First Lady Marcelina Chissano has denied intimidating any of the country's journalists, and has demanded that her "good name and right to privacy be respected." A letter sent by her lawyer, Augusto Macedo Pinto, to the independent weekly "Mediafax", and published on 1 November 2002, also stressed that the first lady wanted to see the case of the murder of Carlos Cardoso, the newspaper's founding editor, "resolved as rapidly as possible, and the guilty parties tried and sentenced." The letter, which made no explicit threat of legal action, was clearly in response to claims made a month ago that the first lady had sent mysterious gifts of live chickens to "Mediafax" editor Marcelo Mosse, Fernando Lima, chairman of the board of Mediacoop (the company that owns the newspaper), and Kok Nam, director of the Mediacoop weekly "Savana".

During the months of October, November, and December, ARISE will be holding a series of email based discussions on various ICT topics. These discussions will be held with the goal of utilizing our network of African professionals to discuss the key issues in building the Information Society in Africa and to produce an African Research Agenda for the Information Society.

On 12 October 2002, security forces barred five journalists from the "Times of Swaziland" and the "Swazi Observer" and a foreign freelance reporter from covering the proceedings of a prayer meeting organised by different political and social groups in Swaziland. The prayer meeting, termed Justice for Peace, was organised in memory of families that were evicted from the Macetjeni (south-eastern Swaziland) and KaMkhweli areas in October 2000.

A fun distraction for those who have a spare minute on the web. Take a look at this site, which extracts sentences with your keywords from Google search results.

A specially equipped bus is travelling around Mauritius, offering people in remoter areas an opportunity to experience the benefits of cyberspace.

Joseph Mwale, a member of Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organization, has declared Chimanimani, a plantation and farming region in eastern Zimbabwe, off limits to the private media. The move has forced a private company, Radar Holdings, to cancel a planned media tour.

DiscounTech, an online software store created by CompuMentor, provides discounted software solutions to non-profit organizations amid tough economic times. Many non-profits are able to purchase software such as Microsoft XP from DiscounTech at prices as low as $60, compared to the current retail price of $500.

South Africa's plans for e-Governance are well underway with the DPSA's "Project Gateway" due to be launched in June 2003.

Citizens of the island nation of Mauritius are hoping to develop new skills and participate in online communities thanks to innovative government efforts. The country seeks to benefit from a fiber optic cable that runs through Mauritius, primarily established to connect Europe and southern India.

In the context of limited financial resources, Africa should investigate how to better use the opportunities presented by the emergence of open source software, Public Service and Administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi has said.

The government-appointed Media and Information Commission is reported to have set 21 November 2002 as the last day by which journalists should have submitted application forms to be accredited under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The original deadline was 31 October 2002.

The forthcoming Insiza parliamentary by-election has been further exposing the media’s manifest failure to cover elections adequately. All media have been enmeshed in reporting the violent political rivalry between ZANU-PF and the MDC, at the expense of covering important electoral processes, says the Media Monitoring Project.

Zimbabwe's National AIDS Council will provide $7.8 million in funding for home-based care services for people with HIV/AIDS and children orphaned by the disease in 84 districts throughout the country.

There are many programmes that purport to support civil society, but it is less clear whether they actually do so. Drawing on our recent International Conference on this theme, this course will: Review the link between theoretical approaches to civil society and their practical programme outcomes; Review models of civil society strengthening; Explore the nature of capacity building in the context of civil society; Reflect upon the challenges of monitoring and evaluating such work.

Nathan Shamuyarira, the first information minister in the post-independent Zimbabwean government told journalists in Kadoma that if he were still running the media in the country he would have called for tougher pieces of legislation to regulate the media. Shamuyarira was responding to questions from journalists on whether or not it was necessary to have a repressive media law such as the Access to Information and the Protection of Privacy Act.

Speaker of the Malawi Parliament, Sam Mpasu, has directed the parliamentary committee on media and communications to investigate the circumstances surrounding the beating of Nation newspaper senior journalist, Gedion Munthali, by a ruling United Democratic Front MP.

In 2002, the Hafkin Prize recognises People-Centred Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Policy in Africa. The six policy initiatives that have reached the final shortlist are from Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The winner(s) will be announced at a technology policy and civil society workshop organized by APC, ARTICLE 19 and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia between November 6-10 2002.

Nigeria has rejected a verdict of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the disputed Bakassi Peninsula, declaring that the court failed to take fundamental facts into consideration in arriving at its decision. The court had awarded sovereignty over the Peninsula to Cameroon.

A Daily News crew covering a demonstration by secondary school students was detained in a Harare suburb. The crew of three, that included reporter, Henry Makiwa, photographer, Aaron Ufumeli and driver, Trust Maswela were arrested for "inciting students to protest".

A ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) MP beat up a journalist from The Nation newspaper who approached him for comment after the MP's constituents signed a petition opposing an amendment to Malawi's constitution that would allow President Bakili Muluzi to seek a third term in office.