The highlights of the November issue of the Biowatch Bulletin include a GM update for South Africa and an article on building resilience through farmer exchanges and seed rituals. To read the full issue and to subscribe to future editions, please visit their website.

This week, former Ivory Coast ruler Laurent Gbagbo was extradited to the Hague to account for alleged human rights violations before the International Criminal Court. Justice appears to be slower in coming to rival fighters loyal to current President Alassane Ouattara. According to Committee to Protect Journalism research, Ouattara's forces have been involved in the deaths of two journalists, most recently Gilles Tutsi Murris Dabé.

ARTICLE 19 says it has analysed the provisions of the Draft Penal Code for Rwanda (Draft Penal Code) that engage the rights to freedom of expression and information, to assess their compatibility with international standards. 'With this focus, ARTICLE 19 finds the reviewed provisions to be fundamentally flawed and incompatible with Rwanda’s obligations under international law. The bill represents a significant regression in protections for the right to freedom of expression and information in Rwanda.'

National media coverage of Kenya’s invasion of Somalia all comes from a single source – the military, writes Henry Makori. No wonder there seems to be so little opposition to the war.

Standing across the street from the American embassy in Tel Aviv, more than 200 Eritrean asylum seekers chanted 'Yes to justice! Yes to humanity!', and demanded international intervention to stop torture camps in the Egyptian Sinai. Protests by African asylum seekers in Israel are growing, in the face of increasingly tough policies by the Israelis. 'We’re here to stop this torture and to call the world to be aware of this,' said Habtom Mehari, a 30-year- old Eritrean asylum seeker, at the rally on 25 November.

Three journalists have been arrested and detained in Abidjan prison on charges of 'incitement to theft, pillaging and destruction of public properties through the media'.

The Burundi Security Council has recommended that the president impose sanctions against media and civil society groups who made comments over September’s massacre in a Gatumban bar that claimed the lives of more than 39 people. 'We recommend the empowered authorities take remedial measures or sanctions against the media and civil society groups who violated the law,' said Major General Pontien Gaciyubwenge, the Burundian minister of defence.

Two journalists and an administrator for the opposition newspaper 'Notre Voie' have been held by police since they were arrested on 24 November for allegedly publishing false information on President Alassane Ouattara. A Media Foundation for West Africa correspondent reported that publisher César Etou and political desk chief Boga Sivori were arrested in connection with a 21 November article that claimed President Ouattara had acquired luxury Mercedes Benz cars for himself and members of his cabinet.

In Angola and Mozambique, if women are to improve their lives and escape poverty, they need to have access to quality literacy and education which are amongst others the key tools to participate in political, social and economic life. This Video Documentary shows an example of the work being done in the Female Literacy Angola and Mozambique Project- FELITAMO.

COSATU plans to challenge the draconian Protection of Information Bill in the Constitutional Court. The bill, dubbed the 'Secrecy Bill' by the media, was pushed through the National Assembly by an ANC majority on Tuesday last week despite widespread condemnation.

Rafael Marques de Morais reports that vice-minister Pedro Sebastião Teta has broken Angolan law by committing an act of illicit enrichment. But he is still a free man holding high public office, despite clear proof of his multi-million-dollar theft of public money.

South Africa's parliament passed legislation last week aimed at better protecting state secrets but the measure has been widely criticised for provisions that could help the government hide corruption. Reuters has a useful fact page that details the major provisions of the Protection of Information Bill.

This article explains why South Africa's controversial information bill, passed in the National Assembly last week, matters for a youth organisation working in townships to equip learners for tertiary education. 'The problem with the Information Bill (or at least one of the problems) is that it introduces a new barrier to creating the kind of community we long for in South Africa (and we’ve got more than enough barriers already). It makes it harder for us to be engaged active citizens even assuming that there may be some highly-specific pieces of information justifiably held by the state.'

The proposed law will criminalise investigative journalism and deny South Africans the means to hold their government accountable, says the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Burundi government officials should halt their intensifying pressure on journalists, Human Rights Watch said. In the last few weeks, journalists have been summonsed by state prosecuting authorities for questioning with increasing frequency in response to radio broadcasts implicating state agents in alleged human rights abuses. Senior government officials, including three ministers, have stepped up public warnings against the media in recent days, threatening them with legal action.

People ferry the wounded to hospital by motorcycle; a man in riot gear beats a crowd with what looks like a chair; a lifeless body is dragged out of the middle of a road; a morgue is filled with bodies. This amateur footage from pulsemedia.org shows protests between 19-22 November.

Journaliste en danger (JED) has expressed surprise over local authorities' decision to close, without warning, five community and faith-based radio stations in Kambove, located about 22 km from Likasi, the second largest city in Katanga province, southeastern DRC. Territorial administrator Brigitte Luta moved to close Radio Télé Jedidja (RTJ), Radio Fondation Thérèse Lukenge Kapuibwe, Radio Communautaire de Kapolowe, Radio Rocher du Salut and Radio Plein Evangile on 18 November on the orders of provincial media and communications chief Mulanya Ilunga after they were accused of failing to pay required broadcast licencing fees.

Dawit Kebede, managing editor of Awramba Times, one of Ethiopia's two remaining independent Amharic-language newspapers offering critical analysis of local politics, announced that he was forced to leave the country after he received a tip last week about alleged government plans to re-imprison him. Kebede also said that the paper was unlikely to continue publishing.

In what has ignited strong fears of nuclear resource transfer between Zimbabwe and Tehran, the nuclear-power pursuing nation, Iran, has stated that it intends to share technology and scientific resources and expertise with the nation of Zimbabwe. This was revealed by the the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi in Tehran.

Join New Tactics, Rising Voices, Indigenous Tweets, and other practitioners for an online dialogue on Using Citizen Media Tools to Promote Under-Represented Languages from 16-22 November 2011.