As part of reforms to build investor confidence in Nigeria, the nation's envoys, as well as trained law enforcement agents, are to be co-opted into the war against e-mail scams. The e-mail scam is one method used to defraud victims by luring them with promises of business deals running into millions of Naira.

Emerging markets such as Africa and South America have created a lot of interest for international telecommunications companies that are trying to generate new revenues and recover from the slump that has affected businesses. These previously underserved markets are ready for a telecommunications boom and the mobile industry has already started reaping the benefits, as it constitutes approximately 50% of all communication in Africa.

The Eduplex Primary School in Pretoria, South Africa, has become the first school in Africa, and one of the first schools in the world, to be equipped with Automatic Frequency Synchronisation (AFS) technological devices, fixed into classrooms and assembly centres to assist learners with hearing problems.

The United Nations launched a Literacy Decade on 13 February 2003 with the mission of "Education for all" and the mottos "Literacy as freedom" & "Literacy for all: voice for all, learning for all." What does/will this all really mean in practice for multilingual societies & minority language communities? The goal of Multilingual_Literacy is to serve as a forum for discussion & exchange of information about literacy theory, practice, & policy in multilingual contexts worldwide during the Decade.

The African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS) is a Pan-African organisation, established in The Gambia in 1989. Since its inception, the Centre has been at the forefront in promoting and protecting human rights and democracy in Africa, through training, action-oriented research, publications and documentation. The Training Course on the Use of International Human Rights Procedures for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in Africa is one of the main tools of ACDHRS to promote the use of international human rights instruments to protect human rights in Africa.

The Ugandan army has hailed the killing of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) overall army commander, Yadin Tolbert Nyeko, as "one of the most significant victories against the LRA since the launch of Operation Iron Fist" in 2001. "This guy was army commander, so this is a big defeat for them. There are now only two above him – Vincent Otti and [Joseph] Kony himself. It weakens their morale. That's why they fought so hard to get his body back from us, but we repelled them," the spokesman of the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF), Maj Shaban Bantariza, told IRIN on Wednesday.
Related Link:
* The war that won't go away
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=39180

The Daily News, banned since September 12 2003, has reappeared on the streets. The popular daily paper is published by the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ). The reappearance of the paper follows a High Court order on 21 January ordering that the police leave the premises of the media house and also stop interfering with the operations of the newspaper group.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Justice last Sunday appointed a so-called "new Executive Committee" for the Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (EFJA). "The ministry's action is undemocratic and has no legal basis. We therefore urge international press institutions of which EFJA is a member, press organisations, human rights activists, professional associations, civic associations and concerned individuals to strongly condemn this action which contravenes EFJA members' legitimate rights," said the EFJA.

The unprecedented turmoil sweeping through the financial services sector following a stringent new monetary policy introduced by new Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono stole the attention of all Zimbabwe's media in the first days of the New Year. Indeed, the public too, impatiently awaited every new instalment of the spectacular scandals that have been tumbling into the public domain almost on a daily basis since Christmas. During the week January 5th to January 11th for example, the Press devoted 75 stories on the extraordinary events affecting the financial services sector, 40 of them in the government-controlled Press, according to research from the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe.

Could information communication technologies (ICTs) improve learning in rural Africa? When exposed to new technology, how do children, adults and teachers use it to represent their lives and opportunities?

An Ivory Coast policeman has pleaded not guilty to the murder of a French journalist in Abidjan last year. Sergeant Theodore Seri said he had struggled with Jean Helene but said the fatal shots had not come from his gun. Correspondents say the killing was a sign of anti-French feeling in Ivory Coast and fear the trial will again heighten tensions.

A distance-learning project developed by Fahamu for human rights organisations in Southern Africa has reached the finals of the Stockholm Challenge Award for 2003/2004. It was selected from among 900 applicants from 107 countries to be one of 24 finalists in the education category of the award. The project, 'Adilisha: Human Rights Capacity Building in Africa', was developed by Fahamu to strengthen the campaigning, advocacy and managerial capacity of human rights and advocacy organisations in Africa. This was done by providing distance-learning courses using CDROM based interactive materials that were facilitated by email and combined with regional face-to-face workshops.

Media Under Siege, a report on media coverage of the 2002 presidential and mayoral elections in Zimbabwe, begins with a paragraph discussing a propaganda manual used in 1994 by Rwandan media, now notorious for inciting genocide. The manual argued for an approach called “accusation in a mirror”, in which the enemy would be accused of carrying out acts that the accusers themselves were planning or executing. It is this “uncanny echo” that Media Under Siege begins with, and with the horror of Rwanda imprinted on the psyche of Africa, it is a chilling comparison. But this report does not set out to warn that Zimbabwe will become another Rwanda. Rather, and as laid out in the conclusion, it is a pointed warning to those working in the public media that their time will come.

