The African Union is seeking nominations for the African Union Nelson Mandela Award for Human Rights Defenders, which honours an African individual or organisation that has used innovative methods of promoting human rights in the face of great odds.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), is hosting an online discussion in May and June 2006 to gather suggestions from African media professionals on ways to strengthen the continent's media. Sponsored by the U.K. Department for International Development, the online forum will incorporate participants' input into an ECA strategy paper that will build a case for greater investment in African media development.

The two big stories on the African Blogosphere this week are the arrest of 10 Egyptian activists, including blogger Alaa Abd El-Fatah, last Sunday and the acquittal of Jacob Zuma on charges of rape in South Africa. Due to the large number of posts I am only including the Blog name and a short quote from each.

The comments on the Zuma trial range from outright disgust at the verdict to agreement with the verdict but disgust with Zuma’s perceived immoral behaviour to no comment on the verdict but an analysis of the political repercussions.

The outraged

Chump Style (http://chump-style.blogspot.com/2006/05/zuma-fucks-over-south-africa.ht…):

“He gets acquitted of the charges, thereby sending a message out to all rape-inclined men, ‘hey guys it’s ok if you rape a woman, if she isn’t wearing 300 layers of clothing down to her toes…She is asking for it!”

Shailja Blog (http://shailja.com/news/newsletterblog/2006/05/false-accusations.html), in response to the judges comment that the compliant had a had a history of making false accusations of rape:

“The prospect of crowds of his supporters, chanting for my blood, sending death threats, yelling ‘Burn the bitch’ outside the courthouse, just thrills me! I can't wait to be grilled on my whole life and sexual history in an open witness stand. Thank God South African law doesn't allow rape victims to testify in camera!”

Black Looks (http://www.blacklooks.org/2006/05/zuma_aquitted_.html):

“The verdict is a loss for Khwezi and for all the other women who will now be deterred from reporting rape knowing that they cannot expect justice to be done. That their personal lives will be invaded in the courtroom should it reach that far. That their credibility as sane people will be challenged. That she will be abused and denigrated in the media and on the streets. That other women will stand against her and heckle her.”

Nigeria, What’s New (http://nigeriawhatisnew.blogspot.com/2006/05/dreadful-men-power.html):

“In a world of shrinking leadership, the news that former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma has been acquitted of raping a 31-year-old family friend and the Judge's conclusion: ‘The complainant was inclined to accuse men of raping her or attempting to rape her’ is greeted here with shame, shame, shame. When is it acceptable to have sex with a young daughter of a close and long-standing friend? Someone that calls you Dad!”

The Moral Disgust

Urban Trash (http://urbantrash.co.za/blog/?p=122):

* he cheated on his wife (or wives);
* his sexual immorality has expressed great disrespect towards his family and peers;
* he had consensual sex with a HIV-positive family friend;
* he had consensual sex with a HIV-positive family friend half his age;
* he is a self righteous, arrogant harlequin.

It’s The Question That Drives Us Mad (http://itisthequestion.blogspot.com/2006/05/was-justice-served-in-jacob…):

“But Mr Zuma, you have coloured my perception of you with your anachronistic beliefs and chauvinist attitude. You have shamed men as you have sung your war songs with phallic symbolism. You and your supporters may be loud and visible, but you represent an ugly side of mankind.”

Acoustic Motorbike (http://ggernst.blogeasy.com/article.view.run?articleID=314708), on a recent visit to South Africa from Zimbabwe:

“Others were dismissive of the trial based on the complainant’s history and her perceived lack of credibility. One taxi driver I spoke with at length said that he feared it would make it more difficult for other women to report rape in the future. In my cynicism, I fear he might be right. Not that the complainant’s case was necessarily unfounded. But in a culture that doesn’t treat domestic violence or women’s rights with much seriousness, it’s hard not to trust that the slightest loophole won’t be exploited.”

The political fallout

The Fish Bowl (http://jontyfisher.blogspot.com/2006/05/ancs-zuma-dilemma-as-i-had-thou…):

“Many have written off Zuma's chances…but I'm not so sure. This is a man that is clearly not being judged by his populist support on his Western-style leadership credentials, but rather on the fact that he is ‘their man’. If he comes through these two trials unscathed, he may not count on the elite votes, but I would imagine he would still have much of his populist support intact.”

