Cape Town Community TV together with the support of AIDC and FES have produced 'Free Media, Free Minds!' - a 13 part TV series focusing on aspects of media freedom and the free flow of information in South Africa. The show is broadcast across Cape Town and live streamed on the internet every Monday at 19h00 and broadcast again every Sunday at 16h30 from the 7th November 2011 to 5th February 2012. Visit Cape Town Community TV for the schedule.

'We cannot expect the same global market model that has caused climate change, ecological destruction and poverty to solve the problems we are facing today . We must work together to strengthen our resistance to this system. We must work to create new, transformative economic models that promote our collective prosperity, social equity and real environmental sustainability. We strongly believe that an alternative system must be created, and it must include both environmental and economic justice at its core. We must create economies not for profit, but for life.'

The No Military Trials group has stepped up the momentum in its campaign, presenting family members of military detainees at a conference chaired by Mohammad Abd Al-Qaddous of the Journalists’ Syndicate. Ahmad Darrag of the National Gathering for Change, who this week rejected a summons to appear before the military prosecutor in relation to the Maspero killings, also spoke. Close relatives of a dozen prisoners condemned or under trial by military courts spoke at the conference, and many more family members were in attendance.

South African health experts are calling on governments to use legally available mechanisms to promote the production or import of generic drugs in their countries. Pharmaceutical patents continue to drive up drug prices, making it expensive to treat patients. This often leads to limited access to health care, especially in developing countries where the disease burden is high, but public health budgets remain low, experts said.

Ghana will seek to boost revenues from its mining industry next year by hiking taxes, according to a text of the 2012 budget delivered to parliament. The corporate tax rate on miners will increase to 35 per cent from 25 per cent and a separate 10 per cent tax on windfall profits will be introduced, according to the text.

'We write to you at this critical juncture to alert you to the potential individual and public health consequences which may ensue from the implementation of the immigration policy to deport. Our organisations are greatly concerned that, with the lifting of the moratorium and the resumption of deportations of Zimbabweans, there will be inevitable dire health consequences which will arise as the deportation process intensifies.'

Right to know activists were astounded when the Secrecy Bill returned to the National Assembly last week, making empty words of the ANC's promises of public consultation on the Bill. The ANC withdrew the Bill from the National Assembly agenda on 19 September, purportedly to allow the ANC to hold public consultations on the Bill. Yet the Bill was debated on Wednesday 16 November without a single public meeting having taken place. Civil society groups, however, continue to insist that the Bill presents a threat to democracy and the citizen's right to know.

A reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions is not only the goal of environmentalists but also of pretty much every government in the world. The map available through this weblink is produced by the Guardian UK. It shows a world where established economies have large - but declining - carbon emissions. The new economic giants are growing rapidly.

thedailynewsegypt.com has a useful article on Egypt's election system. The first parliamentary elections following the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak are expected to attract an electorate that traditionally boycotted elections. Over 18 million Egyptians voted in a referendum in March, an indication of voter confidence in a new era free of the rigging and electoral fraud that tainted the previous one. However, voters are concerned that they will find it difficult to figure out the system, which could ultimately spoil their vote.

The activism and advocacy team of Cape Town LGBTI grouping Free Gender have submitted proposals to the South African Police Services (SAPS) aimed at combating hate crimes. The proposals include the creation of a ‘Task Team’ at the local level to include Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Gugulethu, quarterly workshops and/or discussions with officers ‘on the ground’ and display of the ‘Pledge to Eradicate Hate Crimes Against Lesbians’ in all police stations in Khayelitsha, Nyanga and Gugulethu to remind police officers and the general public of SAPS commitment to ending discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation.

A week-long lecturers' strike has been suspended to allow pay negotiations between the government and university unions. Labour minister John Munyes announced that the tutors are expected to resume teaching immediately and talks will begin in two weeks. Under the agreement, the Ministry is supposed to initiate the consultation process with the Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Service.

Clashes are continuing in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, between riot police and protesters demanding that the ruling military quickly announces a date to hand over power to an elected government in some of the worst unrest since the country's revolution. Police fired tear gas canisters and protesters threw rocks on Sunday morning as thousands remained on the streets overnight in and around central Cairo's Tahrir square, the focal point of the 18-day uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in February. Essam Sharraf, Egypt's interim prime minister, was set to host an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the unrest.

The World Bank and the African Union have taken steps to lower the cost of sending remittances to and within Africa by launching an online database that will help increase transparency about prices and stimulate greater competition among service providers. The database, Send Money Africa, is a years-in-the-making partnership between the Bank, the African Union Commission, and donors. Through its interface, migrants can compare the cost that remittance service providers charge to send a particular amount to a given country. 'Send Money Africa will stimulate competition among the service providers and ultimately induce a reduction of the costs. As a result, remittance senders and recipients will benefit from transparent, efficient, less costly remittance services,' said Richard Cambridge, Manager of the Africa Diaspora Program in the World Bank’s Africa Region.

The Cameroon government has introduced a bill to the national assembly that would give formal, political backing to section 347 of the country's penal code that criminalises consensual sex between adults of the same gender. 'It's getting worse,' Cameroonian lawyer Alice Nkom told the Guardian during a visit to London. 'These laws are illegal – the declaration of human rights is part of our constitution – but the judges still apply them. It's very difficult to prove you have had sex. Under the procedural code you cannot be put in jail unless caught in delecto flagrante.'

This week's French edition is a translation of the special issue on COP17, .

Civil society organisations in Ghana, including the Media Foundation West Africa (MFWA) on 15 November launched the Coalition for the Transparency of the Airwaves (COTA) in Accra, to ensure openness and accountability of the electronic media in the country. The coalition is made up of regional, national and district organisations under Ghana Community Radio Network, Ghana Journalists Association, Legal Resources Centre and Participatory Development Associates and MFWA.

The Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region has been (and remains) a fascinating testing ground for the media and politics and has inspired, among numerous other independent productions, a documentary film that features the voices of North African and African immigrants living in Italy. Called #Revolution, this short video was filmed in Padua and Bologna by citizen-reporters belonging to the Voci Globali association.

Residents say a large number of Ethiopian troops have crossed into neighbouring Somalia, just weeks after Kenyan forces entered the country to pursue al-Shabab fighters. 'The Ethiopian troops, which are in convoys of armoured vehicles, come to us today, crossing from Balanbale district on the border,' Gabobe Adan, an elder in the central town of Guriel told Reuters.

A report published by the UNFCCC’s expert panel shows that coal power plants that receive climate finance through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) may receive millions of artificial carbon credits under current rules. CDM Watch and Sierra Club call on the CDM Executive Board to exclude this project type from the CDM at the upcoming climate change conference in Durban. 'The study results show unequivocally that coal projects do not belong in the CDM,' says Eva Filzmoser from CDM Watch. 'We are now calling on all decision makers to act swiftly and decisively to stop these harmful projects from receiving revenue from the CDM, a mechanism whose aim is to deliver "clean development".'

A budget crunch in Swaziland, Africa's last absolute monarchy, has reached a 'critical stage' with the government struggling to maintain spending on HIV/AIDS, education and the elderly, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday. In a damning assessment of the landlocked southern African nation, the IMF said proposed spending cuts had been undermined by 'overruns' in defence outlays, leading to a 2011/12 budget deficit projection of 10 percent of GDP.