The report concludes: “The evidence from the output of Zimpapers and ZBC points overwhelmingly to the existence of a deliberate campaign to disseminate lies with the aims of discrediting the political opposition and inciting violence against the MDC and its supporters…” It does go on to acknowledge that the prospect of journalists being charged is a distant one. “But it is important that the legal obligations and accountability of journalists be clearly understood.”

Media Under Siege is an in depth look at the media context of the 2002 elections and some of the major events covered by the media, including the victimisation of the Amani Trust, the alleged assassination plot against Robert Mugabe and some of the more outlandish conspiracy theories advanced in the public media. It talks through the pre-poll, poll and post-poll context in a format that compares how the public media covered issues in relation to the private media, and visa versa. Some of the statistics are astonishing and clearly indicate the vested interests of the media and the massive dived between the public media on one side and the private media on the other. For example, Radio Zimbabwe quoted a total of 304 official party voices of the contesting parties. Of these, Zanu-PF was quoted 258 times (85 percent), while the MDC was quoted 28 times (nine percent). And out of a total of 14 hours and 41 minutes and 30 seconds that ZBC television news bulletins devoted to the presidential elections campaign between December 2001 and March 2002, Zanu-PF’s candidate was granted a total of 13 hours 50 minutes and 30 seconds, or a little more than 94 percent.

This is not to say that the report is uncritical of the shortcomings in the coverage of events by the Daily News, and this is frequently pointed out. But the difference is that this is constructive criticism of mistakes carried out in the line of duty. In the case of the public media, criticism is more scathing. “Bad journalism was what Zimpapers and the ZBC did in the now distant past, when they at least aspired to practise journalism of some description. In the 2002 election campaign their business was not journalism at all. At its most benign it was to sow confusion; at its worst it was used as a tool to incite hatred and violence.”

This report might not be the glossiest publication you ever lay your hands on, but it is a gritty account of the media environment over the election period and will be of value to anyone with even a passing interest in the media. The report does not cover the subsequent closure of the Daily News, but this does not matter. Its indictment of the public media for its failure to fulfil its most basic journalistic responsibilities during the election period makes clear the huge hole that the closure of the Daily News has left in Zimbabwe.

Media Under Siege is published by the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe, an independent Trust that works to promote responsible journalism in Zimbabwe.
ISBN: 0-7974-2736-8
Contact Details:
15 Duthrie Avenue
Alexandra Park
Harare
Tel/Fax: 263 4 703 702
[email][email protected]
[email][email protected]

Disasters can happen anytime and anywhere. From fire and floods, to virus attacks, the only thing you can be sure of is that it will be a complete surprise. The most important thing you can do to minimize the impact is to have an emergency plan already in place so that critical data can quickly be restored and your business can be functional again as soon as possible.

Soul Beat Africa is a web-based initiative focusing specifically on sharing information about using communication for change and development in Africa. It is a space to share experiences, materials, strategic thinking and events, and to engage in discussion and debate. Through Soul Beat Africa, people and organisations are sharing information about how communication is being used to address such issues as HIV/AIDS, economic development, women's issues, youth, health, and the environment, to name only a few.

The Chairman of the government appointed Media and Information Commission, Dr Tafataona Mahoso, has threatened to take action against the Zimbabwe Independent and its editor Iden Wetherell over what he calls a “racist” letter to the editor that was published in the paper on January 2, 2004.

Preparations for the World Summit on the Information Society to be hosted by Tunisia in the year 2005, was the main topic of a recent special cabinet meeting chaired by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

IT Governance practitioners are scheduled to get together to discuss topical issues at the IT Governance Forum to be held at the VW Conference Centre in Midrand in Johannesburg on 28 and 29 January. An important area of discussion at the forum will deal with the local legislation pertaining to information technology.

"Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) is particularly concerned that these fresh arrests compromise the independence and entrenched freedoms of the press. ZLHR views the action by the police as a calculated and deliberate attempt to muzzle the independent media and deprive Zimbabweans from fully enjoying the right to freedom of expression. ZLHR is concerned that if such a tragic trend is to continue, it will be impossible for journalists to continue carrying out their mandate to keep the public informed. " - Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights statement on the arrest of independent journalists in Zimbabwe this week.

The Southern Africa Institute of Fundraising (SAIF) has released its schedule of fundraising and resource mobilisation programmes and short courses for 2004. Click on the link provided to find out more.