ALIN Eastern Africa, an International NGO involved in information exchange activities among grassroots development workers in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia wishes to engage a long-term consultant. The position, based in Nairobi with regular travels in the countries of operation will report to the Regional Coordinator. S/he will join a team of knowledge workers and information specialists to achieve set objectives.

The Draft Press Proclamation tends to err on the side of control and regimentation, in particularly state control of expression; imposes detailed and intrusive conditions for licensing and endorses censorship of the worst kinds by empowering the courts to order the seizure of publications and other products of the media and to close down media houses. This is according to a critique of the Ethiopian Draft Press Proclamation by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MWFA).

The Internet is one of the most powerful agents of freedom. It exposes truth to those who wish to see and hear it. It is no wonder that some governments and organisations fear the Internet and its ability to make the truth known. The phrase "freedom of speech" is often used to characterize a key element of democratic societies: open communication and especially open government. But freedom of speech is less than half of the equation. It is also vital that citizens have the freedom to hear and see. It is the latter area in which many governments have intervened in an attempt to prevent citizens from gaining access to information that their governments wish to withhold from them. This report, available from Reporters without Borders, is about attitudes to the Internet by the powerful in 60 countries, between spring 2001 and spring 2003.

Tunisian cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui, jailed for two years for allegedly "putting out false news" on his Internet website TUNeZINE.com, has won the first Cyber-Freedom Prize awarded by Reporters s@ns frontières - Globenet for 2003. At least 51 cyber-dissidents are in prison around the world.

Journalists are facing a reign of terror in Liberia following recent rebel incursions into the capital Monrovia, says the International Federation of Journalists. Following the retreat by rebel forces of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy group terror has descended on the city, with attacks involving government forces. The IFJ says more than 25 journalists have been displaced by the fighting.

Three private media practitioners, Dimas Dzikodo (Editor) and Philipe Evégnon (Managing Director) of the L'Evénement newspaper, as well as Jean de Dieu Kpakpabia , a reporter with the Nouvel Echo weekly, were arrested and detained over the weekend in Lomé, capital of Togo. Dzikodo was first arrested on Saturday, June 14, 2003, from an internet café where he went to scan pictures of persons who had been assaulted and injured by state security personnel during the recent presidential elections held on June 1.

Things are getting a little worrying: junk email is getting intelligent. True, those pitches for all manner of products are just as crass as they ever were. But the techniques used to stuff the spam into your mailbox are getting smarter by the day.

Included in this edition: CIVICUS Secretary General’s Kumi Naidoo describes trade unions contributions to civil society and Civil Society Watch – the MDC and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. To subscribe or unsubscribe please email [email protected].

The Community Media Policy Research Unit has lobbied the communications regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), to allow low power radio broadcasting to broaden access to the airwaves. The Policy Research Unit is a joint initiative of the National Community Radio Forum and the Freedom of Expression Institute, and represented the views of both organisations at an Icasa public hearing on the matter.

The Internet is Eden for those who like to get news from anywhere from Albania to Zambia at any time. But paradise risks pollution by a gold rush of media companies seeking to control the digital information landscape, some media experts say. Media companies can now own more newspapers and TV and radio stations than ever, under a recent, controversial ruling by the Federal Communications Commission.

In an unprecedented legal manoeuvre, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has approached the judge president of the Cape High Court and offered to mediate in an eviction dispute involving about 3000 families. "The case relates to a number of important issues that include the implementation of socio-economic rights, in particular the rights to dignity and housing," said SAHRC Western Cape co-ordinator Ashraf Mahomed.

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The Congress of South African Trade Unions on Wednesday said that while the SABC's draft editorial policy was "full of excellent intentions and worthy ideals" there remained a huge gap between the course of action the public broadcaster had prescribed and what it was doing in its day-to-day broadcasts.

Dimas Dzikodo and Philip Evégnon, editor-in-chief and editor, respectively, of the private weekly "L'Evénement", as well as Colombo Kpakpabia, a journalist with the private weekly "Nouvel Echo", were arrested by police officers on 14 and 15 June 2003. They have since been detained and questioned at national police headquarters in the capital, Lome. The journalists have been accused of "distributing false news" with the intent of damaging the country's reputation.

Following the recent incursions into the capital, Monrovia, and subsequent retreat of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebels, residents of the Duala and New Kru Town suburbs have been subjected to a reign of terror. The attacks are allegedly being perpetrated primarily by government forces. Journalists and human rights activists in Monrovia have suffered the worst reprisals in what appears to be the targeted and systematic looting, arson and rape of residents caught up in the conflict.

For a wide variety of material on Africa, visit AFRICAFILES, a network of volunteers relaying African perspectives and alternative analyses for viable human development in the interest of justice and human rights.

The Media Monitoring Project has deplored the assault and harassment of journalists from the private media by ZANU-PF youths and state security agents during the MDC’s week-long mass action. "Such attacks terrorize those going about their lawful business and stifle the free flow of information and therefore undermine the foundations of democratic society," said the project in a weekly update on the situation in Zimbabwe.

The state has withdrawn charges against Norna Edwards, editor of "The Mirror", a weekly newspaper in the town of Masvingo, 293 kilometres south of the capital, Harare. Edwards and reporter Kennedy Murwira were facing charges of contravening Section 80 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

The Writers in Prison Committee says it is "deeply concerned" by the prolonged detention of Daher Ahmed Farah, the editor of the newspaper Le Renouveau and leader of the Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development (MRD). According to information received, Farah was detained on 20 April 2003 following the filing of a complaint against Le Renouveau by General Zakaria Cheik Ibrahim, the deputy head of the army.

Reporters Without Borders has deplored the arrest and beating by government supporters of radio journalists Shorai Katiwa and Martin Chimenya and called on the government to ensure the media could operate freely in Zimbabwe. The two reporters, of the pirate radio station Voice of the People (VOP), were seized on 2 June by war veterans and young supporters of President Robert Mugabe's African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) who interrogated them, took away their mobile phones and tape-recorders and beat them after accusing them of belonging to the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).