Two reports were released last week that chart the rapid changes taking place in African ICT markets over the last year, says issue 281 of Balancing Act News Update. The first looks at the rise of broadband access which has become increasingly available in Africa for the first time ever. The second report analyses the mobile handset market in one of the continent's largest markets, Nigeria and provides some useful pointers as to how that market will develop.

Journalists for Human Rights (JHR)/Journalistes pour les Droits Humains (JDH) is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising general awareness of human rights issues in Africa by providing African journalists with the tools to report accurately and concretely about human rights issues. JHR's mailing list allows members to discuss issues related to human rights and the media in Africa. Members will also be informed of JHR's activities and events. Follow the link to join the email listserve.

The program, now in its first year, is based at the ICTE headquarters in New York City. We will review applications in February 2006 and issue invitations to two researchers by the end of March for the following academic year (September, 2006 through May, 2007). The focus is on scholars doing tolerance-linked interdisciplinary work in either early childhood education or in women's human rights. We recognize the breadth of the description, but we are eager to cast a wide net in the early years of the initiative as we gain experience and visibility in the academic community. We are advised in this effort by a small selection committee of academic colleagues.

Two African leaders launched a public appeal Wednesday (November 16) for support to a global fund for community-based communication projects. President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria launched the appeal for increased funding for the Global Digital Solidarity Fund (GDSF). Few, however, attended the meeting they addressed. Obasanjo nevertheless made an earnest appeal for more. The fund "relies heavily on contributions by stakeholders," he said. "Contributions, no matter how small, will help."

Two reports were released recently that chart the rapid changes taking place in African ICT markets over the last year. The first looks at the rise of broadband access which has become increasingly available in Africa for the first time ever. The second report analyses the mobile handset market in one of the continent's largest markets, Nigeria and provides some useful pointers as to how that market will develop. Between 2001 when the first broadband access was rolled out and the present day, a wide range of both wireline and wireless broadband technologies have been deployed across Africa.

The Ministry of Communication Science and Technology is making progress in the improvement of telecommunications in Botswana, Itumeleng Batsalelwang, the ministrys chief communication officer, has said. Batsalelwang told BOPA that the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation has embarked on two fibre projects: the West Africa Fibre System and East Africa Submarine Cable System. He said the East Africa Submarine Cable System project was advanced in that Botswana has signed a memorandum of understanding with the consortium and the current issue was drafting of the construction and maintenance agreement.

Based on the 2004 e-Access & Usage Household survey that was completed during the course of 2004 and 2005, this report is the result of a demand study of individuals and households and how ICT's are used across 10 African countries. This ground-breaking research is now available.

Source: Research ICT Africa

In the days leading up to the official opening of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis on Wednesday, the Tunisian authorities blocked plans to hold an alternative civil society forum, harassed human rights activists, confiscated cameras, insulted and beat people, shut down a website and disrupted meetings at the official summit venue.

(See French version below)

The fiasco over the human rights attitude of the Tunisian authorities peaked on Tuesday morning, when civil society organisations took the decision to cancel their parallel events in protest and as a show of solidarity with Tunisian civil society who, once the summit shuts down, will continue to bear the brunt of abuses by the Tunisian government. In explaining the decision to cancel events, one civil society activist said: “The Tunisian organisations feel incredibly emotional and they want a show of solidarity. We can show solidarity and draw attention to basic violations which are a contradiction of what the WSIS is trying to achieve.” Not all civil society organisations holding events abided by the protest, with some feeling that airing debates about the free flow of information that they had scheduled was more important than remaining silent.

The day before, representatives of international civil society organisations had tried to meet with their Tunisian counterparts in order to organize an unofficial parallel civil society event – a standard occurrence at large international summits designed to give a voice to those who cannot be a part of the official summit. Several attempts to secure a venue for the Citizens Summit on the Information Society had failed because booked venues had been cancelled, even when they had been pre-paid, said R. Jorgenson, co-chair of the WSIS human rights caucus.

