egyptian Journalists' Union, Galal Aref, representing the journalists named in the cases.

Journalists from Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) have taken the state broadcaster to court over low salaries, writes Gugu Ziyaphapha on the website The journalists and other ZBH workers decided to seek the intervention of the courts after their employer refused to award them the increase they want. The management is offering 30% yet the reporters are asking for an 800% increment. According to court papers filed at the labour court, a junior reporter gets Z$1.6 million (R45) and senior journalists get Z$7 million (R200).

Freedom of expression groups have urged Tunisia to release Mohammed Abbou and all other remaining prisoners of opinion. On the first anniversary of the jailing of Tunisian internet writer, lawyer and human rights activist Mohammed Abbou, international freedom of expression groups welcomed the recent release of many Tunisian prisoners of opinion including journalist Hamadi Jebali, imprisoned for more than 15 years, and the youth of Zarzis, whose release was the focus of an international campaign, but expressed dismay at the continued incarceration of Abbou and the escalation of other free speech violations.

Sudan is Africa's largest country but more than 70% of its population live in its small towns and scattered across rural areas. The country sits strategically between Arabic-speaking North Africa and the Gulf and several sub-Saharan African countries: it is bordered by no less than 12 countries. Its oil revenues have created a building boom in the capital and attracted telecoms investment from the UAE (Canartel) and Kuwait (Celtel).

An early morning raid on media institutions in Nairobi has shocked Kenyans accustomed to media freedom and a vibrant local press, as well as sparking alarm amongst human rights groups, donors and opposition politicians. Ochieng Rapuro gives an account of the situation.

Hooded and heavily armed policemen on Thursday morning raided the offices of the Standard Media Group, shutting down KTN television station and burning copies of the edition of the Standard newspaper. The raid came three days after three journalists working with the media house were arrested by the police and kept in custody beyond the 48 hour limited provided for in law.

The journalists were arrested over publication last Saturday of a story claiming that President Mwai Kibaki held a secret meeting with Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, an opposition MP and a former member of the Kibaki Cabinet who was sacked after he campaigned against a Government supported draft constitution last November.

The Government suffered a devastating defeat in the referendum vote that divided the Kibaki Cabinet. Last Saturday’s story had claimed that Mr Musyoka had met the President at State House, Nairobi where they held discussions on a wide range of political matters including the appointment of Mr Musyoka as the Vice President.
Though Mr Musyoka himself has denied ever holding such a meeting with the president, he has since issued a statement disassociating himself with the latest events and maintained that there were legal channels to seek redress.

Yesterday, the Minister of State in charge of Internal Security, John Michuki, said the raiders were police officers acting on official orders. A statement issued by police late afternoon said the raid had been conducted in the interest of national security. The statement said intelligence gathered by the police had indicated the Standard Group had the intention of orchestrating ethnic hatred in the country.

Human Rights groups condemned the police action as unlawful use of state security machinery to curtail press freedom. The groups said it was the latest in a series of actions that the Kibaki administration had undertaken to curtail press freedom since coming to power in January 2003.

The police operation was led by the Nairobi Area Criminal Investigations boss Sammy Githui and his operations counterpart Jim Njiru. In the shadows of darkness the police squad first attacked the media house’s head offices in Central Nairobi before moving to its press located in the city’s industrial area. It was the night that the autocratic hand of the Kenyan government came down hard on the media as it moved in to immobilize the printing press.

Despite initial denials, it was clear that this was a police raid. Workers at the Standard’s printing press offices said the leader of the raiders was heard communicating with a senior police officer at the Buruburu Police Division (OCPD) informing him that the operation was underway. Mr Justus Nyawaya, the night supervisor, says he saw a group of heavily built men armed with AK47 rifles and wearing red reflective jackets ordering the workers to lie down.

The invaders rounded up all the guards and their dogs and held them hostage for the entire three hours that the operation was underway, taking away mobile phones and personal effects from the workers and snatching the company’s car keys from the drivers.

* Ochieng Rapuro is an Editor with the Standard Newspapers

* Please send comments to [email protected]

* See the Reuters report 'Raid on media group shocks Kenyans' (http://tinyurl.com/kwefv) for more information.

Hundreds of civilians have been displaced by fighting between United Nations-supported government troops and militiamen in the northeastern province of Orientale in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Bunia, Ituri District. Three hundred displaced persons fled fighting in the town of Tcheyi and arrived in Aveba village, 12 km south, on Monday, Modiba Traore said.

It is now official. The Government will sell 34 per cent of Telkom Kenya to the public through the Nairobi Stock Exchange. Another 26 per cent of the Government's shares in Telkom will be sold to a strategic investor. The President made the announcement while opening the national information and communications technology (ICT) workshop in Nairobi. The State will also sell nine per cent of its shareholding in mobile phone operator Safaricom, to Vodafone Airtouch of the UK.

The Media Council of Kenya has summoned the Standard Weekend Editions Managing Editor, to appear before it over a story the paper published. Kenya's Minister for Information and Communication had described the story as a "fabrication published with ill motive." A government spokesman said the story was meant to injure the integrity of the Presidency and mislead Kenyans. He also demanded, in a statement, that the writer of the story and editors who participated in the story be punished.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says it is troubled by the National Communications Council's decision last Wednesday to suspend the private bimonthly Les Echos for two months and ban two of the newspaper's journalists from working during that time. The decision by the government-controlled council cited "the publication of false news and an attack on the honor and dignity" of a government minister, Kiridi Bangoura. Bangoura brought a complaint against the newspaper after it published an article in the February 20 edition accusing him of "becoming rich off the back of Guineans."