Kenya’s government has halted the privatisation process of Telkom, its key asset. Despite widespread government corruption, a severe economic downturn, high crime and the lack of a clearly articulated ICT policy, Kenya has already become one of Africa’s larger middle league players in connectivity terms. But will things change and let real growth occur?, asks Russell Southwood after a recent visit.

The nomadic nature of many South African Internet users has sparked a boom in the use of free web-based e-mail services, a new research study reveals. According to "The Goldstuck Report: Web Free-Mail in South Africa", more than half a million free web-based e-mail accounts are in active use in this country.

Ask your questions here this week! The hosts of this event, Greg Beuthin (CompuMentor's Technology Consultant and TechSoup's Hardware guide), Joe Cancilla (TechSoup's Content Developer and Open Source guide), and Michael Schrecker (CompuMentor's Technology Consultant and Systems Administrator) will discuss the alternatives to the Windows operating system.

This web site is a blog (weblog) - one person's take on the proceedings of the Internet Corporation on Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). It features downloadable .mp3 files of meetings, etc. Visitors to the site may submit items, read commentary, link to other ICANN web sites and take part in online discussion.

This article in Linux Journal has some exciting new ideas for those interested in cheap, high-bandwidth internet connectivity: 'Here's a challenge for the practical hackers and entrepreneurs of the world: how do we make public wireless access ubiquitous, easy, and as free as speech, beer or both. Kevin Werbach has some ideas.'

The Electronic Small World Project seeks to map the social connections among people using email. Using the tools of social network analysis, we hope to construct the first images of the social topography (as opposed to the technical or physical topography) of the Internet. This social map will help us understand how information moves through society, how different types of people are connected, and how small the social world in which we live really is.

President Robert Mugabe's attempts to silence the independent media and foreign reporters are increasingly desperate and brutal. Here, Basildon Peta, one of five reporters recently branded as "terrorists'' by the government, describes for ZWNEWS the dangers, the harassment - and the determination.

On 28 November 2001, the government of Sudan lifted the previously enforced censorship from 12 of the country’s daily newspapers. Four newspapers; Alwan, AlRai Al Akher, Al-Watan and the Khartoum Monitor continue to be under heavy censorship.

On behalf of the International Federation of Journalists, the world's
largest journalists' group, I wish to protest most strongly over the accusation by a
spokesman of the Government of Zimbabwe, reported in The Herald on November 23rd, that a number of named journalists are supporting "terrorists" and that the government "would make no distinction between those that it considered to be terrorists and anyone who supported them."

Bombing radio and TV stations is a war crime. But the United States seems to keep doing it, reports Laura Flanders.

Large libel damages being made against Kenya newspapers could prevent the media from working effectively, say owners and journalists.

Members of the Lagos state security outfit- Rapid Response Squad (RRS) numbering about 50 yesterday stormed the premises of the Ikeja High Court, beat mercilessly three lawyers and assaulted 13 students of the Lagos State University for selling or buying a legal-biased, magazine - squib.

Independent journalists in Zimbabwe have vowed to fight the government's plans to control the media. Under proposed legislation, a new regime of licensing journalists would disqualify foreign reporters from working in the country.

Farmers have come under harsh criticism at the Land Tenure conference for allegedly using guerrilla tactics to dodge new laws and for evicting workers to sidestep legislation.

The first global website dedicated to both reporting on and discussing the role of science and technology in meeting the needs of developing countries will be launched in London on Monday, 3 December.

The overall aims are to discuss epidemiological design, analysis and interpretation, as well as the roles of quantitative and qualitative approaches in public health research.

Open Source leader proposes to provide software to every school district in the United States if Microsoft provides computing hardware for the 14,000 poorest school districts.