The organisations involved had met on Monday to discuss what to do about the difficulty of securing a venue, but security police had prevented the Tunisian representatives from entering the venue where the meeting was taking place, at the Goethe Institute in Tunis. When the international representatives had joined their Tunisian colleagues outside, they were pushed and harassed. “All of us were pretty stressed and frightened,” said Jorgenson at a press briefing later, adding that: “We are supposed to be discussing how to empower people and yet we are not allowed to meet people to discuss the issues.” The Association of Progressive Communications (APC) reported on the incident as follows: “Omar Mestiri, Director of the online magazine Kalima (http://www.kalimatunisie.com) and a founder member of the National Council for Freedom in Tunisia (Conseil national pour les libertés en Tunisie - CNLT) was seized as soon as he arrived at the site for the meeting of the coordinating committee of the Citizens' Summit on the Information Society (CSIS). Bombarded with blows and insults, Mr. Mestiri kept calm, before he was able to break away from the group of plainclothes policemen.”

The website of the Citizen’s Summit on the Information Society was subsequently blocked by Tunisian authorities. Reports also circulated about a blogger having his camera confiscated by security guards after taking pictures during the registration process.

In a brief presentation held before a scheduled panel discussion entitled ‘Human Rights in the Information Society’ on Tuesday morning, civil society representatives described events that took place the day before as an attack on the right to assemble and speak freely and the subsequent blocking of the alternative summit website as “the cyber removal of the rights of people”.

Earlier reports by the Tunisian Monitoring Group (TMG), a coalition of free expression organisations, have repeatedly raised concerns about the imprisonment of individuals related to expression of their opinions, the blocking of websites, restrictions on freedom of association, restrictions on the freedom of movement of human rights defenders and political dissidents together with police surveillance, harassment, intimidation and interception of communications and the use of torture by the security services with impunity.

The group has called on the Tunisian government to release prisoners of conscience, end arbitrary detentions, end harassment and assaults on human rights activists, stop blocking websites, end censorship of books and newspapers, open up the press and broadcasting, respect freedom of movement, assembly and association, and allow independent investigation of alleged cases of torture.

As the summit kicks into gear the host government of Tunisia is showing no signs of recognising the contradictions between their repressive policies on freedom of expression and the essentially free flow of information on the internet. And so while thousands of delegates meet to discuss issues of internet governance and bridging the digital divide, freedom of expression activists that have angered the Tunisian government will remain behind bars.

These include Mohamed Abou, a founding member of the International Association for Solidarity with Political Prisoners and the Centre for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers. He is currently serving a three-year prison sentence after publishing an article in February 2005 on the banned web site www.tunnisnews.com, which protested President Ben Ali’s invitation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Tunisia. According to a Human Rights Watch report launched Tuesday at the WSIS ‘False Freedom: Online Censorship in the Middle East and North Africa’, his wife says that: “When I see him, his clothes are full of the blood of bugs from his mattress.”

The Human Rights Watch report also documents the arrest of youths in different parts of the country, accusing them of planning to join jihidist movements and preparing terrorist attacks. “In most cases the convictions were based heavily on the statements given to the police that the defendants later contested – without success – on the grounds that they had been extracted through torture or through threats of torture.” But as one of the report’s authors noted at the launch, increased repression associated with the internet is not only a Tunisian phenomenon – it is also a trend in the countries of Syria, Egypt and Iran also covered by the report.

The right to association and freedom of expression are basic rights that repressive governments have long tried to quash. What’s different is that the internet allows for new forms of organisation and association, so its no surprise that governments will attempt to crack down on this area also. As Charlie Lewis, from the Link Centre at Wits University explains, email and the internet allow new ways of organizing and so a website of an NGO, for example, becomes a way that people associate with and a point around which organisations assemble. One of the ways in which governments violate that right to freedom of expression and association is therefore not only through physical means, but also by blocking websites, for example.

