Each week in Pambazuka News carries stories about Media and Freedom of Expression. These tend to follow a predictable pattern: journalist arrested or killed, newspaper shut down, repressive laws hamper media freedom, state media displays appalling bias...

These are all important issues and they preoccupy African journalists and media freedom activists on a daily basis. Given the importance of a free flow of information in the struggle for social justice, these are things that concern broader sections of society too. But these are not the only significant issues that need to be addressed.

Who owns and controls the media in Africa? What is the impact of multinational media companies on Africa? What are the alternatives to the current choice between state-controlled media and media owned by private companies? What is the future of community media? Of alternative electronic media? Of book publishing?

Freedom of expression and freedom of information are important human rights because they provide a key to mobilising in defence of other rights. The Indian economist Amartya Sen has written that famine does not occur in countries with a free press. This is scarcely an exaggeration - the point being that the media act as a means of allowing information to flow and thereby holding governments to account.

Yet this classic "fourth estate" view of media freedom is looking distinctly tattered. In the United States, where the approach evolved, the private media have become concentrated into a small number of immensely powerful global media corporations, which have no interest in holding anyone to account. In Africa, the remnants of the old one-party media apparatuses are still going strong. Locally owned private media are emerging, but they too serve their own sectional interests.

In this issue, Richard Carver brings together articles that address these and other questions from a variety of different perspectives.

Ezekiel Lang'at vividly remembers the day in early June that a group of security guards and policemen stormed his home near Mau Forest in Narok District, southwestern Kenya. "This is not your farm - you have to leave," they ordered him before torching his houses. Lang'at is one of thousands of Kenyan families who have been left homeless following a government decision to evict them, without compensation, from farms allegedly carved out of the forest.

A Nigerian-born blogger living in Spain is giving a voice to African women and highlighting gay and lesbian issues on the continent. Online diaries, or weblogs, come in all shapes and sizes. Some are intensely personal; others are very political. Sokari Ekine's blog is both, and that is just the way she likes it.

The Equinet Newsletter is the newsletter of the Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa. The Newsletter is delivered by e-mail once a month. Visit to read the newsletter and for subscriptions.

There's no disputing that computer ownership in Kenya is on the increase. Even so, the path to ensuring that the majority of Kenyans are able to benefit from information and communication technology (ICT) is littered with obstacles - something that came to the fore during a conference held this week in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

The international NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) launched two separate reports on Monday, both criticising an Egyptian law that excessively regulates civil society and the activity of NGOs. "Freedom of association is a core political right. One cannot talk about democracy without being able to have an environment that allows people to come together in a free and unrestricted way," Joe Stork, Deputy Director of HRW's Middle East Division, said at a press conference in Cairo.

Zambian police are investigating charges of sedition and criminal libel against two journalists, raising concern that freedom of expression is under threat. Sipo Kapumba, a spokesman for the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia, told IRIN the police had summoned Fred M'membe, editor of the privately-owned The Post newspaper, on 29 June after a series of editorials critical of President Levy Mwanawasa's government.

Journalist Celso Amaral, the former director for the government-controlled national radio in the northern province of Huila, was arrested on a charge of mismanagement and has been languishing in jail for the last month. The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Angola learnt of Amaral's arrest when it undertook an information trip of some of Angola's regions at the end of June.

Security forces have harassed and detained several journalists covering opposition protests in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, according to local sources. A presidential spokesperson told the Committee to Protect Journalists that any journalists detained while doing their work would be released.

Zimbabwean journalists now risk spending 20 years in jail following the signing into law by President Robert Mugabe of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Bill which introduces stiffer penalties against the publication of falsehoods. The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Bill Chapter 9:23 which was passed by Parliament at the end of last year, was gazetted on 2 June 2005 after the President assented to it.

"We are writing on behalf of the International Press Institute (IPI) and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), to call for the repeal of Sierra Leone's seditious libel law under which Paul Kamara, editor of For Di People, is currently imprisoned. In October 2004, Mr Kamara, editor and publisher of the independent daily For Di People, was convicted on two counts of seditious libel for articles that appeared in his newspaper focusing on a 1967 Commission of Inquiry, which reportedly implicated you in the embezzlement of public funds."

The Ethiopian Government arrested four journalists on 28 June. The arrested journalists were Befekadu Moreda, Editor in-Chief of Tomar news paper; Zelalem Gebre, Menilik news paper; Dawit Fassil, Asqual news paper; and Tamrat Serbesa, Satenaw news paper.

This article evaluates the strategy of using mobile phones as a tool for promoting maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) in developing countries, using Egypt as a case study. Information presented in this article is based on a qualitative study conducted by the author in Minia Governorate, Egypt in 2002-2003, and uses a framework developed for the UK Partnership for Global Health and the Nuffield Trust in 2002 entitled "Integrating Information and Communication Technology to Improve Global Health: A Conceptual Framework".

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has launched a new development drive designed to bring access to information and communication technologies to the estimated one billion people worldwide who are still without access to a telephone. Called 'Connect the World', the initiative is designed to encourage new projects and partnerships to bridge the digital divide.

"Noting with grave concern the deepening humanitarian and human rights crisis in Zimbabwe, more than 200 African and international human rights and civic groups have come together to call on the African Union and the United Nations to take action. Over the past four weeks the Government of Zimbabwe has orchestrated the widespread forced eviction of tens of thousands of informal traders and families living in informal settlements. During these forced evictions homes have been burnt and property destroyed. Many individuals have been arbitrarily arrested, detained, fined, abducted and/or beaten. Such actions continue unabated, and with impunity."

The African Progressive Librarian and Information Activists’ Group (PALIAct) is an initiative of a group of progressive African librarians and information workers. We recognise that current “leaders” in the African information field have done little to break the colonial and imperialist policies and practices in meeting the information needs of working people in Africa, or to make the profession more relevant to the needs of African librarians and information workers. We have therefore decided to take the initiative to set up an alternative organisation – the Progressive African Library and Information Activists’ Group - PALIAct.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent organization of journalists dedicated to defending press freedom around the world, has written to the Libyan authorities to express its shock and grave concern about the apparent murder of Libyan journalist Dayf al-Ghazal al-Shuhaibi, a former journalist for the government-owned daily Azahf al-Akhdar and contributor to the London-based Web sites Libya Alyoum and Libya Jeel. Al-Ghazal's body was found in Benghazi, his hometown, on or about June 2 after he went missing from his home on May 21, according to several sources. Justice Minister Ali Hasnaoui said al-Ghazal was shot in the head and the death was being investigated as a murder, according to international press reports.

Reporters Without Borders has launched an Africa-wide radio appeal in connection with the murder of prominent journalist Deyda Hydara, which it said Gambia's government has "spent the last six months trying to hush up". Hydara was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Banjul on the evening of 16 December 2004 while at the wheel of his car. Six months after his murder, on 16 June 2005, the organisation called on radios across Africa to broadcast a 30-second spot featuring the voice of his son, Baba Hydara.

An open source calendar server for schools has been released. With SchoolTool Calendar, a school can create web-based calendars and timetables for each student and teacher, as well as each class, team or other group within the school. SchoolTool also helps coordinate the reservation of shared resources such as rooms and projectors.

I truly thank you for sharing this news, even though most times it breaks my heart to read it, but the truth must be told.