cc In one of the most significant legal rulings in the post-apartheid history of South Africa, victims of apartheid have finally received the green light from a US judge to sue multinational corporations that knowingly aided and abetted the regime. The implications of this ruling are colossal, writes Khadija Sharife, not only for Africa but for the world at large.

Nearly four months after the death of Franco-Congolese journalist Bruno Jacquet Ossébi, the Committee to Protect Journalists called today for authorities in the Republic of Congo to publicly disclose a report that was prepared weeks ago on their investigation. A magistrate appointed in February to oversee an investigation into the cause of the fire that ravaged Ossébi's residence in Brazzaville, Jean Michel Opo, told CPJ in mid-May that a police commission had given a report to his office.

Journalists covering an HIV/AIDS workshop for Swazi parliamentarians were on 30 June 2009 kicked out of the workshop after MPs and senators expressed displeasure at their presence. The parliamentarians asked the organizers of the workshop to expel the journalists because they wanted to learn freely without the presence of the media.

Reporters Without Borders is very concerned about the still fraught political situation in Madagascar and its constant impact on the media. Several journalists have been harassed in recent weeks, a website was mysteriously blocked and a radio journalist was held for two weeks after being the victim of a heavy-handed arrest.

Mobile phones are the unlikely weapons being used to fight cassava disease in Tanzania, in a collaboration between scientists and farmers. As part of the Digital Early Warning Network (DEWN) farmers from ten districts in the Lake Zone region of Tanzania will be trained to recognise the symptoms of Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) and Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD)

Google's new Chrome operating system (OS) will be good for people who live on the Internet. However, Joburg Centre of Software Engineering (JCSE) head Barry Dwolatzky questions whether it will be good for developing economies. The US Internet search giant announced it had released the first version of its Chrome OS, aimed at netbooks, which are mainly used for accessing the World Wide Web.

Sourth Africa's Justice Minister Jeff Radebe says the new law to register cellphone users will not be used to spy on citizens. He was briefing the media on the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication Related Information Act, which has come into effect. "Our people are protected by the constitution and there will be no illegal interception (of calls). The law prescribes heavy fines for intercepting private calls without the permission of a judge," Radebe said.

The arrival of four international fibre cables in East Africa and the Indian Ocean islands will give larger markets in these regions a significant “growth bump” in what might otherwise be uncertain times. The price reductions on the new fibre capacity makes it just so much cheaper that it should bring a price reduction dividend for both wholesale customers and retail end-users.

The MDC MP for Chipinge South, Meki Makuyana, was on Thursday convicted on ‘trumped up charges’ of kidnapping. Magistrate Samuel Zuze sentenced Makuyana to 18 months in prison with hard labour - 6 months were suspended. This means the MP will serve an effective 12 months in prison. This brings to 4 the number of MDC MP’s, all from Manicaland Province, who have been convicted and sentenced to jail by magistrates on the ZANU PF payroll. Coincidentally all the MDC MP’s targeted so far beat ZANU PF cabinet ministers in last year’s parliamentary elections.

Counsel for seven journalists including Gambian Press Union (GPU) executives, accused of defaming President Yahya Jammeh on July 8, 2009 asked the Banjul High court hearing the case to free their clients because the charges preferred against them were “invalid” and “defective”.

The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) is pleased to announce its 2009 Fellowship in Transitional Justice: a three-week professional development course on transitional justice based in Cape Town, South Africa. This course will be held from November 2nd, 2009 to November 20th, 2009 in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court, hearing the case of torture brought by Gambian journalist Musa Saidykhan against operatives of the Gambia's notorious National Intelligence Agency (NIA), dismissed preliminary objections raised by the Gambian government, the defendant in the case. According to the Community Court, Saidykhan is a citizen of West Africa and the court is mandated by the ECOWAS protocol to hear human rights violation cases brought before it.

Google has unveiled a new service designed to provide information via SMS to cellphone users in Africa, where mobile handsets are prevalent but Internet penetration is low. The Internet search and advertising giant noted that Africa has the world's highest mobile phone growth rate and that mobile use on the
continent is six times higher than Internet penetration.

The first evaluation of a pilot in Tanzania to provide affordable Internet access to rural communities through a shared wireless (mesh) community network has been completed, and the results look promising. Eight months ago, IICD helped the Tanzania Telecentre Network (TTN) in the rural district town of Sengerema to set up a pilot to share a wireless (mesh) community network. The goal of the network is to make Internet available - and affordable - to large numbers of people who live in the rural areas around the telecentre.

The freelance journalists who were barred from covering the COMESA summit recently, have made an application in the High Court to make a court decision legally binding. High Court Justice Bharat Patel ruled in June that the Media and Information Commission (MIC), led by Tafataona Mahoso, was now a defunct body and no journalist should be required to register with it.

The government of Gambia is to pay compensation to the families of the 44 murdered Ghanaians in that country in 2005. Ghana's Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Akudzeto Ablakwa, said the two governments arrived at the decision in Libya after a discussion between Presidents Atta Mills and Yahya Jammeh.

South Africa has passed a new law that compels all cell phone users to register their SIM cards. Users who fail to register would be barred from their network services. The new law came into effect on July 1 2009. It seeks to assist the country’s law enforcement agencies investigate and combat serious crimes. In a joint statement to the public MTN, Cell C and Vodacom said all cell phone subscribers have to show proof of identity as well as present a utility bill to show proof of residence to be registered.

Radio is often considered to be a one-way medium, but the African Farm Radio Research Initiative is investigating ways of combining radio and ICTs to gather content and to share information among farming communities throughout rural Africa.

Collecting detailed information, and making sure it is accurate, can cost a lot of time and money. It is expensive for fieldworkers to travel regularly to every project site, and the technology involved in gathering the data – often small handheld computers – can take a lot out of a limited budget. One solution is Mobile Researcher, a tiny application that can be installed on the mobile phones.

In 2005, the Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) project, which is run by the International Livestock Research Institute, set up a series of information centres throughout Ethiopia. The centres, equipped with a variety of information and communication technologies, provide farmers with information they need to develop new products and increase the yields of existing crops. The project is also attempting to improve the links between farmers and traders, creating opportunities for small-scale producers to sell to new markets, thereby increasing their incomes and helping to reduce poverty in the area.