Journalists from Bangladesh, Kenya and elsewhere around the world discussed: "Are the New Media Good for Democracy?" at a recent forum and found they shared doubts. Their presentations and conclusions are now available online.

A new website with green news and opinion updated daily. If you like the site, you might like to subscribe to receive a weekly summary by e-mail, which lets you keep in touch with the Green movement without surfing for hours or getting your in-box jammed with mail.

The banning of a live current affairs radio phone-in discussion forum in the week served to underline government’s apparent determination to stifle all independent sources of information and opinion in the media and reinforced fears that renewed threats to curb “unprofessional practices and misconduct by the oppositional Press” will see the introduction of further repressive media legislation.

On Tuesday 17 July 2001, Joseph Mutambule, Joachim Diana Gikupa, Kipela Mondo and Mireille Kavungu, deputy director-general, publication director, principal editor-in-chief and management secretary, respectively, from the pro-government daily "L'Avenir", were summoned to the Public Prosecutor's Office's Criminal Investigation Department (Police judiciaire des parquets, PJP) in Kinshasa / Gombe.

Middle Belt indigenes, under the aegis of "Joint Action Commit-tee on the Middle-Belt" (JACOMB) has petitioned the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa Commission probing human rights violations in the country over alleged human rights infractions of their people claiming N 20 trillion as compensation.

L'IPAO oeuvre, dans le domaine de la communication et de l'information, à la construction d'une culture de la démocratie, de la citoyenneté et de la paix.

Does a scientist - or anybody else, for that matter - have the right to patent the ability to make, sell and use a gene or genetic discoveries? This article in Scientific American discusses this issue in an interview with John J Doll, Director of Biotechnology at the US Patent and Trademark Office. The article is brief and outlines the basics of what genetic patenting is all about.

Schools Online has an interesting selection of resources which are appropriate for many organizations in developed and developing countries, not just schools. Take a look at the recently posted introductory guide to Internet connectivity, aimed at school principals who don't have much technical background but who might need to make a decision about getting an Internet connection. They are in pdf (Acrobat) format. Other technical guides include one on 'Internet Learning Center Technical Specifications' and the 'Internet Learning Center Model'. (Note: there are no prices associated with the technologies because of the variables in all of our countries: shipping, licenses, corruption, profit margin, competition, and degree of technical support.)

The UNDP has declared South Africa 39th in their list of hubs of technological development over the globe. The importance of being able to skip over certain developmental stages was emphasised by Rob Adam of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. However, he also emphasised that the government needs to be aware of the potential of technology as a tool for devvelopment. In addition, the importance of encouraging tertiary studies in technical and technological fields is urgent.

FreeDevelopers have announced the DotGNU project, a Free Software alternative to Microsoft's .NET. DotGNU has already been endorsed by the Free Software Foundation and accepted as a part of the GNU project. The DotGNU Project (which has a website at http://dotgnu.org) has been started by Free Software developers who are very concerned about what would happen to e-commerce and the freedom of the internet if Microsoft is successful with their plans for a centralized authentication system. Microsoft wants everyone's personal information and credit card numbers to be stored in their "Passport" system, from where it can be made available to online merchants without any inconvenience to the end user. However, such convenience can be also achieved without a central database that contains everyone's personal information.

In embracing the potential of technology in developing countries, The UN Development Programme’s Human Development Report 2001, published this week, has controversially backed the role of genetically modified food crops as a way to alleviate the hunger and poverty of millions in the developing world. GM crops, the report says, can increase yields, significantly reduce the malnutrition that affects 800 million people worldwide, and will be especially valuable to poor farmers working marginal land in sub-Saharan Africa.

The report points to newly developed strains of rice as evidence for such optimism. GM strains of rice have 50% higher yields, mature earlier, are richer in protein and are far more drought and disease resistant than traditional crops. It says there is an urgent need to develop this kind of technology, and to produce genetically modified varieties of millet, sorghum and cassava – the staple diets of millions. Instead of such technology concentrating on the needs of the developed world, the report urges there should be “greater public investment in GM research and development to ensure it meets the needs of the poor”.

The optimism the report displays over the potential of GM crops is not widely shared in the NGO community. The report has been slated by nearly 300 organisations around the world, including Oxfam, Greenpeace International, Actionaid and the Intermediate Technology Development Group, who have called its conclusions simplistic, and have accused the UN of uncritical acceptance of the agenda of the biotechnology industry. These organisations point out that there is a very real concern that in developing GM technology, large companies like Monsanto will effectively control the entire food production chain ‘from farm to fork’, and that poor farmers will become locked into a technology that they can neither afford nor control. This ‘industrialisation’ of agriculture in the developing world will effectively force huge numbers of people off the land into cities, where they are unlikely to have the skills to survive. This exact scenario is currently being touted by the state of Andhra Pradesh in India: the so-called Vision 2020 scheme. GM may offer a huge boost for both biotech companies and for the food export industry of Andhra Pradesh, but it will be of no benefit whatsoever for those forced to the cities in the search for work. Such a scenario will presumably become commonplace in other parts of the developing world if unfettered use of GM technology is allowed to go ahead.

