Shalini Gidoomal is a freelance journalist, writer, businesswoman and inveterate traveller, born, and currently living in Nairobi. She has worked extesively on various UK and international magazines and newspapers.

The head of the MDC’s women’s assembly, Theresa Makone, on Thursday said her party had lost ‘total faith’ in Thabo Mbeki’s mediation efforts to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe. ‘Although we hold him in high esteem, we have felt as a party that he has not treated us fairly to what he does to Robert Mugabe and his party,’ Makone said. The women’s assembly chairperson said what bothers the MDC is that when ever they raise an issue of concern with Mbeki, he never responds.

The Congolese journalist Emmanuel Pweto, working for Africanews.com and Radio RTGA Kinshasa, has won the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Award for journalism development in 2008. This award is given by the UNDP on the occasion of International Day for the Fight against Poverty. This day is celebrated each year on October 17

Leading stakeholders in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry are to work together to minimise the standardisation gap between developed and developing countries through the Bridging the Standardisation Gap Fund. This was announced at the Global Standard Symposium at Emperor's Palace in Johannesburg.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called for the release of three journalists who have been held by kidnappers in Somalia for almost two months. Canadian Amanda Lindhout, Australian Nigel Brenan and Somali Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi were abducted on August 23 near the Somali capital, Mogadishu. The IFJ is extremely concerned about their safety after reports that their kidnappers threatened to kill Lindhout and Brennan if a $2.5 million (1.8 million Euros) ransom is not paid.

Uganda is to benefit from $100m from the European Commission (EC) to support developing countries in the growth of information communication technology (ICT). Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba, the Dean of the Faculty of Computing and Information Technology at Makerere University, on Monday said the funds would enable ICT students to carry out research in partnership with their counterparts in developed countries.

Kenya has received $144.4 million in credit from the International Development Association for the Transparency and Communications Infrastructure Project (TCIP). Kenya ICT Board chief executive officer, Paul Kukubo, told the media on Friday that part of the funds $7 million (Sh525 million) will subsidise bandwidth costs for local Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) entrepreneurs.

Tanzania journalists, editors and media associations on October 14, 2008 condemned the ban of the weekly privately owned Mwanahalisi newspaper and resolved from October 15 to boycott to publish all news concerning the Minister of Information, Sports and Culture, Captain George Mkuchika.

Franck Masunzu, a journalist and host of a local community radio show in the town of Walikale, in North Kivu province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was released early in the afternoon of 14 October 2008 after being held for two days by the local office of the Agence Nationale des Renseignements (ANR), the state intelligence agency.

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns an Egyptian court's decision on Saturday to levy steep fines against an editor and reporter for an independent weekly that published a satirical piece about a prominent cleric. A criminal court in Al-Geeza ordered El-Fegr editor Adel Hammouda and writer Mohamed al-Baz to pay fines of 80,000 Egyptian pounds ($14,341) apiece on charges that they had defamed Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed al-Tantawi.

This April, Cameroon adopted an amendment to its constitution that eliminated term limits for the President, as well as granted him immunity for any acts committed while in office. No one was smiling more prettily than President Paul Biya, who at 75 has been in office for 26 years and is seeking re-election in 2011. But one of the country's best-known singers, Lapiro de Mbanga, wasn't happy about it, so he voiced his disillusion in song.

Nigerian journalist Eiphraim Audu shot and killed on Wednesday by six unknown gunmen near his residence in Lafia, central Nigeria. Mr Audu was a senior radio journalist with Nasarawa State Broadcasting Service and chairman of credential committee of forthcoming Nigeria Union of Journalist elections in Nasarawa.

South Africa launched its first clean technology fund last month (30 September) in Johannesburg with around 400 million South African rand (US$39.3 million) ready for its first investments. The Evolution One fund will inject capital into projects like water treatment technologies, waste management and thin-film solar panel development, says Zuko Kubukeli, an executive director with Inspired Evolution Investment Management, which is managing the fund.

Scores of bloggers and Facebook users in Tunisia have banded together to push for a national day to defend the freedom of expression. A number of bloggers initiated the group "November 4th: A National Day for the Freedom of Expression" on Facebook. The group is now leading a campaign to promote the idea.

The World Bank has announced that it has approved $24 million for a program that will see Rwanda develop her national capacity to provide broadband connectivity. The money that was cleared through an International Development Association (IDA) financing grant for the Regional Communication Infrastructure Program - Rwanda Project (RCIPRW), is supposed to increase the availability of broadband to more than 700 Rwandan institutions including schools, health centers and local government administrative centers. IDA is the concessional lending arm of the World Bank.

In order to reduce poverty and foster inclusive development through affordable access to the internet, APC is working on a resource kit for realising a universal access agenda, present promising options, experiences, lessons and opportunities in pro-poor access provision in developing societies.

Royal Dutch Shell has appealed a Nigerian court order requiring it hand over the site of a key base in the oil-rich but impoverished Niger Delta. A high court in Rivers State ruled in July that the site of the Bonny lifting terminal belonged to the local community, not the oil multinational.

The Mmegi newspaper of 9 October 2008 has reported that the state owned media is being given editorial directives to advance government positions on civic issues such as its fight against alcohol abuse. The newspaper quotes 'reliable sources' saying the government has marshalled the state media to cover positively and extensively it's anti alcohol abuse. The directive was issued this week.

On 24 September, almost six months after his arrest and detention, Mbanga (51) was found guilty of taking part in riots against the high cost of living in Cameroon in February and sentenced to three years in prison. The songwriter was convicted of three of the six charges against him: "complicity in looting, destruction of property, arson, obstructing streets, degrading the public or classified property, and forming illegal gatherings".

Should Uganda care about how the Internet is "governed"? Should we be on the same page with much of the world which has placed issues such as Openness, Security, Diversity and Access among those that need to be addressed by the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), and by respective national and regional bodies? Or should we have a set of other issues that should be a priority for Uganda?