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As South Sudan prepares to become officially independent in July, Reporters Without Borders says it is appalled by recent developments affecting press freedom and appeals in particular to the new country’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, to release the Darfuri journalist Mohammed Arku without delay. Employed by Sudan Radio Service, Arku was arrested by South Sudan’s security services in Wau on 11 May for taking photos without government permission, although the area where he was arrested is not a militarised one.

A group of Mauritanian media professionals and bloggers last week announced the creation of a new club aimed at protecting journalists' rights. The club, whose vision is inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, seeks 'to encourage journalists to write about topics on human rights in their press reports', according to its founding statement released 22 May.

Anti-Eviction communities who are facing eviction and whose homes have been flooded by the recent rains (more on this soon), are joining backyarders from Tafelsig who are at the Cape High Court today.

ARTICLE 19 is very concerned by apparent efforts by the G8, led by French President Nicholas Sarkozy, to impose tighter controls of the Internet. ARTICLE 19 once again calls on all states, including G8 member states, not to violate their freedom of expression obligations by imposing unjustifiable restrictions on the Internet. They should instead follow the recommendations in the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom expression’s new report, which emphasise the applicability of international human right standards to the Internet.

This map available on the Global Voices website documents the use of online and mobile technology to promote transparency and accountability around the world and includes several entries from Africa.

In a rare climbdown, the Angolan government has withdrawn controversial legislation severely restricting how people use the internet. It was scrapped when the government removed it from parliament moments before it was due to be voted into law. Under the proposal, which had already passed a first round of voting, it would have been illegal to share information electronically that could 'destroy, alter or subvert state institutions' or 'damage national integrity or independence'.

Rights activists are mobilising to unleash a fresh wave of protests against the Protection of Information Bill, accusing the ANC of trying to bulldoze the contentious legislation through Parliament using its majority, without making any concessions. The Right2Know campaign said it believed the ANC’s position on what it has dubbed the 'Secrecy Bill' had hardened. Some opposition MPs agreed, suggesting that with the local government elections behind it, the ruling party was now determined to have its way.

Libyan officials lied about photojournalist Anton Hammerl to the South African government, international relations and cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane has said. 'We kept getting reassured at the highest level that he was alive until his colleagues were released and shared the information yesterday [Wednesday],' she told reporters in Pretoria. It was revealed last week that Hammerl has been killed while covering the Libyan conflict.

The President of the Union for the Development of Fouta Djallon, a region in Guinea where the alleged victim of IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn originates from, has expressed indignation over the alleged attempted rape of the lady (name withheld). Speaking to Radio France International (RFI), Mr Souleymane Diallo said that the ethnic Fula community in the United States will shortly undertake a 'massive demonstration' in support of the 32-year-old woman.

Issue 2, 2011 of The Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Southern Africa newsletter contains opinions on South Africa's municipal elections and articles on Wal-Mart, decent jobs and Mauritius.

Journalist Ian Birrell writes in the London Guardian: 'Returning home from a Saturday afternoon walk with the dog, I did what has become almost a reflex action and checked Twitter. Bizarrely, there was the president of Rwanda having a go at me over disparaging comments I had made about an interview he gave that morning. This was strange enough - not least since his missives to me were peppered with the sort of text abbreviations used by teenagers (such as "Wrong u r..."). Even stranger, we then traded tweets over human rights and repression in his central African nation, his foreign minister even joining the fray.'

Facebook is launching a resource center to help non-profits use the social network. The site will include educational materials, tutorials and a downloadable non-profit guide geared toward raising awareness and funds for causes specifically through the social network.

The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the African regional organisation of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), has welcomed the historic move of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) to adopt a landmark resolution on the safety of journalists and media practitioners in Africa. The resolution, which expressed concern over 'declining safety and security situation of journalists and media practitioners in some African countries', noted that 'killings, attacks and kidnapping of journalists, which are contrary to international humanitarian and human rights law, are often committed in an environment of impunity'. To ensure the protection of journalists’ safety, the African Commission appealed to member States of the African Union 'to fulfil their obligation of preventing, and investigating crimes against journalists, as well as bringing the perpetrators to justice'.

Farming with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is becoming more widespread in Kenya due to the promotion of biotechnology through clever schemes, exacerbated by the lack of a legal framework for the commercialisation of these controversial products. The Syngenta Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation attached to the Syngenta Company that researches and produces GM seeds. The foundation is involved in the 'Safe Biotechnology Management' (SABIMA) project aimed at promoting GM technology among small-scale farmers in Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Uganda and Malawi.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has lashed out at the media for their coverage of recent opposition protests over the cost of living. In a letter published in the state-owned New Vision paper, he called them 'the enemies of Uganda's recovery'. He named Al-Jazeera, the BBC, regional NTV and Uganda's privately owned Daily Monitor as cheering on those behind the month-long 'walk-to-work' campaign.

British journalist Ian Birrell got into a spirited exchange with Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Twitter recently. Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs & Cooperation Louise Mushikiwabo also joined the discussion. The Daily Monitor has published the full transcript on their website.

Urging the Angolan government to withdraw a cybercrime bill before parliament, Human Rights Watch said it would undercut both freedom of expression and information, and pose a severe threat to independent media in the country. Human Rights Watch expressed its apprehension that the bill would help security forces to confiscate data and create harsher penalties for crimes in electronic information technology. Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said, 'This bill fails to establish clear safeguards to protect the public's right to know and right to speak and deepening the existing restrictions in Angola's media environment, where many Angolans have turned for open debate on matters the government wants to restrict.'

Soon after the Libyan crisis broke, decision-makers and humanitarian workers faced a critical challenge: lack of information about events inside the country. Within hours, Andrej Verity, information management officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva, called a meeting with volunteer-based and/or technically focused groups. OCHA activated the Standby task force, comprising more than 150 volunteers skilled in online crisis mapping. The idea was to map out social and traditional media reports from within Libya. That led to the creation of LibyaCrisisMap.net. There are more than 1,000 articles on the platform with some information extracted and placed on maps.

'Egypt is one of only two states to have entered reservations on ratification of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The three reservations concern the guarantee of freedom of conscience, non-discrimination of women and children and the right to receive information...The African Commission has been resolute in rejecting the subjugation of continental human rights standards to restrictive national laws that nullify the human rights guaranteed. This is particularly critical in the context of the current transition in Egypt. It is important that the people access information on the decades of injustice and find the truth about corruption, torture, missing persons.'