This handbook was written to support journalists - especially freelancers and stringers - who report stories with human rights or humanitarian components, and who must work fast, seek accuracy, keep their costs low, and work all or much of the time without Email or Internet access. It's divided up to get you to what you may be looking for quickly, and has been bound to lie flat when it's open.

Non-Profit Resource Training invites registrations for the
following workshops to be held in Cape Town.
* 13 - 15 May: Creative and Constructive Approaches to Conflict.
* 28 & 29 May: How to Write the Winning Funding Proposal.
* Inquiries: (021) 685 7726 or email: [email protected]

On 14 April 2003, Ato Melese Gessit, the former editor-in-chief of "Gemoraw" newspaper, was fined 11,000 Ethiopian birr (approx. US$1,300) by the Third Criminal Bench of the Federal High Court. He is accused of violating Articles 10(1) and 20(1) of Press Proclamation No. 34/85 and Articles 480(b) and 580(1) of the Penal Code. Melese was charged with publishing and disseminating three contentious articles.

Richard Malango, a cameraman with the Kinshasa-based private television station Tropicana TV, was arrested on 23 April 2003, in the morning. The cameraman was detained by officers from the Congolese National Police's Special Services branch, while filming a demonstration by activists of the opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress party (Union pour la démocratie et le progrès social, UDPS) at Kinshasa/Gombe's central train station square.

The World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 100 countries, has written to President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo to voice serious concern at the continuing detention without trial of journalist Sylvestre Djahlin Nicoué. According to reports, Mr Nicoué, managing editor of the weekly newspaper Le Courrier du citoyen, has been held at Lomé Civil Prison since 26 December 2002, when he was arrested by Criminal Investigation Department agents.

If the African Century is to have meaning beyond political rhetoric, many governments in Africa need to be pro-active in removing barriers to the rapid socio-economic progress that is possible through harnessing the power of information and communications technologies (ICTs).

The quarterly newsletter is one of the building blocks of I-Network Uganda, a platform for sharing knowledge and information on applying ICTs for equitable national development. The other building blocks are a website (www.i-network.or.ug), monthly seminars, and lobbying and advocacy in the field of ICT for development. Our network has nodes or special interest groups, such as the Junior node; the Media node; the Techie (technical node - ICT gurus); and other nodes are being developed. I-Network envisions a Uganda where at least 50% of the people are able to equitably tap the socio-economical benefits of the information age through the use of ICTs. The core objective of I-Network Uganda is to catalyse equitable socio-economic development through the sharing of knowledge and experiences where ICT has stimulated development.

President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania has embarked on a campaign to improve government communication with the public and to enhance relations with the media, part of a broader commitment to good governance, openness and accountability.

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) has called for the resignation of the Rivers State Resident Electoral Commissioner, the arrest of those responsible for electoral abuses and an urgent review by all political stakeholders of the structural failings in Nigeria's electoral system. Mosop made the statement in reaction to the conduct of elections in Rivers State and the "repeated failure of INEC to meet even the minimum standards for conducting elections".

Human Strategies for Human Rights (HSHR) provides organisational capacity building, practical and technical skills training, and human rights education and information services to grassroots NGOs and human rights advocates working in developing and transition country environments. Visit their web site to find out more and to join their mailing list.

The Southern African Internet Forum participants called for liberalisation of the current African regulatory frameworks to encourage internet growth in the region. They also highlighted the need for strong user groups in the private sector and elsewhere to create an active groundswell of opinion that will help transform the pace of change for the sector. Russell Southwood reports on what people were saying at the Forum.

When the colonial conquest of South Africa was completed, many black communities suddenly found themselves defined as the property of white men who, through pieces of paper written by other white men, not only owned their land but the people, too. All companies that operated at the time benefited from the policy, including De Beers, which now wants to do an intellectual gymnastic routine and claim it never benefited from apartheid. The diamonds mined using the slave labour of the late 19th century until the not-so-distant past were actually blood diamonds, as now defined in terms of war-related sparkling stones.
Related Links:
* Mbeki awards one-off payments to apartheid victims
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=397639
* Apartheid suit aims at
chemical giants
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1347584,00.html

This Pan-African workshop will focus on using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support the education systems in Africa. It is expected that 250 participants from Ministries of Education, schoolnet organisations, development agencies and the ICT-related private sector companies will be participating.

I am such a Google addict that I hadn't done a Yahoo search in at least two years. So when I heard that Yahoo was trying to compete again by unveiling a new search interface and a bold new way to search, I was intrigued. Read about Yahoo's new search function at the www.poynter.org website.

The list available through the web link provided reflects the five best Web sites in 30 categories for 2003 as selected by members of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. These nominees exemplify the very best that the internet has to offer.

Cybercafes are springing up like mushrooms, despite the slow speed of the connections, according to Olivia Marsaud of Afrik.com. On a short visit to Tevragh Zeina, a district north of the capital Nouakchott she counted no less than 15 of them. Read the full report at http://www.balancingact-africa.com.

Canada has pledged US$8 million for innovative new technology research in Africa as part of its ambitious Connectivity Africa initiative. The pan-African programme, announced at the Acacia information technology conference at Kwa Maritane game lodge in North West, will give special emphasis on the development of practical applications for new hand-held, wireless computer and mobile telephone technology.

African journalists needed to become "embedded" among the African people and define themselves as activists of the African Renaissance, President Thabo Mbeki said on Saturday. Opening the first conference of African editors in South Africa, Mbeki said that South African journalists, who before the dawn of democracy knew little about Africa and its peoples, should learn about Africa so that they could relate stories about Africa to Africans.

Etienne Houessou, publication director of the newspaper Le Télégramme, and three of his colleagues were assaulted and detained by police officers on 1 April. Three journalists were arrested and taken to Cotonou's central police station. Houessou went to the police station a few hours later, where he too was beaten up and then detained.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has warned that press freedom in Cameroon has sharply deteriorated with the arrest of Haman Mana, editor of the country's only privately-owned daily newspaper, "Mutations", and the seizure of the paper's 14 April issue.