On 21 August 2002, Bright Sonani, a senior reporter for the "Malawi News", was assaulted by three unidentified men who accused him of writing stories that were critical of the government.

The 6th Highway Africa conference on Journalism and New Media in Africa came to a close in Johannesburg, South Africa last Friday, with the adoption of a charter articulating key priorities for ensuring the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the continent's development.

"Aid Workers Exchange" is an experimental weekly e-mail for knowledge sharing amongst field staff in humanitarian relief and international development. To subscribe write to [email protected] with the title "subscribe".

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has introduced the AISI Media Awards to encourage more informed coverage of the information society and ICT for development issues in Africa as part of the its AISI Outreach and Communication Programme. The AISI Media Awards is aimed at individual journalists and media institutions based in Africa that are “promoting journalism which contributes to a better understanding of the information society in Africa".

The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) has established a N360 million endowment fund for the creation of professional chairs in six Nigerian universities.

Three internet centres are to be established in underprivileged communities by Freedom International, an organisation launched by cousins Fidel and Richard Jonah to identify technology investment opportunities in Africa.

Africa Pulse, an open publishing portal for civil society communities in the SADC region, is set to provide civil society organisations with an easy-to-use online publishing platform during the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Editors in South Africa have employed a lawyer to look at grounds for a possible challenge against a media bill that is widely seen as taking away editorial independence and giving the government of President Thabo Mbeki control over the country's national public broadcaster.

A locally prominent Rwandan journalist, Yvonne Uwanyiligira, who fled her country, has surfaced in the Belgium capital, Brussels, and is seeking asylum.

The international press freedom watchdog Reporters sans frontieres (RSF) has protested against a proposed code that would expose media professionals in Togo to heavy penalties for defaming the head of state, other government officials and top civil servants.

WSSD listservers carrying information about the Summit include:
*http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csdlistserver.htm - UN Summit Secretariat listserver;
*http://iisd.ca/enb/2002summit-l.asp - International Institute for Sustainable Development's 2002 Summit list;
*http://www.worldsummit2002.org/ - Heinrich Boell's WSSD newsletter;
*http://lists.healthdev.net/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?join=earthsummit2002 - Stakeholder Forum's EarthSummit2002 list;
*http://earthsummit.open.ac.uk - Earth Summit for All features discussions on education for sustainable development.

Joseph Olenghankoy, president of the Forces of Innovation for Solidarity and Union (FONUS), a political party with disputed links to the government, has threatened to "break" the local media rights group Journalists in Danger (JED). He has also publicly criticised BBC correspondent Arnaud Zajtman for reporting JED's campaign to free jailed Achille Ekele N'Golyma, publisher of the satirical newspaper Pot-Pourri.

This year's theme is people-centred information and communications technology policy in Africa. The prize is open to civil society organizations, government institutions, educational organisations, community-based groups, networks, social movements and individuals anywhere in Africa.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says it is “extremely concerned” about the safety of Hassan Bility, editor-in-chief of The Analyst newspaper, which is based in Liberia's capital, Monrovia. He has been held incommunicado in state custody for almost two months.

fyuze is a free online news portal which you can use to customize your news reading. I've been trying it out for a week now, and am streaming headlines onto my version using rss feeds from various blogs, news sites and portals and search engines. Try it out - it's free! (Look for extra feeds on

"In his address before a packed house at the Open Source Convention, Lawrence Lessig challenges the open source audience to get more involved in the political process. Lawrence, a tireless advocate for open source, is a professor of law at Stanford Law School and the founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society. He is also the author of the best-selling book Code, and Other Laws of Cyberspace. Here is the complete transcript of Lawrence's keynote presentation made on July 24, 2002."

An email service designed to enable the rapid and efficient use of ICT's as a tool for Ghana's development has been launched. ICONNECT GHANA is a quarterly online, offline and email service knowledge vehicle.

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT), a member of the OMCT network, that the appeal to the District Chief of Justice in Darfour Province of 88 persons, including two children, who have been sentenced to the death penalty was rejected on 11 August. Please write to the authorities in Sudan urging them to repeal the death sentence and guarantee the safety of those involved.

In a 12 August 2002 letter to President Daniel arap Moi, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed outrage over the six-month jail sentence handed down to Njehu Gatabaki, opposition member of parliament and the publisher and editor-in-chief of "Finance" magazine. The case stems from a December 1997 report in "Finance", titled "Moi ordered Molo Massacre," alleging that the president was responsible for ethnic clashes that plagued parts of Rift Valley Province in the early 1990s.

RSF has called for an investigation into the death of freelance journalist Don Kulapani, who was killed on 8 August during a hold-up at a bar in the capital, Lilongwe.