But it is not only the right to freedom of expression that is being directly violated in Tunisia. The information society is fuelling other abuses of human rights that mostly go unrecognized. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, there is evidence that the mining of coltan – used in a wide variety of electronic devices - has fuelled the war that according to some estimates has claimed 1.8 million lives since 1997. Another example can be found in the dumping of defunct computers and other electronic equipment in Africa, which creates an environmental hangover for the continent.

As the summit moves into the rubber stamping stage, the actions of the Tunisian authorities over the last few days have raised awareness about the links between human rights and the information society, and made clear the contradictions of holding an event to discuss how to open up the internet to all in a repressive environment.

UPDATE: Reporters sans frontières (RSF), Paris reports that French international television station TV5 Monde announced the withdrawal of a two-person team in Tunis because it had been "subjected to close surveillance."

"Since 11 November, a 'Libération' journalist has been beaten and stabbed, a crew with the Belgian television station RTBF has been attacked and now, to cap it all, two TV5 journalists have been harassed," the press freedom organisation said.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Répression à Tunis et Sommet Mondial sur la Société de l’Information

Patrick Burnett

Dans les jours qui ont précédé l’ouverture officielle mercredi du Sommet mondial sur la société de l’information (SMSI) à Tunis, les autorités tunisiennes ont bloqué tout projet de tenue d’un forum parallèle de la société civile. On a vu des activistes des droits de l’homme harcelés, des caméras confisquées, des personnes insultées et battues, un site Internet fermé et des délégués réunis en plénière perturbés.

Ce fiasco, dû à la position des autorités tunisiennes sur les questions de droits de l’homme, a atteint son paroxysme lorsque certaines organisations de la société civile ont pris la décision d’annuler leurs événements parallèles en guise de protestation et pour montrer leur solidarité avec le la société civile tunisienne qui, dès la fermeture du sommet, aura encore à supporter les abus du gouvernement tunisien. Suite à cette décision d’annuler les événements, un activiste de la société civile a déclaré : « Les ONG tunisiennes sont dans tous leurs états et ont besoin de solidarité. Nous pouvons faire montre de solidarité et attirer l’attention sur les violations qui sont contraires à l’esprit et aux objectifs du SMSI. » Toutefois, ce ne sont pas toutes les organisations de la société civile qui ont adhéré à ce mouvement. Certaines ont en effet jugé qu’il était nécessaire de tenir les débats sur la libre circulation de l’information, comme prévus, au lieu de rester silencieux.

Le jour précédent, des représentants des organisations de la société civile internationale avait essayé de rencontrer leurs homologues tunisiens en vue d’organiser un événement parallèle non officiel - ce qui est une pratique très courante lors des grands sommets mondiaux qui a pour but de donner une voix à ceux qui n’ont pas le luxe de prendre part au sommet officiel. Selon R. Jorgenson, co-président du caucus des droits de l’homme au SMSI, les organisateurs du Sommet des citoyens sur la société de l’information n’avaient pas pu trouver, malgré moult tentatives, un lieu de rencontre du fait de l’annulation de tous les événements prévus et des lieux où ils devaient se tenir, même ceux qui ont été payés d’avance.

Les organisations impliquées s’étaient rencontrées le lundi pour discuter des moyens de trouver un lieu de rencontre, mais la police tunisienne avait empêché les représentants tunisiens d’entrer dans la salle où la réunion devait se tenir, à l’Institut Goethe de Tunis. Quand les délégués internationaux avaient rejoint leurs collègues tunisiens dehors, ils ont été repoussés et harcelés. « Nous étions tous très stressés et avions peur, » a plus tard déclaré Jorgenson lors d’une conférence de presse. Il a aussi ajouté qu’ils étaient supposés discuter de voies et moyens de responsabiliser les gens, mais qu’on les avait empêché de les rencontrer pour parler de tout cela. Voici comment l’Association pour le progrès des communications (APC) en relate les faits:

