Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrest and conscription into the Eritrean army of the local correspondent of the radio station Voice of America (VOA) and called for the immediate release of him and 18 other jailed media workers in the country, which it said was "Africa's biggest prison for journalists."

In what could pass as a face-saving move, President Bakili Muluzi has condemned as "unfortunate" the beating of Daniel Nyirenda, a photojournalist with "The Nation" newspaper, by youths belonging to Muluzi's ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) party.

The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) has noted with concern the manner in which journalists controlling Zimbabwe’s media have apparently normalised the grinding socio-economic hardships in the country to the extent that they no longer consider these stories of great news value. As a result, investigative news about the real effects of inflation on the public; transport problems; the alarming collapse of the health delivery system; and rampant corruption in all sectors of Zimbabwean society have either been given scant attention or ignored altogether, says the organisation.

SNA ENEWSSchoolNetAfrica E-News is an e-mail service aimed at people interested in education through information and communication technologies (ICTs) in African schools. The latest edition contains information on a project called 'From Guns to Computers', an executive summary of ICT's in African Schools, information about a regional workshop on teacher training and more.

The Simputer - a cheap, pocket-sized computing device designed for use by rural populations in India - has been hailed as a breakthrough in bringing the world of computing to the poor. But with delays in production, escalating development costs and a dearth of buyers, can this idealistic project ever be pulled off?

The FOSSFA database is a repository of information about people, projects and organisations working on Free and Open Source Software in Africa.

The cost of a computing device is one of the significant barriers holding back the use of ICT uptake in Africa, whether for personal, corporate or government use. Devices like the simputer have yet to make a significant dent on this barrier. However there are a number of experiments with PDAs that offer tantalising clues to ways in which it might be broken. Visit the Balancing Act web site for the full story.

ICONNECT GHANA is a quarterly online, offline and e-mail knowledge service designed to enable the use of ICTs as a tool for Ghana's development.

The remarkable information technology advances have created vast new opportunities, yet they have also generated 'new divides' between rich and poor," UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said last week at a meeting of information and broadcasting ministers in Bangkok. The widening digital divide has led the UN to call the first-ever World Summit on the Information Society this December, bringing together political, private sector, civil society and media leaders to spread the benefits of the digital revolution and promote "inclusive digitalization."

The annual Highway Africa new media conference will run this year in Grahamstown from 8 - 10 September 2003. This year's theme is Mainstreaming Media in the Information Society and the three-day conference will include discussions, debates, training workshops and evening entertainment. Please visit www.highwayafrica.org.za for more details.

Global technology group Dimension Data has announced that it will help Grahamstown's St Raphael Centre for the care of people with HIV/AIDS to achieve its goal of raising R1 million.

Produced twice a year by Book Aid International, this newsletter aims to help strengthen links between librarians, publishers and booksellers. It provides a forum for debating relevant topics and includes regular features on key ICT issues, as well as showcasing relevant websites and e-mail addresses. To join the mailing list, please contact the Editor at [email protected]

We are pleased to announce that the Pambazuka News database is now available on line. More than 15,000 news items, editorials, letters, reviews, etc that have appeared in Pambazuka News during the two years are now available in an easily accessible website. We hope that this information will be of value to activists, researchers, academics, journalists and others. We will be looking at ways to improve the website, so your comments are welcome. The website has been developed by Fahamu.

Fundraising from Europe is much more than just obtaining funds from the European Union. It also means fundraising from the 370+ million individuals, thousands of companies and trusts and foundations. This book will help you fund raise from the latter three sources. The European fundraising market turns over £200 billion each year. It includes some of the world’s largest foundations, headquarters of many of the world’s leading businesses and one-third of the wealth held by the world’s high net worth individuals. This book shows you how to successfully access these funds using case studies and providing facts and figures from the extensive and valuable European scene.

Namibia's oldest political party, the South West Africa National Union, has bemoaned what it says is a rise in censorship and sectarianism in the local media, particularly those controlled by the State. Launching its website in Windhoek, the party accused the media of practising "prostituted journalism", aimed at the ideological indoctrination of the Namibian masses.

Editors from private media houses have met to discuss political violence against journalists. The meeting held under the auspices of the media watchdog the National Media Institute of Southern Africa was convened to review the state of the media environment in the wake of the beating up of "The Nation" journalist, Daniel Nyirenda.

This blog collects knowledge on the world of non-government organisations (NGOs). A specific theme is to improve the world by mapping the NGO world.

In the latest issue, CIVICUS looks into education and civil society, including: Universal Primary Education in Uganda and Pakistan; Save the Children refurbishes schools in Zimbabwe; Gender disparity in education. To subscribe email [email protected]

The Sunday Independent tells the shocking story of the gang-rape of five months old Thandiwe and how it led her foster mother, Claudia Ford, to establish the Princess Trust. First on the list of trust beneficiaries are Women and Men Against Child Abuse and the Child Protection Unit.

Two local seed companies are considering entering the legal fray over local nongovernmental organisation Biowatch's longrunning battle to get government's information on genetically modified crops. Biowatch launched a high court application last September to compel government to give it a list of all the genetically modified crops grown in SA, the locations of field trials, and information on the risk assessments on the basis of which government had granted permits for the crops.