Amnesty International has called on the Kenyan authorities to halt the forced evictions in a Nairobi settlement that have left hundreds of families homeless and destitute. A bulldozer from the Nairobi City Council flattened market stalls in Kabete NITD on Tuesday night for the second time this week. On Saturday, authorities had demolished around 100 homes and 470 market stalls.

African countries have to balance their spending on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for education better. Skills development among teachers, which accounts for only 10% of most countries’ ICT budgets, has to be strengthened. Spending on costly hardware, which covers 90% of most countries budgets, should rather be reduced. This is one of the key recommendations of a communiqué released by participants in the Third African Ministerial Round Table on ICT for Education, Training and Development.

The South African government is in the process of passing a law that will limit access to government information undermining transparency, accountability, and media freedom in South African. The Protection of Information Bill allows every organ of state - from government departments and parastatals to the smallest municipality - to throw a blanket of secrecy over its documents. If the law is passed whistle blowers leaking, and journalists reporting, on these documents can face up to 25 years in jail. The Bill goes before parliament this month and civil society are organizing to oppose it's passing.

Ashraf Cassiem of the Cape Town-based Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign discusses the impact of the World Cup on South Africa in an

Scientists are pooling remote-sensing satellite data and geographical information services for two pan-African digital observatories that will provide accurate and readily accessible information on biodiversity and forest cover for policy-makers. Under a grant awarded in 2009, the European Commission's (EC) Joint Research Centre (JRC) is supporting the development of the observatories, details of which were discussed at the fourth EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF 2010).

The World Bank has approved financing in the amount of US$44.7 million from the International Development Association (IDA) to the Government of Ghana as additional funding for the ongoing eGhana Project. The original eGhana Project of US$40 million was approved in 2006 to support the Ghana Information Communication Technology (ICT) for Accelerated Development Program.

The EASSy cable connecting the east coat seaboard is currently in its testing phase and will go live some time around the middle of this month. Its WIOCC shareholder consortium has always promised lower rates and better transit prices and these are on their way. But the new landing stations have energised backbone roll-out, particularly in Tanzania. All of this will leave satellite as a niche transport application in the key East African markets. Russell Southwood looks at the heady pace of change.

An undersea cable that brought high-speed net access to East Africa for the first time has been hit by a fault, knocking many in the region offline. The owners of the Seacom cable said the exact cause of the fault was "still being investigated", but was thought to originate off the Kenyan coast.

Jacques Depelchin

Mamadou Aliou Diallo

The spread of digital technologies in the Middle East and Africa has generated the view that 'new media' open up political spaces for dissent, activism and emancipation. Cambridge University's Centre of Governance and Human Rights is convening a conference entitled 'New media, alternative politics' (14-16 October 2010) that will bring together researchers, academics, activists, journalists and policy makers to discuss whether and how new media empower an alternative politics and mobilise political change. A call for papers (and presentations) is now out, and can be found at

As part of its Network of networks project for a free and open internet, the APC is conducting a survey to examine how funding is changing within the ICT for social change arena. The survey will also examine the possibilities for creating an annual civil society summit on ICT public policy. The survey only takes about ten minutes and results will be shared with the community.

Participants to the just concluded West and Central Africa Com (WECA) conference in Dakar, Senegal, are hopeful that Africa, like other developed continents of the world, would soon experience full broadband revolution. Majority of speakers, who were concerned about the poor state of infrastructure in Africa, called on telecom operators from various countries in Africa, especially those from West and Central Africa, to intensify efforts in building networks that would accommodate the expected broadband revolution.

The average American waits less than a second for Google to respond to a search query. In most of Africa, it takes three seconds to do the same thing. This two-second difference may not seem a drastic, but such a delay typifies the gap between Internet use in Africa and other parts of the world. Despite slow connection speed, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization estimates the number of internet users in Africa has grown an astounding 1,809.8 percent in the past decade; this is almost three times the combined rate of the rest of the world. Despite this increase, only 3.9 percent of Africa's population uses the Internet.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed deep concern over the arrest on Saturday, 26th June ,2010 of Hadis Mohemed Hadis, editor of the online paper Baadiyenews.com, an independent website published in Somaliland. Hadis is charged with “serious crimes”. “The criminal charges slammed on our colleague are fabricated with the intention to intimidate and muzzle the independent media. Hadis is charged with a “criminal offence” for simply doing his duty in a professional way” said Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ Africa Office.

The International Federation of the Journalists (IFJ) has strongly condemned the bomb attack against eight journalists on Tuesday, 29th June 2010, the injury of another journalist on July 1st and the arrest of two journalists in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia. “We condemn these senseless attacks which had caused lot of injuries, to innocent civilians including those of our colleagues” said Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ Africa office. “It is a stark reminder of the dangers the Somali media are exposed to in their daily work. We demand an urgent reaction from the Transitional Government to ensure their protection.”

A recent report highlights the social backlash of international sporting events by documenting the preparation for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October. ‘The 2010 Commonwealth Games: Whose Wealth? Whose Commons?’, shows that the costs fall primarily on the local poor and marginalised, shocking numbers of whom are evicted and displaced. Despite clear indicators that a proposed host city will need to evict people to prepare for a sporting event, steps to protect the local population prior to accepting a host bid have not been taken by international organisers or national governments, reports Dana Wagner. While cities worldwide vie to host prestigious mega-events, history suggests that the resident poor will continue to pay, as thousands of South Africans and Indians have for events in 2010 alone.

The spread of digital technologies in the Middle East and Africa has generated the view that 'new media' open up political spaces for dissent, activism and emancipation. Cambridge University's Centre of Governance and Human Rights is convening a conference entitled 'New media, alternative politics' (14-16 October 2010) that will bring together researchers, academics, activists, journalists and policy makers to discuss whether and how new media empower an alternative politics and mobilise political change. A call for papers (and presentations) is now out, and can be found at

Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services Ronnie Shikapwasha has cautioned the Media Liaison Committee (MLC) to exercise sincerity when dealing with media issues. Reacting to comments from the MLC spokesperson Amos Chanda, that government had no role in the facilitation of study tours for the media to learn how media regulation was being implemented in the region, Shikapwasha said that his statement was deliberately misunderstood.

At least 85 journalists fled their homes in the past year because of attacks, threats and possible imprisonment, with especially high exile rates in Iran, Somalia and Ethiopia, says the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in its annual survey, released on 20 June to mark World Refugee Day. Since 2001, more than 500 journalists have fled their homes, and 454 remain in exile today. But life in exile is precarious and only the beginning of a new set of struggles.

A new study warns that trade and investment flows with the South are reinforcing a longstanding trend in which African countries export farm produce, minerals, ores, and crude oil, and import manufactured goods. It says this situation should be reversed while the South-South trend is still in its early stages. A repeat of the traditional pattern will not help African countries to reduce their traditional dependence on exports of commodities and low-value-added goods.