« Omar Mesri, Directeur du magazine en ligne Kalima (www.kalimatunisie.com) et membre fondateur du Conseil nationale pour les libertés en Tunisie (CNTL), s’est vu empoigné dès son arrivée au lieu où devait se tenir la réunion du comité de coordination du Sommet des citoyens sur la société de l’information (SCSI). M. Mesri est resté calme, même après s’être fait rouer de coups et arroser d’insultes, et a pu s’éloigner du groupe d’ « hommes en tenue » qui l’a malmené. »

Les autorités tunisiennes ont par la suite bloqué l’accès au site Internet du Sommet des citoyens sur la société de l’information. On raconte également que la caméra d’un bloggeur a été confisquée par les gardes après qu’il avait pris des photos lors de l’inscription à l’entrée.

Dans une brève présentation tenue mardi en amont de la discussion autour d’un panel au programme sur la question des droits de l’homme dans la société de l’information, des représentants de la société civile ont décrit les événements de la vieille comme une attaque sur le droit de s’assembler et de parler librement et le blocage plus tard du site Internet du sommet alternatif comme « la cyber élimination des droits des gens ».

Le Groupe de Contrôle de la Tunisie, une coalition d’organisations pour la liberté d’expression, a plus tôt soulevé des inquiétudes concernant l’emprisonnement d’individus qui n’ont fait qu’exprimer leur opinions, le blocage des sites Internet, les restrictions relatives à la liberté d’association et de mouvement des défenseurs des droits de l’homme et des dissidents politiques, ainsi que la surveillance policière, le harcèlement, l’intimidation et l’interception de communications privées et l’usage avec impunité de la torture par les forces de l’ordre.

Le groupe a appelé le gouvernement tunisien à remettre en liberté des prisonniers dits de conscience, à arrêter les détentions arbitraires, à mettre fin à l’harcèlement et les assauts sur la personnes des activistes des droits de l’homme, à stopper les blocages de sites Internet, à mettre fin à la censure des livres et journaux, à ouvrir les voies de presse (écrite et audiovisuelle), à respecter la liberté de mouvement, de rassemblement et d’association, et à ouvrir une enquête sur les cas de torture déclarés.

Pendant que la machine du sommet se met en marche, le gouvernement tunisien ne semble guère se rendre compte des contradictions qu’il y a entre les politiques de répression qui porte atteinte à la liberté d’expression et la circulation non-stop d’informations sur Internet. Et donc au moment où des milliers de délégués se rencontrent pour parler de la question de la gouvernance d’Internet et de la réduction de l’écart numérique existant, des activistes de la liberté d’expression, qui se sont attirés l’ire de l’exécutif tunisien, croupissent en prison.

Parmi eux, Mohamed Abou, membre fondateur de l’Association internationale pour la solidarité avec les prisonniers politiques et du Centre pour l’indépendance des juges et des avocats. Il sert, en ce moment même, une peine de prison de trois ans, suite à la publication en février 2005 d’un article sur l’interdiction du site www.tunnisnews.com, qui protestait l’invitation en Tunisie par Président Ben Ali du Premier Ministre israélien Ariel Sharon. D’après un rapport de Human Rights Watch intitulé « Fausse Liberté : La Censure Sur Internet Au Proche Orient et En Afrique du nord », présenté au SMSI, sa femme a déclaré : « Quand je le voit, ses habits sont tachetés de sang à cause de la piqûre des punaises qui infestent son lit. »

Le rapport de Human Rights Watch fait aussi état de l’arrestation de jeunes dans différentes parties du pays. Ils sont tous accusés d’avoir des liens avec des organisations jihadistes et de préparer des attaques terroristes. Le rapport dit que dans la plupart des cas, les accusés ont tous été condamnés sur la base de déclarations faites à la police ; déclarations qu’ils ont ensuite contestées – en vain – arguant qu’ils y ont été contraints par le biais de la torture ou par des menaces de torture. Mais comme l’a noté un des auteurs du rapport lors de la présentation de ce dernier, le regain de la répression liée à Internet n’est pas un phénomène purement tunisien, il existe aussi dans d’autres pays tels que la Syrie, l’Egypte et l’Iran, qui ont aussi été épinglés par le rapport.

