The South African government should urgently implement outstanding recommendations made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), say Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch in a briefing paper. "President Thabo Mbeki should use the opening of the 2003 parliamentary session to announce a program of reparations for victims and to renounce any possibility of a further amnesty," the organisations urged.

The Voice of America has launched a new radio program for Zimbabwe called Studio 7. The program is broadcast Monday to Friday from 7:30 to 8:00pm. Zimbabweans can listen to Studio 7 on medium wave at 909am or short-wave at 13600 or 17895. Studio 7 features balanced reporting on Zimbabwe and the region, as well as world and U.S. news. Sports, music, culture and health features are also part of Studio 7’s coverage of news, information and entertainment for Zimbabwe.

The Southern Africa Institute of Fundraising are pleased to announce a variety of Workshops & training courses to be held during February and March. Click on the link below for course information and contact details.

A Pan-African workshop focused on using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support the education systems in Africa will be held in Gaborone from 28 April to 2 May 2003. An estimated 250 participants will be participating.

Three media workers, two of them who work for the South African Broadcasting Corporation, were arrested on 7 February in Zimbabwe while covering a demonstration at the Nigerian High Commission.

The man convicted of being the leading figure behind the murder of Mozambique's prominent journalist Carlos Cardoso now declares that it was not the President's son that had ordered the assassination.

A journalist has told the BBC his stay in a notorious Liberian prison was like being in a torture camp. Hassan Bility said that during his detention he was electrocuted, his penis was attached to electrodes, he was blindfolded and beaten.

Press-freedom conditions in Tunisia were under the spotlight last week as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called on Tunisian authorities to release two journalists from prison.

A new online Zimbabwean publication has launched, reports http://www.balancingact-africa.com. The Zimbabwe Online Messenger is comprised of voluntary employees that also include professionals in journalism as well as editors. The purpose of the on-line paper is to keep Zimbabweans living abroad informed about events taking place in Zimbabwe. The on-line paper also provides links to other Zimbabwean newspapers.

Disturbed by the negative impact of the increasing wave of cyber crime on the image of the country, the Nigerian Government says it will put legislation in place to deter the culprits. Gabriel Ajayi, Director-General of the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) who disclosed this, said the government is drawing up a comprehensive plan that would make cyber crime on the internet unattractive to the perpetrators, reports http://www.balancingact-africa.com.

Part technology, part academia, Wikipedia is taking the open source idea to new levels with an online, collaborative encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute. (from the Tectonic Newsletter: email [email protected])

How can international NGOs (INGOs) use networking, learning and information systems to increase their development impact? What is the state of their systems for accessing and processing information? How could they become more successful in sharing and learning information?

The Coalition for the International Criminal Court is a network of well over 1,000 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) advocating for a fair, effective and independent International Criminal Court (ICC). If you are interested in keeping abreast of day-to-day developments pertaining to the ICC, you are invited to subscribe to the email list, [email protected]. To subscribe simply email [email protected].

UNESCO in collaboration with AMARC Africa is organising a pan-African symposium on Community Multimedia Centres from 12-17 June 2003 in Dakar, Senegal. The aim of this meeting is to find out more about how community radio stations across Africa are using ICTs in order to forge a strategy for larger-scale CMC development in Africa.

ERC-L is a monthly e-mail newsletter about new resources for human rights education and training on the web site of Human Rights Education Associates (HREA). HREA's Resource Centre consists of: a Library; a Forums section with various discussion lists related to human rights and human rights education; a Human Rights Education Links section; and a Databases section. To subscribe to ERC-L send an e-mail to: [email protected] with the following message: subscribe erc-l. Archives of previous newsletters can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/lists/erc-l/markup/maillist.php

This course is designed to meet the skills development needs of staff from human rights and development NGOs, government agencies, the judiciary, and other institutions with responsibility for information and documentation functions in Nigeria.

The course will introduce the international field of human rights education (HRE), including presentations of programming approaches, teaching and learning resources, and related theory. The course is intended for educators and trainers working in both the formal and non-formal sectors. Participants will be assisted in the development of a curriculum, training, or planning to use these skills to further their organisation's advocacy efforts.

Journalists of the Ethiopian free press, publishers and media professionals have issued a joint statement in protest against a new draft press law.

Sudanese authorities confiscated the Saturday edition of one of Sudan's oldest political daily newspapers, its editor said on Sunday. "We do not know why the paper was confiscated," Al-Sahafa editor Nur Elden Maddani told reporters.

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. Read more about community media at the web site provided.