A Kinshasa-based organisation has protested against the harassment of journalists at a May 17 public rally attended by President Joseph Kabila. Journalists at the event are alleged to have received death threats.

The chairman of the Media and Information Commission (MIC), Tafataona Mahoso, has demanded that journalists recruited by the privately owned Daily News newspaper two weeks ago must surrender accreditation cards issued to them by the MIC.

For the first time, Kenya has not featured on a list of countries considered hostile to journalists, issued to coincide with World Press Freedom day last month. No journalist has been killed nor imprisoned over the past year. But some media experts think these changes are superficially rooted in the recent political transformations in the country since last year's change of government. They see no legal backing for press freedom as such.

From Balancing Act News Update (http://www.balancingact-africa.com)

A recently approved project, allocating US$95,000 from the ICT Trust Fund, opts to strengthen the capacity to prepare a National ICT Policy in Lesotho. According to those setting up the project: "It is a major step towards developing ICT for development assistance in Lesotho, a country eager to address the growing digital divide".

On World Press Freedom Day the Committee to Protect Journalists named Zimbabwe one of the worst places in the world to go about the daily business of being a journalist. And on May 2, Amnesty International released ‘Zimbabwe/Rights Under Siege’, a long, extensively documented report—largely ignored by the American print, broadcast, and cable television media. This report stated: "State repression of the media has never been worse. Prior to independence, the media was strictly controlled by the [white] government of Ian Smith through the use of restrictive legislation to defeat the nationalist movement…However, the past three years have seen a sharp escalation in the government's hostility towards the independent media…”

The practice of supplying second-hand computers to Africa can prove to be an expensive mistake, according to a UK report. The UK Centre of International Education has said that Western organisations trying to bridge the "digital divide" are having some unfortunate consequences for teaching.

Women journalists from Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe have launched a monthly e-zine called Africa Woman. The aim of this online magazine is to give African women the means to take their future into their own hands and to become major players throughout Africa. It is also aimed at promoting the main contributions women have made to the continent.

The "ICT and Civil Society in Africa" reports were commissioned by APC to explore the role of local civil society organisations (CSOs) in developing and strengthening ICT policy-making at a national level in Africa. You can read and download these and other country reports from the APC Africa ICT Policy Monitor Website. (Source: Chakula: Africa ICT Policy Monitor newsletter, [email protected])

A senior police officer has denied knowledge of claims by the State’s principal witness in the treason trial of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, that the British government and the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were involved in the alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. Assistant Police Commissioner Moses Magandi told the High Court that the first time he learnt of the purported British and CIA involvement in the alleged assassination plot was when he read about the allegations in the Press.

CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights has condemned the continued and systematic harassment of both Zimbabwean and foreign journalists by the Zimbabwean government. In a press statement, the organisations Coordinator Rotimi Sankore stated “the recent attempts by the Zimbabwean immigration authorities to arrest the Zimbabwe correspondent of the UK Guardian Andrew Meldrum is the latest development in a systematic campaign to intimidate the media into not reporting the harsh realities of present day Zimbabwe. The attempted arrests are clearly aimed at facilitating the illegal deportation of Mr Meldrum who has lived in Zimbabwe for 22 years and was acquitted last year by a Zimbabwean court of allegations he reported false information about Zimbabwe.”

The Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) website has been selected as winner of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) Media Award in the IICD - Local Content category. The IICD Award on Local Content Applications aimed to "recognize users of innovative or pioneering applications of ICTs to local content defined as 'the expression of the locally owned and adapted knowledge of a community' in Africa. Applications can be from any sector and use of any medium with a demonstrated link with ICTs that provide opportunities for local people to interact and communicate with each other, expressing their own ideas, knowledge and culture in their own languages."

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC), with the support of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO), is planning a training course on "ICT Policy for Civil Society" in Kampala, June 16-19. The objective of the course is to build the capacity of civil society organisations to understand policy on information and communications technology (ICT) issues so that they become confident enough to critique and influence ICT policy processes in their own countries and at regional level. This course will be followed by a public meeting on June 20 on ICT and Development.

The Human Rights Trust of Southern Africa (SAHRIT) is organising a course to bring pertinent economic, social and cultural rights issues to the fore. It will be an opportunity for participants from the different backgrounds and countries of Southern Africa to share information and experiences. At the same time study visits will be carried out and presentations and panel discussions by different regional and international experts will be conducted. The course is intended for professionals, researchers, activists, defenders and trainers to broaden their knowledge and further develop their human rights expertise about the substantive and institutional aspects of the promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural rights at national, regional and international levels.

Five charities in South Africa are set to benefit from donations using short message service technology (SMS) on cellphones. People donate by sending a premium-rated SMS that costs R10, compared to a normal rate of a few cents. The proceeds from the initiative that runs until 31 July will be collected by Supersport Charity Challenge and distributed to Cotlands Baby Sanctuary, the CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation, the Red Cross, Reach for a Dream Foundation and the Ithemba Trust. To ensure people's participation, those who donate using SMS technology will be entered into a draw to win a car.

Karti News is released every two weeks and contains the latest news and information about Somalia, Somaliland and the Horn of Africa. The newsletter has sections on the peace process taking place in Kenya, human rights, health and education, women and gender and civil society. Karti News forms part of a project whose overall objectives is the achievement of permanent respect for human rights, justice through rule of law, pluralism, good governance and sustainable peace in Somalia and Somaliland. To subscribe, send an e-mail to [email protected] with only the word 'subscribe' in the subject or body of the message.

The World Association of Newspapers has written to the authorities in Djibouti voicing "serious concern" at the detention of journalist Daher Ahmed Farah and the seizure of his newspaper. According to reports, Mr Farah, editor of the newspaper Le Renouveau and leader of the opposition Mouvement pour le renouveau démocratique, was arrested on 20 April. Mr Farah was placed in solitary confinement at Gabode prison after his arrest and only his mother has been allowed to visit him.

Community media provide a vital alternative to the profit-oriented agenda of corporate media. They are driven by social objectives rather than the private, profit motive. They empower people rather than treat them as passive consumers, and they nurture local knowledge rather than replace it with standard solutions. Ownership and control of community media is rooted in, and responsible to, the communities they serve. And they are committed to human rights, social justice, the environment and sustainable approaches to development.

A Group of youthful journalists concerned with the unabated spread of HIV/AIDS in the country has come together and formed an association. The Association of Journalists Against AIDS in Tanzania (AJAAT) has 13 founder members, all in their twenties and early thirties, and was registered by the Registrar of Societies on March 24 this year.

The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) has welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down clauses in the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) that criminalized the publication of falsehoods as unconstitutional. "This indeed, represents a measure of success for those fighting to protect Zimbabweans’ gravely threatened rights to freedom of expression and opinion," the organisation said. However, the MMPZ warned that the victory was likely to be short-lived. "AIPPA contains many other repressive clauses that are unlikely to survive a test of constitutional scrutiny and while some of these are being challenged by media organisations, government already has tabled amendments to the Act, including those sections that have just been struck down, which will reverse the gains of this court action, assuming they are passed by Parliament."

Zimbabwean-based online resistance organisation Zvakwana reports that its activists are pleased to see that creative persons are embarking on their own protest initiatives. This is an example of an SMS recently received: "When you feel nobody loves you, nobody cares and everyone is ignoring you: Ask yourself, "am I Zanu PF"."