Les droits à l’association et la liberté d’expression sont des droits essentiels que les gouvernements de répression ont longtemps essayé d’escamoter. La différence c’est que Internet permet l’émergence de nouvelles formes d’organisation et d’association, donc ce n’est une surprise pour personne si les gouvernements essaient de s’attaquer à ce domaine également. Comme l’explique Charlie Lewis du Link Centre à l’université de Wits, le courriel et Internet ouvrent de nouvelles voies de formation et donc le site web d’une ONG, par exemple, devient la face qu’on associe à une organisation, de même que son point de convergence et de ralliement. Un des moyens par lesquels les gouvernements violent cette liberté d’expression et d’association est l’usage de la force, mais aussi le blocage de sites web.

Mais ce n’est pas seulement le droit à la liberté de l’expression qui est directement violé en Tunisie. La société de l’information cite également d’autres cas d’abus des droits de l’homme qui passent inaperçus. À la République Démocratique du Congo, par exemple, on a la preuve que c’est l’exploitation du coltan, utilisé dans bon nombre d’appareils électroniques, qui a attisé le feu de la guerre, qui, selon certaines estimations, a fait 1,8 millions de victimes depuis l’année 1997. Un autre exemple est le dumping de vieux ordinateurs et d’autres appareils électroniques en Afrique. Ceci crée de graves problèmes environnementaux.

Alors que le sommet tire à sa fin, il devient clair que les actions du gouvernement tunisien au cours de ces derniers jours ont suscité une prise de conscience quant aux liens entre les droits de l’homme et la société de l’information, et ont montré par là même les contradictions d’une rencontre dont l’objet est de discuter de l’ouverture d’Internet à tous, dans un environnement de répression.

INFORMATIONS DE DERNIERES MINUTES : Selon Reporters sans frontières (RSF) basé à Paris, la chaîne de télévision française TV5 Monde, qui est internationale, a annoncé le retrait de son équipe de deux journalistes de Tunis pour cause de surveillance trop rapprochée de la part des autorités tunisiennes.

Et RSF d’ajouter que depuis le 11 novembre, un journaliste de Libération a été battu et poignardé, une équipe de la chaîne belge RTBF a été attaquée et maintenant, pour couronner le tout, on harcèle deux journalistes de TV5.

*Vous pouvez envoyer vos commentaires à [email protected].

The Zambian government has rejected a proposal to guarantee citizens the right to access public information as part of a new constitution being drafted for the country, report the Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) and ARTICLE 19. The Justice Minister, George Kunda, says the government is opposed to Clause 72 in the draft constitution, which provides for access to information, because it would compromise state security. The government has also rejected provisions in the draft constitution which would have protected all electronic and print media from government interference and shielded journalists from disclosing their sources except in court.

Ethiopian authorities are hunting down journalists, civil society activists and opposition leaders in a bid to clamp down on government critics following public protests that left more than 40 dead at the hands of security forces, report the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (EFJA), the International Press Institute (IPI), Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The IFEX Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG) has launched a protest against Tunisia's hosting of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in the wake of attacks on journalists and human rights activists in Tunis in the past few days. They note a serious deterioration in conditions related to freedom of expression in Tunisia, particularly with respect to independent organisations , harassment of journalists and dissidents, independence of the judiciary, and the imprisonment of the human rights lawyer, Mohamed Abbou, for voicing his opinion in articles on the Internet. Cumulatively these changes lead us to conclude that the Tunisian government is seeking to further stifle dissent on the eve of the WSIS. "In such conditions," they said, "Tunisia is not a suitable place to hold a United Nations World Summit." The coalition has cancelled plans to hold a WSIS side events, saying a series of incidents, including the stabbing of a French reporter, show how unfit Tunisia is to host a conference on freedom of expression and the Internet.

