A fearless newspaper editor in Gambia has been selected as the winner of the 2005 CJFE International Press Freedom Awards. Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) has announced that it will honour Alagi Yorro Jallow of Gambia and Mykola Veresen of Ukraine at its awards dinner in Toronto on 1 November 2005, in recognition of the journalists' courage in defending press freedom. Jallow, the managing editor of the daily "Independent", was chosen for his courageous efforts to defend press freedom in Gambia, despite numerous obstacles

The law of sedition should be obsolete in democratic societies, warns ARTICLE 19, who supports the petition submitted last week to Uganda's Constitutional Court by journalist Andrew Mwenda which challenges the constitutionality of the country's sedition law. The law of sedition is the crime of speaking words against the state, its basic premise being that it is wrong to criticize public figures or institutions. Mwenda, Political Editor at the Daily Monitor, is currently on trial for using words with an intention of bringing "into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the person of the President, the government as by law established or the Constitution" during his live talk show "Tonight With Andrew Mwenda" on 93.3 KFM on August 10.

African governments are half-heartedly liberalising their telecom industries and will stymie investment and innovation in the world's fastest-growing markets unless they change their ways, industry experts said. Africa's cell phone industry is booming, with subscriber numbers expected to hit 100 million by the end of the year from 40 million in 2002, and is arguably the continent's biggest business success story since gold was discovered in the 19th century. But with less than one in 10 people owning a phone and much fewer surfing the web, the poorest continent still lags behind the rest of the world and experts say fully-fledged competition is crucial to bridge the gap.

Africa Source II will seek to foster the growth of FOSS expertise amongst technical support professionals working in Africa and facilitate knowledge sharing and exchange around successful implementation of FOSS. The aim of the event is to facilitate learning and exchange between these communities, in particular around the practical deployment of Free and Open Source Technologies. The intention is to move beyond conceptual discussions of the benefits of FOSS and technology in general, and to test out these ideas and focus on practical skill sharing between technology implementers in the region. The workshop will focus on learning by doing, rather than by listening.

EADI, the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes has launched a portal on insecurity and development called www.insecurityforum.org. This web portal is closely linked to the 11th EADI General Conference in Bonn, Germany from 21-24 September 2005, which took stock of the state of the art regarding issues related to insecurity and development.

The Resource Alliance and the Kenya Association of Fundraising Professionals are proud to announce that the 12th Eastern Africa Regional Fundraising Workshop will be held in Mombasa, Kenya, 6th - 9th December 2005. The Workshop offers an unparalleled opportunity to examine the latest techniques and strategies in resource mobilisation and to explore alternative trends and challenges in sustainability and capacity building.

"African journalists also expect from all WSIS stakeholders, active participation in the implementation of the Geneva Plan of Action, including paragraph 24 related to Media. This involves acting to create conditions conducive to increasing the availability and effective mobilisation of the necessary resources to finance the implementation of this specific part of the Plan of Action. This is of crucial need for the rapid and full integration of African media into the Information Society and the international media landscape."

This paper provides a brief overview of the Ethiopian telecommunications sector performance and findings of a e-usage study that analysed user demands for communication services. Adequate penetration of mobile phones, fixed lines and Internet or reduction in the gender gap cannot be achieved unless communication becomes cheaply and widely available throughout the country. The survey findings demonstrated low level of earnings that do not correspond to the current pricing of communication services, particularly for accessing to the Internet.

MTN and Thinta Thinta Telecoms (T3) have launched multimedia centres in two schools in the Ugu region in KwaZulu-Natal as part of the MTN Foundation's Schools Connectivity Programme. The programme aims to improve the quality of education and increase access to ICT in rural schools. The companies contributed R400 000 for the installation of 10 PCs, a three-in-one printer, scanner and copier, a GPRS modem, a video machine and satellite decoder and dish at both Inkosi Umdibaniso Comprehensive School and Bheki High School. Two teachers from each school were given IT training before the installation of the centres.

