Determined to ensure compliance with the Sharia practice in Bauchi, the stat Sharia Consultative Council has placed an embargo on condom advertisements on the state-owned electronic media, saying such adverts promote and encourage immorality, and expose youth to unwholesome acts. The Council also urged the government to ban "immoral films" aired on the government-owned television station, arguing that such films apart from promoting promiscuity were against the tenets of the Sharia Legal System being operated in the state.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by reports that a correspondent for the private daily L'Inter has gone missing from the rebel-held town of Bouake after receiving threats from rebels. Before disappearing on August 28th, Amadou Dagnogo told his editor he received threats from rebels loyal to Guillaume Soro, leader of the Forces Nouvelles (FN) that control Bouake. Dagnogo wrote articles about a split in the rebel movement and alleged atrocities by Soro's men.

Deadline: 15 October 2004

"Transparency, good governance and democracy: Do ICTs increase accountability?" is the theme of this year’s prize. Four awards of $1,000 each will be made for the best journalism on this topic produced by journalists in developing and transition countries. Print, radio, TV and web journalism are all eligible.

At a meeting called by the Ministry of Information on 28 September 2004 in Addis Ababa, the International Press Institute, the World Press Freedom Committee, Article 19 and the Media Institute of Southern Africa voiced concerns that provisions in the draft press law posed a threat to press freedom. The Ethiopian government has said that it would be willing to consider the idea of a voluntary, self-regulating press council instead of a state-run body, and to ensure that provisions on the protection of journalists' sources would meet international standards.

Deadline: 5 November, 2004
Small, friendly, NGO helping African artisans through project partners in 6 African countries seeks Fundraiser with practical knowledge of basic technology and rural development. Salary £19,516 plus 10% non-contributory pension. 25 days holiday. Located close to Southampton in southern Hampshire, UK. The Fundraiser will: Research new sources of funding to enlarge the donor base; Develop projects with partners and write funding proposals; Develop projects to support our UK activities; Enjoy working with all kinds of people, from UK volunteers to African artisans; Spend up to 8 weeks per year working with partners in Africa. To apply: contact Polly Read, TFSR, Netley Marsh, Southampton SO40 7GY.Tel: 02380-869697. Interviews in week starting 22 November.

For the last three weeks, Zimbabwean authorities have raided scores of farms in once-productive white commercial farming areas, evicting settlers and burning down their homes. The settlers are said to have invaded the land under President Robert Mugabe's land grab scheme in 2000. The mass evictions are seen as a dramatic reversal of the government's land reform policy, denounced internationally as violent, illegal and chaotic.

The eviction of pastoralists from the Teso wetlands started yesterday and it was spearheaded by the local leaders, the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and security agencies. The two-week deadline given to the pastoralists to vacate the wetlands expired on Monday. The eviction started concurrently in Agu in Kumi district, Gweri sub-county in Soroti and Apujan in Katakwi district.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police is running re-orientation courses in which officers are taught about the ill-treatment of blacks by whites including the killing by British settlers of Zimbabwe's 19th century spirit medium, Nehanda. Sources said the courses were meant to prepare the law enforcement agency for the crucial general election scheduled for March 2005, but have been criticized as being highly political and apparently meant to drive a wedge between the police and anyone who did not support the ruling Zanu PF party and government.

African lobby groups, as well as community and independent media, are using free software and the internet to fight a lack of money and skills. The internet had also helped overcome the problems associated with widely dispersed audiences and, in some countries, government crackdowns on freedom of expression, speakers told the Highway Africa 2004 conference in Grahamstown last week.

Twenty-eight Internet fraudsters have been arrested in Lagos, in joint operations between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the FBI.Also, USD3.5 million (N490 million) was recovered in fraudulent cashier cheques and goods bought over the Internet and shipped to Nigeria by credit card scammers.

Google search engine already supports more than 104 languages or dialects while offering a personalized version of its engine for over 90 countries and it has just added one more country to that list. Google-Kenya available in English and Kiswahili with a Kenya-specific search function is now available at www.google.co.ke

Deadline: 31 October 20004. Journalists from any country are invited to apply for the 2004 Lorenzo Natali Prize for Journalism, which recognizes outstanding reporting on human rights and democracy in the developing world. Applications can be submitted online http://www.nataliprize.info/inscription.php.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has condemned a 24 September 2004 attack on two alternative newspapers, the "Weekly Citizen" and "The Independent", in Nairobi. The newspapers were attacked by a gang of masked gunmen claiming to be police officers who ransacked the papers' offices, confiscated material and threatened staff.

A pilot survey was conducted in Armenia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Peru and South Africa, monitoring freedom of information to test the limits of government transparency. The survey was released by the Open Society Justice Initiative on September 28, designated "Right to Know Day" by global Freedom Of Information groups.

The arrests of two senior Burundi trade union leaders on 24th September 2004, closely followed the leaders' address before workers during which they reportedly criticised government plans to submit a new draft constitution to a national referendum. This led the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) to address the country's President to urge for their immediate and unconditional release.

The Zimbabwe government has continued a campaign against "illegal" settlers on former commercial farms with the eviction of about 200 families from a property 10 km north of Bulawayo, the country's second city. The government has defended its actions, saying it had warned the settlers against erecting permanent structures on the farms they had occupied under the land redistribution programme. It pointed out that a rationalisation exercise was needed, as many did not have the skills to exploit the potential of the commercial farms they had taken over.

The Freedom of Expression Institute's (FXI) annual report will be presented on 30 September, alerting the European Union to a new "state of emergency" in South Africa in which censorship is on the rise. This led the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) to express deep concerns over this "creeping censorship" of media and the emergence of direct pressures against journalists which threaten editorial independence and protection of sources.

Editor Vincent Kahiya, reporter Augustine Mukaro, and General Manager Raphael Khumalo of the weekly Zimbabwe Independent were arrested and charged under Zimbabwe's repressive media law on September 23rd and told to report back to police next Tuesday for a court appearance. The charges stem from an article on why judgment has been postponed in the treason trial of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

RSF has condemned a 22 September 2004 raid by militiamen on a local FM radio station in Mogadishu, in which a security guard was roughed up and a journalist was threatened and detained. The operation was ordered by a local Islamic court, after being prompted by a dispute between two businessmen.

The struggle against discrimination has two decisive allies or enemies: education and the media, the Holy See pointed out when addressing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) at the conference in Brussels on tolerance and the struggle against racism, xenophobia, and discrimination.