Authors: Marphatia, A.A.; Archer, D.; ActionAid International; Global Campaign for Education
Produced by: ActionAid International (2005)

This paper intends to demonstrate the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) role in constraining countries from increasing public expenditure in education to meet the Education For All (EFA) goals and the education-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The findings are based on research and country case studies undertaken by ActionAid International offices in Guatemala, Bangladesh, India, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Sierra Leone during 2004-05. This document argues that the tight macroeconomic policies imposed by the IMF in return for loans prevent countries from increasing public spending, making it difficult or impossible to provide education for all citizens.

An expanding network of community radios is strengthening civil society and supporting community development and social change in Mozambique. The increase from one community radio station in 1994 to nearly fifty in 2005 means that more than a third of the population now lives within reach of a station. Regular, sustainable, impact assessments are essential if these stations are to be effective.

Radio Salus, the first University/Community radio station in Rwanda, will be officially launched by the National University of Rwanda on Friday November 18. The station is based in the southern town of Butare. Radio Salus will be broadcasting on 97.0 FM.

Source: UNESCO

Ethan Zuckerman’s My hearts in Accra - (http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=256) is on his way to Tunis for the World Sumit on Information Society (WSIS). Like many others he says he is:

“attending with misgivings over the usefulness of the gathering, the absurd cost of the meeting, and the fact that it’s being held within a deeply repressive country with a history of detaining people who use the Internet to exercise their right to free speech”. (Last week I reported on a Tunisian blogger who after being detained for 18 months in prison, was released and suffered a heart attack)

Nigerian blogger Gbenga Sesan - Gbenga Sesan (http://www.gbengasesan.com/blog/?p=32) believes the most important issue to be discussed is Internet Governance.

“Just this morning, the BBC relayed the story of how the EU and the UN is trying to wrestle the control of the Internet from the US." Clearly, there’s a lot of interest in the issue of Internet Governance, and this is the best time for some countries that have taken the different issues around Internet Governance lightly to wake up before they sell their future to the best called ignorance.”

One of the problems with WSIS is that many participants will miss one of the most important factors of the conference which is not who governs the Internet but whether the internet as place of “free speech” can be respected by all governments. As Ethan mentions the conference is being held in a country where freedom of speech and media are held in contempt by the government. Andy Carvin’s Waste of Bandwidth blog - Waste of Bandwidth (http://www.digitaldivide.net/blog/acarvin/view?PostID=7638) reports taking photos at the conference is banned by the Tunisian authorities and attempts will result in interrogation by security officials.

Friends of Ethiopia - Friends of Ethiopia (http://friendsofethiopia.blogspot.com/2005/11/better-beware-white-eleph…) posts a report from AllAfrica.com “Better beware the white elephant”.

“At the World Summit of the Information Society in Tunis from November 16-18, these ICT lobbyists will bemoan the "digital divide" and call for a Digital Solidarity Fund. Dazzled by the allure of e-commerce, the global information society, e-learning and other buzzwords, they believe that new technology will allow them to leap-frog decades of incompetence and corruption and achieve rapid development. But the barriers to technological development are exactly the same as the barriers to any economic development: market restrictions, lack of contract law, state controls, customs duties, bureaucracy, and corruption.”

Tunisian blogger, Neila Charchour Hachicha - Blog de Neila Charchour Hachicha (http://plmonline.blogs.com/plm/2005/11/citizens_summit.html) reports on the Citizens Summit for Information Society (CSIS) which is also meeting in Tunis from 16-18 November as a side event. However the Tunisian government is trying its best to prevent the CSIS from meeting by obstructing their efforts to find a venue in Tunisia.

“The CSIS builds on a long tradition of civil society events linked to United Nations conferences. More than 80 international civil society organizations and coalitions have pledged their support and plan to take part in the three-day Citizens Summit, but a venue previously confirmed for the event was withdrawn at the last minute for reasons that CSIS organisers believe to be in response to political pressure from the Tunisian government.”