"Côte d'Ivoire Telecom wants to make the Internet accessible to everyone. The objective of our latest action is to allow the internet user to connect without fear. Whatever time they spend connected, from now on they will pay less," according to Bruno Koné, the company's D-G. This follows from the launch of ADSL Extra Large on 24 August. This service is currently available in the capital Abidjan but this month will become available in San Pédro et Yamoussoukro. In a usual uncompetitive twist, Koné said that this new service was incompatible with the service provided by Fidelis de Côte d'Ivoire, no doubt seeking to put off potential consumers from any offer that company might make.

Last week’s IFIP World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR) addressed 12 major goals within the framework of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. One of these was to develop ICT-based alternative educational delivery systems to achieve Education for All targets. “We recognise the importance of teachers in the dissemination of ICT knowledge and propose enhancing the ICT competence of teachers in the developing world through establishing innovative learning and knowledge communities of teachers and defining a professional development model to enhance ICT competence of teachers in order for them to utilise ICT in pedagogically meaningful ways. The project has two objectives. The first is to establish innovative learning and knowledge communities of teachers. The second is to establish a professional development model to enhance ICT competence of teachers in the SADC region in order for them to utilise ICT in pedagogically meaningful ways in schools and other educational institutions,” says this article.

The Daily Monitor's Political Editor, Mr Andrew Mwenda, on Thursday petitioned the Constitutional Court to declare the law of sedition null and void. In a petition filed through the Monitor Publications Limited's lawyers of Nangwala, Rezida and Co. &Advocates, Mwenda claims his criminal prosecution under Section 39 and 40 of the Penal Code Act (PCA) is inconsistence with Article 29 and 43 of the Constitution which prescribes the right to freedom of expression and press.

In Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), journalists who face legal harassment because of their reporting will now have the support of legal advocates, thanks to the efforts of Journaliste en danger (JED). The IFEX member has signed a partnership with a local law firm, MBuy-Mbiye, that will provide legal assistance to media outlets and journalists who otherwise lack the resources to defend themselves in court. The initiative is supported by UNESCO.

The latest Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) newsletter contains stories about the oil crisis, the famine in Niger, and information about training initiatives. To subscribe to the newsletter, email: [email protected] or visit www.uneca.org

Funders Online has compiled useful information and practical tips on how to research independent funders, how to package your project proposal and where to find additional information, both in print and online, on foundations and corporate funders, as well as on fund-raising.

This course aims to enhance the impact of development programmes by improving the accountability of development organisations. According to the organisers, the course will enable the development worker to: Link planning, monitoring, evaluation to learning and accountability; Explain concepts related to planning, monitoring and evaluation; Understand different types of monitoring including how to conduct impact monitoring and impact evaluation; Adapt and apply various participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation tools; and Design simple monitoring framework for projects and programmes.

Two initiatives aim at integrating the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the educational system in Burkina, a country that figures at the bottom of the UNDP classification scale. Global Teenager Project (GTP) is a programme set up in 1999 by the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD). The project brings the new information and communication technologies to the high and middle schools. Apart from this project, World Links, a World Bank programme, set up in Burkina in 1997, aims for better integration of the new ICTs in schools.

Kafanchan in northern Nigeria is an unlikely place for a digital renaissance. But a television program prominently telecast found people there not only "eager to join the information age, use computers and get on-line"but planning to do so in a rather unorthodox manner. APC member the Fantsuam Foundation is working on a revolutionary alternative computer, tailor made for the so-called "developing" world, that uses solar power.

The International Federation of Journalists has backed Somali journalists in their calls for the need to improve the security of media professionals in the country, according to an IFJ statement. During the opening of the 3rd General Assembly of the IFJ affiliate in Somalia, the Somali Journalists Network (SOJON) in Mogadishu, delegations from the Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP) of Somalia, Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia and the IFJ discussed the troubled media landscape of this divided country with over 170 SOJON members.

A recent conference by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) ended with a call to Southern African governments to stop furthering their political agendas through media control, according to a statement. The statement said government control stifles editorial independence and free, fair and objective reporting. The conference was held in Windhoek under the theme Media, Ethics and Professionalism: Towards an Ethical African Media.