Yebo Gogo (http://americanafrican.blogspot.com/2006/05/zuma-acquitted-of-rape.html):

“So what does this mean for the country's politics? It's obviously a bit too early to tell, but this is the Internet, so I feel like I should have some comment. Zuma will walk away a free man, but his political history is likely done. He was, entering the trial, considered one of the nicest men in all of South African politics and a hero of the left because of his populist leanings. But even being found guilty, would the ANC still risk putting him up as president? Would a breakaway left-leaning political group (possibly a breakaway consisting of the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions)?”

The arrest of the 10 Egyptian activists has caused outrage in the Egyptian blogosphere and a campaign is already underway for their release. The campaign has been taken up throughout the African blogosphere with bloggers using “Googles Blog Bomb” to spread the word throughout the blogosphere. Anyone clicking on Egypt will go straight to the Free Alaa website.

Manal and Alaa’s Bit Bucket (Alaa’s and his wife’s blog) - (http://www.manalaa.net):

“Alaa and the rest of the group that was kidnapped yesterday, will be detained for 15 days. They didn’t go directly to the prison as we thought, but spent the night at the Khalifa's police station and are supposed to be transferred to the prisons now. The 3 women will go to El Qanater prison, as Tora prison where the rest of the 40 detainees are held has no section for women, and the men are supposed to join the rest and go to Tora prison, but some think that they will also be taken to El Qanater prison (which has sections for both men and women).”

Rantings of a Sandmonkey (http://www.sandmonkey.org/2006/05/07/alaa-arrested):

“Alaa, blogger, co-founder of the Egyptian blog aggregator Manalaa and democracy activist, got arrested today during a protest to support the Judiciary's branch fight for independence…The way it worked, the police made sure to press the demonstrators close to the Egyptian museum, where they cordoned them and wouldn't let them leave, while continuously hurling insults at them. The demonstrators tried to get the police to let them go for half an hour, but to no avail. The Police cordon then opened where a group of plain dressed police officers and thugs rushed in and started beating up the demonstrators and dragging them on the asphalt till they threw them in the police vehicles. The Police also made sure that none of the satellite news channels would be able to get video footage of what they did by not allowing the press to come close and keeping them away the entire time.”

Freedom for Egyptians (http://freedomforegyptians.blogspot.com/2006/05/egyptian-regime-is-gett…) provides some background to the arrests:

“Since the beginning of the year, the Judges Club in Cairo and Alexandria has started a nation-wide movement calling for an independent judiciary. The current judiciary system is ruled by the strong grip of the executive authority of the regime of Mubarak. The members of the Judges Club could not tolerate taking the rigging of the parliamentary elections in November/December as a normal procedure to fool the Egyptians and the world. When they tried to take their responsibility and uncover the rigging of the elections they were crushed by the regime and some of them were slapped on the faces in polling stations. The regime made it clear to the Egyptian people and to the judges that there is no will but that of the President.”

The Big Pharaoh (
writes that the Egyptian embassy in Washington DC has been bombarded with free Alaa and other activists emails and for further action he suggests:

“There is a blog dedicated to Alaa and the others who were detained during the demonstration on May 7th. As I stated before, the Egyptian embassy in DC got bombarded by emails from concerned average Americans. We are also suggesting you to contact David Welch, Assistant Secretary and head of the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. His email is: [email][email protected].”

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, www.blacklooks.org

* Please send comments to [email protected]

A briefing paper prepared by the Geneva based Darfur Releif and Documentation Centre (DRDC) contends that the humanitarian and security situation in Darfur remains worrying inspite of the international community's attention to it. They note the sharp rise in mortality and morbidity rates in the region estimating 4 million war affected people including civilians in inaccesible rural areas. The government of Sudan continues to reject international calls for the deployment of a UN peace keeping force in Darfur. Government assault against national and international organizations including humanitarian releif agencies has continued. They highlight political reasons which are undermining the Africa Union's efforts to end the crisis. The paper makes certain conclusions and recommendations at the end.