Ghanian blog, the Trials and Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen - Fresh-Arrived Denizen (http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com) has a different take on the WSIS where he seems to be somewhat in awe of Tunis and Tunisians:

“Goodlooking—nay, gorgeus-looking—women pass with their boyfriends, friends, etc, passing a poster that says 'KILL BILL. Cette Semaine au Cinema'...The information society may be lost to many people. In the beginning, even I couldn’t get my head round the utility of a conference round it, but now having back-pedalled and seen the bigger picture, I am beginning to think that it’s pretty cool being here. Especially in Tunis. We are treated like royalty. We, being those delegates going to the WSIS. These people are far friendlier than I ever anticipated or expected. Many of them after they ask me where I am from say 'bienvenue. Tu es chez toi.' Alright so they are tutoieing me, that is not using 'vous' since they do not know me, but I am not bothered. They seem to like me, and I certainly find them personable.”

Finally a return to Egyptian blogger, blogger Abdolkarim Nabil Seliman who runs the blog Kareem Amer. Last week I reported that he had been detained by the security forces since the 26th October. The Big Pharaoh - The big Pharaoh
(http://bigpharaoh.blogspot.com/2005/11/abdolkarim-released-egyptian-blo…) reports that he has now been released.

“He posted a short entry on his blog saying that he will tell us about what happened to him and that he thanks everyone who stood beside him even if he/she didn't share his thoughts. Of course, those who helped Abdolkarim include a lot of non-Egyptians who took the time to email or call the Egyptian embassies around the world.” If you can read Arabic you should go directly to his blog - Karam903 (http://karam903.blogspot.com) otherwise check Big Pharaoh or Freedom for Egyptians - Freedom for Egyptians (http://freedomforegyptians.blogspot.com/2005/11/freedom-of-expression-a…) for his report.

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks

* Please send comments to [email protected]

They are five letters you have probably never heard of: Icann, acronym for the hitherto obscure Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a public-private, non-profit organisation based in the pleasant Los Angeles suburb of Marina del Rey, and operating under the very loose supervision of the United States Department of Commerce. But that obscurity is about to end, says this article in the United Kingdom's Independent newspaper, which explains the battle over internet governance set to take centre stage in Tunis at the World Summit on the Information Society.

Richard Heeks, from the Development Informatics Group, University of Manchester, UK, has written an article about ICTs and the Millennium Development Goals. He writes: "The purpose of this article is to prompt some questioning of current "e-development" priorities. We have too readily assumed the Millennium Development Goals must be the priority for application of ICTs. Yet the MDGs themselves can be challenged, as can the relevance of applying ICTs to those goals. This article will argue that we ought at least to be considering some different priorities if we want to make most effective use of the opportunities that new technology affords."

This Civicus toolkit deals with planning and researching a funding proposal before you write it; how to write the proposal; and the follow-up required once it is written and sent off. There is also an example of a funding proposal to guide you. You will find advice on what you need to know about donors, and what you need to know about your own project or organisation before you write a funding proposal. You will also find guidelines on what to put into your proposal and how to write it, and references to other CIVICUS toolkits that can help you.

Prosecutors in South Africa have charged two subsidiaries of the French arms company Thales with corruption. The charges, denied by the firms, were included in the indictment against the former deputy president, Jacob Zuma, due to go on trial next year. Mr Zuma has been formally indicted for corruption in connection with a multi-billion dollar arms deal.

IFEX members in Africa are at the forefront of a new initiative aimed at improving the environment for freedom of expression and press freedom, and strengthening collaboration among free expression organisations on the continent. The Network of African Freedom of Expression Organisations (NAFEO) unites 33 African and international organisations under one umbrella to campaign against criminal defamation laws, promote access to information and media pluralism, and monitor attacks on journalists and media outlets. Launched at a conference in Accra, Ghana, which took place from 28 to 30 October 2005, the new network will put in place a rapid response mechanism to deal with crises that seriously affect free expression in Africa.