Many commentators also make clear that many hungry people in the world live in countries with food surpluses. The widely touted benefits of GM rice for boosting vitamin A levels, for example, fail to make clear that vitamin A levels are only down among many populations because of the effects of the ‘Green Revolution’ which forced such communities to shift from growing a wide range of diverse crops, towards monoculture production geared towards a commercial market, resulting in a less nutritious diet for themselves and their families. Thus, land and food supply reforms, they argue, and 'traditional' technologies such as seed saving, manuring, intercropping and breeding techniques could in fact raise sustainable productivity to levels far higher than those achievable through the use of GM crops.

Real fears also remain about the effects of GM crops on the environment. While their modified status may mean a reduced need for pesticides and herbicides, their very resistance to pests means there is a greater chance of GM crops dominating the surrounding landscape, forcing out other plants and species, and thus exacerbating the critical threat to biodiversity the planet already faces.

Above all, it seems unclear whether the UNDP has actually listened to what kind of technology farmers in the developing world themselves say they want. As Andrew Scott from ITDG puts it, "This means starting with poor people and what they want technology to do for them - not starting with technologies and 'applying' them to poverty. We have to enable poor women and men to make their own choices about whether they want to surf the information superhighway…or would they prefer to build better homes, have access to electricity, transport or a sustainable food supply? We need to know which works best for them…a better hoe, a plough or rice grinder…or GMOs? What we need is new thinking about all technologies which are of use to poor people".

A "citizen’s jury" of small farmers across Andhra Pradesh has unanimously rejected the introduction of the Vision 2020 scheme, saying they want control over their own land and forests. Traditional agricultural practices in Africa also give people control over their own resources and are directly linked to the level of ‘social capital’ or empowerment they have in their communities. The real issue over GM technology is who gets to control the production of the world’s food: if GM is introduced, food production, and all that goes with it, is unlikely to remain in the hands of local farmers. In naively embracing GM, the UNDP, unfortunately, seems to have completely failed to have understood or to have addressed this fundamental issue.

Further reading:

Human Development Report 2001, UN Development Programme:

Guardian GM debate including coverage of Vision 2020:
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/gmdebate
Greenpeace hits UNDP report for blind biotech bias:
http://www.greenpeace.org/
ITDG: Which technologies most benefit poor women and men?
http://www.itdg.org/home.html
Women are central to the agri-biotech debate in Africa:
http://www.womenspress.com/newspaper/2001/17-5afri.html
FoE: ‘Golden Rice’ and Vitamin A Deficiency
http://www.foe.org/safefood/rice.html
ActionAid: campaigns on food, patents and development:
http://www.actionaid.org/campaigns/index.html

Civilian deaths resulting from fighting between Ugandan government forces and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the north of the country have increased in recent months, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

About 40,000 people in and near Accra are still affected by floods that swept coastal Ghana in late June, a senior official of Ghana's National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) told IRIN on Friday.

Echoes of Africa launched on 15 July 2001 - a new monthly online magazine with stories, images and educational fun from all over Africa. The debut issue went out to nearly 2000 subscribers, and is now online.

The AMARC MoebiuS_PlanetRadio web site is online. Have a look and send us your comments! A web site in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese, from, for, and about community radio... with information and audio and text-based files to nourish radio programming and promote the work of community radio across the world.

The subject of accessibility and web design is not new. This editorial from Kathy Foley at NUA Internet Surveys describes the practical realities of web use for disabled users. It also examines needs of those who are using older hardware, text-only browsers, etc. There are some interesting links at the bottom of the article.

Tomorrow is the launch of the Digital Opportunity Initiative, a partnership between the UNDP, the Markle Foundation and private sector consultancy Accenture. This week we interview Accenture's International Chair Vernon Ellis who is also the UK's private sector representative on the G8 Dot Force whose work will shortly conclude.

This article on TechSoup contains some good advice about adding a 'mail this web page to a friend' feature to your web site. It includes advice about formatting and user friendliness. If you are involved in the web coding for your organisation, take a look at these tips.

In a letter sent to today to Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed deep concern about the murder of Alegria Gustavo, a journalist for the local branch of Rádio Nacional de Angola (RNA) in the central province of Huambo.

A monthly newsletter with information on travelling in Africa. In July's edition: The SOlar Eclipse. It was a perfect day for the 21st June 2001 eclipse, there was a clear view of the sky and the thousands of people watching were not disappointed. We have updated our eclipse information and have included travelogues, news stories and photographs of the recent eclipse in our 2001 section.