Government and civil society in South Africa are expecting to come to an agreement within two weeks on a plan of action to complete the country's African Peer Review Mechanism process. The new timetable comes after the governing council which oversees the process failed to meet last week's deadline. Civil society and government attributed the failure to the sheer scale of the task. Civil society has been pushing government on such issues as electoral reform, to improve services and to fight poverty. The programme of action will be presented to an African Union (AU) team expected to visit SA in July. It will form part of an AU report and be presented to heads of state at a special forum to consider the peer review reports.

I just wanted you to know that I am really appreciating the Pambazuka newsletter, which I've been reading for some months thanks to Riccardo Moro from Signis (Rome, Italy), because it is gradually introducing me into a deeper approach to African politics and society.

I am using material from the newsletter with my students at school: we - a highschool in Italy, no NGO involved - are twinned with a high school in rural Rwanda, and we are on the final run to furnish our partners with a small ICT lab, powered by PV panels and with a satellite internet connection. Among the others, the articles by Gerald Caplan and the links in Pambazuka "Internet and technology" section have helped us to avoid possible overall errors during the planning of our project.

Why the current pressure from the international community by urging Sirleaf to bring Taylor to Sierra Leone to face trial? Do they know its implications on the people of Liberia and the Sub region?

The ECOWAS need to understand that in the 1997 general elections, Taylor had 75 percent of the total vote cast and this clearly shows that he has a lot of followers, which includes ex-combatants.

Some have argued that putting Taylor on trial would be the way to deter others. Indeed, if it is about deterrence we would not have witnessed the current coup in the Gambia.

The political, economic and socio-cultural conditions of Liberia have deteriorated for far too long and the leaders of Africa could do well if they supported Liberia rather than leaning on the international community to refurbish the country. For example, Nigeria can provide Liberia with oil on credit.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by attacks on radio stations in the Comoros in the run-up to May 14 federal elections in the Indian Ocean state. Unidentified assailants armed with machetes stormed two radio stations on the island of Grande Comore on May 5, forcing them off the air for 24 hours. The army shut down a radio station on the island of Mohéli more than a week ago, and it has not resumed broadcasting, local journalists told CPJ. Attackers ransacked Radio Ngazidja, the official station of the semi-autonomous government of Grande Comore, and Moroni FM, a private station that supports the federal government.

Finding your journal online was akin to taking a breath of fresh air after a very long time. I have been looking for you for a very long time and now that I have found you I will endeavor to support you in every way I can.

Peace to you and your readership! If we are unable to learn from the lessons of the past we certainly can't go too far forward (See In addressing the plight of the oppressed peoples of the earth, we must come to some very basic conclusions very fast, because time is running out for all of us. As the old saying goes: "The Leopard does not change it's spots nor the Tiger it's stripes." We are getting bogged down deeper and deeper in the quicksand of false hopes. Those who have oppressed us and in many instances still oppress us in one way or another will not change because they are incapable of change.

I think the good Bishop and a great many of us oppressed folks have overlooked the fact that "Whites" are not sorry, and to "hope" that they will be sorry has been one great exercise in futility. Yes, there are a few who do care but they make up the vast minority and are looked upon as traitors by their own people.

We must stop wasting valuable time hoping (& praying) that "they" will change.

This article, from Third World Quarterly, argues that: "The prosecution of past elected presidents for corruption in office is an option that has recently entered the public discourse in several of Africa's nascent democracies, progressing farthest in Zambia, followed by Kenya. That such moves could be contemplated, let alone initiated, responds to frequent policy demands to 'do something about corruption'. Moreover, prosecution poses a challenge to the scholarly literature on neo-patrimonialism, which suggests that presidential corruption is endemic—indeed, expected—in Africa because it is culturally embedded..."

African countries can increase their incomes four times by tackling corruption and embracing the rule of law, a World Bank official told participants at the Inter-Parliamentary Union conference. This would also help reduce infant mortality rate in most African countries by more than 70 five per cent.

