The Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT) is pleased to announce the first ever South African NGO Web Awards. In recent years a growing number of South African NGOs have invested in ICT skills and infrastructure, including their own dedicated websites. This is a very encouraging trend and one which will hopefully continue to grow in future. This competition aims to raise awareness amongst South African NGOs about the benefits of having a web presence, stimulate interest in the application of web solutions and applications, and showcase best practices in website creation and maintenance.

The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has pulled the plug on a television interview with former State President PW Botha - the first he has given in 11 years - sparking accusations of censorship against the public broadcaster. The exclusive interview, conducted by controversial former SABC journalist Cliff Saunders, was allegedly scheduled to have aired on Thursday night to coincide with Botha’s 90th birthday celebrations.

On the first anniversary of cyber-dissident Abdel Razak Al Mansouri's arrest, Reporters Without Borders has reiterated its call for the immediate release of this former bookseller, who is serving an 18-month prison sentence for posting articles critical of President Muammar Gaddafi on the Internet. "Al Mansouri has become the symbol of the fight for free expression in Libya," the organisation said. "By using the Internet to publish independent news and information, he opened a path which many other Internet users are bound to follow."

The government of Zimbabwe is reportedly reviewing the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), in the wake of intense criticism and condemnation of Zimbabwe's dented human rights record and suppression of freedom of expression, according to an alert from the Media Institute of Southern Africa. This comes hard on the heels of a damning report by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), which expressed concern over the suppression of fundamental rights and liberties through laws such as AIPPA, the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA).

Aimed at African schoolnet practitioners, policymakers, school managers and teachers, the toolkit documents experiences in school networking from a number of African countries and recommends frameworks, tools, lessons and good practices to inform and improve our day to day practice.

There is growing awareness that it is not the learning of literacy skills that brings about social and economic benefits but the ability to use literacy in specific instances. Literacy learning must encourage the use of skills in real life situations and promote the transfer of literacy skills from the adult classroom into the external world. Can new technologies be used to develop learning materials to assist with this?

The Digital Education Enhancement Project (DEEP) is exploring how information and communications technologies (ICTs) can improve the quality of teacher education and learning. Research looks at primary schools in South Africa's Eastern Cape Province and in Cairo, Egypt.

We are asking for your urgent help in persuading the African Union to recommend the extradition of the former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré to Belgium, where he is now wanted to stand trial on charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture. The President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, has asked the Summit of the African Union (Khartoum, 23-24 January 2006) to recommend "the competent jurisdiction" for the trial of Mr. Habré.

Over half of the population in Africa cannot read or write. Information needs are critical both for personal development and educational achievement. However, few practical activities supporting information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enhance such skills are in place in African schools. A report from the UK Imfundo project argues for a pro-poor model of ICTs for Development (ICT4D) which goes beyond traditional concepts of literacy as functional reading and writing.

Singapore company Nex-G Systems was initially contracted to provide "smart" solar powered lampposts to Cameroon which would be remote controlled from a central point. Moving forward from this, the company has decided to also install telecoms infrastructure so that the lampposts enable people to go online and make telephone calls. The company plans to install WiFi, a short-range wireless technology, on about 4,000 lamps in Douala, providing Internet access even to some of the city's remote areas.

The Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF) has announced a unique initiative designed to help independent news media in emerging democracies. The program will allow investors to help foster press freedom and viability abroad by loaning money at low interest rates.

Several Egyptian journalists have launched a new Internet radio station. According to Al-Jazeera.net, the radio station is believed to be Egypt's first to broadcast primarily news.

Community radio has developed into the most popular and successful medium in rural Mozambique. However, many stations may have to shut down when their funding runs out later this year, the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) reported.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) have teamed up to revive the Southern African Journalists Association (SAJA) in a bid to build regional support for journalists and media unions who are coming under increasing pressure for reporting the news. SAJA will be temporarily housed at and administered by FXI until it holds its congress in 2006 and elects a new executive.

My heart felt congratulations to you and the whole Pamabazuka News team for the great social justice forum. I was directed to this site by a friend of mine a few weeks go and I can't find words to explain its resourcefulness. This is an indication that we have think tanks of our own in Africa, whom we can depend for intellectual nourishment.

The recent case of Microsoft closing down a journalist’s blog under pressure from the Chinese authorities once again shows that some Internet sector companies do not respect freedom of expression when operating in repressive countries. Reporters Without Borders proposes six concrete ways to make these companies behave ethically. These recommendations are addressed to the US government and US legislators because all the companies named in this document are based in the United States. Nonetheless, they concern all democratic countries and have therefore been sent to European Union officials and to the Secretary General of the OECD as well.

Malawi’s First Lady, Ethel Mutharika, has taken The Nation Newspaper to court over a story she went on a shopping spree in Scotland while her husband was negotiating for aid to help the starving in his country, writes Samuel Makaka on www.journalism.co.za in a story published on December 22. The Nation newspaper, one of the biggest in the country, repeated claims in the Daily Record of Scotland that she was seen shopping in expensive stores in Edinburgh during an official visit.

On 29 December 2005, publication director Ahmed Benchemsi and news editor Karim Boukhari, of the weekly "TelQuel", were sentenced on appeal, to a two-month suspended prison term and ordered to pay a fine of 800,000 dirhams (72,000 euros). In January, the two journalists, convicted of defamation in another case, are set to reappear before the Casablanca Court of Appeal. "Contrary to our expectations, the sentence is markedly disproportionate in its opposition to Ahmed Benchemsi and Karim Boukhari, in a trial that did not fully review the case. We hope nevertheless that in the least, the court of appeal will be less severe to 'TelQuel' during the second court process that will take place in January 2006," declared Reporters Without Borders.

Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF has recommended a purge of all staff at state-owned media who were hired by the former Information Minister, Professor Jonathan Moyo, writes Gugu Ziyaphapha in an article posted on www.journalism.co.za The recommendation was made at the just-ended party conference, where Makonde legislator Leo Mugabe also attacked Moyo for having sabotaged the public media with his policies. Zanu PF’s deputy secretary for information and publicity, Ephraim Masawi, said the party and government should clean up the structures put in place at the state media by Moyo because he was using them for his selfish ends.

Reporters without Borders has condemned threats made against Maka Gbossokoto, the director of the private daily newspaper "Le Citoyen" ("The Citizen"), by a presidential guard sub-lieutenant who was recently dismissed from the army and is known for his brutality. After the 4 January 2006 publication of an article entitled "Year 2006 Starts in Pain and Tears" in "The Citoyen", the daily's director Maka Gbossokoto received a phone call at 6:15 p.m. (local time) from sub-lieutenant Jean-Célestin Dogo, an ex-"Liberator" (the name given to those who assisted in the 2003 rebellion that brought François Bozizé to power). The soldier, recently ousted from the military, expressed his anger at a recent report in "The Citoyen" about the fatal settling of a 3 January dispute in a northern district of Bangui that degenerated into confrontations between police and citizens.