THE Internet revolution may have changed the world but in Liberia it is ephemeral and under tight state control due to President Charles Taylor's attempts to stifle criticism by his opponents.

Amnesty International's annual country report for 2001 on The Gambia has accused the security forces of torture and ill treatment of students during the April 2000 student demonstrations. The report states that at least 14 people were killed and dozens injured when the security forces used "excessive and indiscriminate force to break up demonstrations" organized by the Gambia Students Union to protest the alleged torture to death of a schoolboy and the rape of a school girl allegedly by members of the security forces.

The first Tanzania Media Policy was adopted in 1994 to provide the overall objectives and strategies necessary to ensure sustainable development of the Media Industry in the country. Considerable achievements have been made under the Policy. Here is the new draft Media policy for Tanzania tabled by the Government for discussion, with ARTICLE 19's comments on the draft attached.

A place to share news, information and activities on women related issues in Uganda. Discussion and debate are also encouraged. To subscribe, send an e-mail to [email protected] with the command "subscribe".

In a 21 May 2001 letter, the minister of communications and press announced that eight community radio and television stations in Lower Congo (Bas-Congo) province will be banned as of 30 June. The targeted stations include Radio Sango Malamu (RSM), Radio Télé Matadi (RTM), Radio Communautaire Muanda (RCM), Radio Télé Mbanza-Ngungu (RTBC), Télé Bralima (TB), Site Télé Inga (STI), Radio Kintuadi Matadi (RKM) and Radio Télé Ngovado

A facilitated and monitored online course on making your WebCT course as accessible as the software will allow. WebCT is described in the text.

A bi-monthly 16 page journal of news, views & researched articles, for farmers, food processors, policy makers - from cultural to gender to finacial and environmental issues. Editions in English, French and Portuguese.

This issue's headline story looks at the tale of three NGO publishers who are all producing web content products. Each illustrates what the web can do well but also shows some of the pitfalls. Why highlight these three? Number one is a specialist information service that has yet to reach its full potential. Number two shows how diaspora organisations are bringing together African communities on the continent and elsewhere. Number three shows how a traditional international framework like the Commonwealth is seeking to use the web to join up its disparate parts.

An interesting article about the nature of cyberspace and the way researchers are trying to map it, by Martin Dodge. The article is accompanied by 'virtual maps' of the internet. These are wonderful aids to understanding the concepts and facts around where and how the internet exists, and render many different data sets in an aesthetically pleasing and easy to understand format. Recomommended: Dodge's famous cyberatlas web site linked form the bottom of the article.

For some international corporations, more than ever before, the world is their candy store – cheap labor, low taxes, weak environmental standards. Conventional journalism simply cannot investigate or explain these and other complex, global subjects adequately. The typical one-country perspective is too narrow and misleading, and frankly, a disservice to the public.

An article inspired by Steven Spielberg's new film, 'AI' (http://www.ai.com), takes a look at what makes a robot human. If you ever saw the film 'BladeRunner' (based on the book 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?') the question of when a machine becomes eligible for human rights will not be new. How far are we from intelligent, feeling, machine beings?

An interesting report on the collaboration between MIT Media Lab and the UN food agency. Affordable wireless technology developed by MIT may herald a breakthrough for farmers and rural people in developing nations. The article cites examples of this technology in use, and explains its accesibility to illiterate people.

Judging by its deafening silence, the government evidently did not believe the 70% fuel price increase warranted an explanation. But none of the media appeared to make any effort to extract one either. The nearest the nation got to being given an official statement on the need for such a massive price hike could only be found in the state-controlled media, from NOCZIM itself, merely explaining that up until now fuel was being sold at below cost and the increase was necessary to restore the company’s viability.

Salary: GBP 20,300 per annum (pro rata for part time staff) Duration: to end December 2001 Hours: 17.5 hours per week Location: Clerkenwell, central London Closing date: 07/07/2001 Ref. no: IRP/01/3 For further information and an application form, please contact: Human Resources Program Amnesty International International Secretariat 1 Easton Street, London WC1X 0DW E-mail: [email][email protected] Fax: 020 7956 1157 or apply online.

Gautengonline, an initiative of the Gauteng education department in South Africa, aims to have all learners in the area online by 2006. Ikaneng Primary in Soweto made the connection at the launch this month. Is the project sustainable, and how exactly will learners benefit? (If you have web access you can access the video footage which supplements the article.)

Chip Salzenburg of the Open Source Initiative analyses the technology of open source and the GNU Public License, which he calls a 'technology of trust'.

This article looks at examples of e-commerce and internet infrastructure taking off in developing countries. There are examples from all over the world.

Despite it's opposition to the open source movement, Microsoft definitely uses open source code, including software from the FreeBSD operating system. This article discusses this contradiction.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, where hundreds of millions of people live in poverty, the media can help development - if they form partnerships to make it possible, urges Gambian journalist Modou Thomas.

The death of another ruling party stalwart, war veterans’ leader, Chenjerai Hunzvi, dominated the news in all the media. But it wasn’t just his death that attracted attention; controversies emerged over the cause of his death and the decision to declare him a national hero.