Governance performance in sub-Saharan Africa is, on average, quite weak despite the strong positive effect of governance on development and its importance to effective aid delivery, the 2006 Global Corruption Report says. The report prepared by Transparency International last year ranked Namibia as having a Corruption Perception Index of 4,3 - 0 indicates highly corrupt and 10 highly clean.

The government of Liberia and the UN peacekeeping mission on Tuesday promised to conduct investigations into a report by British-based charity Save the Children that government workers, peacekeepers and aid workers are giving Liberian girls money, food and favours in return for sex. And ordinary Liberians told IRIN that growing poverty appeared to be fuelling promiscuous sexual behaviour. In its report released this week, Save the Children said officials at camps for displaced Liberians, peacekeepers, government employees and teachers were among those abusing their positions of authority to have sex with girls as young as eight.

Tanzania has put in place strategies and policies that focus on poverty reduction and economic growth. While attending the Wilton Park Conference in London recently, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro said such policies need among other things, transparency and good governance to flourish.

Liberian President Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says the governement urgently needs to set standards and penalties to deal with people who are found to be engaged in corruption in the country. President Sirleaf said those who violated the trust of the public while in public service, must be subjected to what she called, "certain sanctions," such as prosecution.

Close to 200 Mayi-Mayi fighters have surrendered with their weapons to United Nations peacekeeping troops in north and central Katanga Province, in the southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The spokesman for the UN Mission in the DRC said a large number of child soldiers were among the group. They surrendered on Saturday at Mitwaba, 700km north of Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga. On Monday, the peacekeepers handed over some of the Mayi-Mayi to the regular army.

Why are the countries of sub-Saharan Africa the poorest in the world? One reason is the set of ill-designed development strategies that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have implemented in the region for nearly half a century. But the centuries-old culture of leadership that is ingrained in many African societies has played an equally disastrous role. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of African rulers regard their countries as their personal possessions, to be used as they see fit. This conception of power led in past centuries to kings handing over their subjects to slave traders. Nowadays, leaders squander their countries' resources and revenues, leaving the majority of their populations mired in poverty, disease, hunger, war and hopelessness.

Mozambique is the latest favourite of the international community, following in the footsteps of disgraced Uganda which held the position in the 80s and 90s. Tajudeen Abdul Raheem scrapes away the veneer of growth rates and donor funding to look at issues of governance and accountability. He concludes with news about the African Monitor, launched this week to monitor whether development promises are being kept by both donor and recipient nations.

If you read anything about Mozambique today and the 'tremendous progress' the country is supposed to be making, one cannot help recollecting similar rave reviews and reports about Uganda in the late 1980s through the 1990s. The statistics are very familiar: over 6% growth rate, expanding opportunities for business, IMF/World Bank ideology, a confident middle class, and an environment open to foreign investment, INGOs and Donors.

In the case of Uganda there was also identification with 'A Strong Man' who is considered an 'enlightened' or 'benevolent' dictator. Of course the ovation for Uganda is no longer as enthusiastic as it used to be. This is not only due to the economic limitations of macro economic rejuvenation in a dependent economy but also the limits of political tolerance between the ruling party/clique and president on the one hand and their erstwhile and over indulgent foreign supporters. In some senses Museveni has become the tail trying to wag the dog or in another sense a beggar who cannot accept the ultimate loss of sovereignty stemming from an economy that is too much dependent on outside forces and support.

So it was with Uganda in mind that I arrived in Maputo last week. There are no doubts about the visible signs of a country in some kind of rebirth after a painful history of armed conflict largely the result of regional destabilization of neighboring apartheid South Africa and the immoral logic of the cold war. Many new buildings are going up and old ones being rehabilitated.

There are more than twenty big donor agencies and organizations in the country who are basically the engine of the new growth. It is a reward for successful peaceful settlement of the war against RENAMO, ideological capitulation or pragmatic realignment away from the former Stalinist model and endorsement for the political leadership.

But as in Uganda this support came with costs that increase everyday. One, it is not sustainable that a country be so dependent on foreigners through both direct budget support and resources for its capital development. Two, such endorsement comes with political consequences that often lead to collisions in the future, especially after a period of stabilization. Those who pay the piper will want to call the tune eventually. Also the growth may not guarantee any long lasting development.

Speaking to some of the officials of the key government ministries, the story is similar to what many people in financial and economic ministries in many African countries will recognize. Just take the example of the time that the government of Mozambique spends on a twice-yearly review with donors. Each round takes 45 days each, which means 90 days in the year. This means that the working year is actually reduced, so what time is spent by government officials on actually working to deliver services to their own people? Those who are condemned to these endless missions and evaluations know that as a consequence of these meetings more meetings and missions are generated. In a way development becomes paper-driven. No wonder the 'miraculous' average growth rates bandied about often mean nothing to the vast population condemned to eke out their living in the 'micro' level.

Many African governments as a result of their collective political failure and mismanagement of the resources of the continent have made themselves supervisors for foreign interests and are now conditioned to be accountable to donors and Western agencies. They are often too scared or intimidated to resist unless when their narrow political interests (like continuing stay in power) are concerned. Yet donor demands and interventions are collectively undermining the capacity of our governments and peoples. Even our largely foreign sponsored NGOs (increasingly substituted for civil society) are also more accountable to their funders than the people they serve. Many of the so called opposition politicians spend more time complaining, whining and pining to foreign (and usually Western ) diplomats and other aid officials than organising to politically challenge misruling governments.

Our governments sign up to international commitments like the Millennium Development Goals in addition to mountains of other Intra African protocols or agreements like NEPAD and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) without expecting to fulfill them.

Not a few Africans are fed up with this situation but too many of us agonise instead of organising. But Njongonkulu Ndungane, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, following in the tradition of activist priests like his predecessor, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, is hoping to reverse the trend of governance without accountability both on the continent and internationally. And he is challenging other Africans to join him. On Wednesday 3 May, after almost a year of consultations across the continent among civil society, NGOs, governments, International agencies and multilateral institutions, he launched the African Monitor. The mission is to make sure that African governments and non African governments meet up to the commitments they have made under various instruments, chiefly the MDGs, NEPAD, G8, etc.

It is a very daunting task. However because Ndungane has a wide constituency of faith based groups (not limited to Christians or Anglicans but involving other faiths)and also due to the existence of so many groups working (often in isolation) across the continent, the African Monitor may actually provide a useful service in building bridges of activism and policy engagement and ensure accountability through high level advocacy backed by grass roots activism.

As I have argued elsewhere, Africa does not need new commitments or promises, just a fulfillment of old ones we made to ourselves and made by others. While our governments are used to being formally accountable to outsiders, the African Monitor hopes to make them accountable to their own peoples and also monitor the accountability of others to us. In a way it may operationalise one of the few good things in the APRM, the principle of 'mutual accountability' between us and those who claim to be our 'international partners'. As the South African vice president observed in her conclusion at the workshop that preceded the launch, even the monitors need to be watched.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa

* Please send comments to

FEATURED: Following last week’s article on Côte d’Ivoire, Yveline Dévérin continues to unravel the complex political situation in the country
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Interview with Prof. Ernest Wamba dia Wamba on the situation in the DRC
- World Press Freedom Day: Internet censorship on the rise?
- World Press Freedom Day: Cameroonian journalist Pius Njawe on his 126 arrests
LETTERS: On Charles Taylor and Wole Soyinka
BLOGGING AFRICA: Blog columnist Sokari Ekine wraps up the African blogosphere
BOOKS AND ARTS: Shailja Patel wants to be on whatever Wole Soyinka is on when she turns 70
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Darfur peace talks extended yet again
HUMAN RIGHTS: ‘Treason trial’ opens in Addis
WOMEN AND GENDER: Gambia ratifies women’s rights protocol
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Concern after militia attacks on IDP camps
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: All eyes on Chad elections
DEVELOPMENT: Towards a global labour charter for the 21st century
CORRUPTION: Tough new Kenyan laws to tackle corruption
HEALTH AND HIV/AIDS: Free health care announced in Burundi
RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA: Amnesty report profiles attacks on immigrants in Russia
ENVIRONMENT: Claims that Mega dam will exacerbate poverty in Mozambique
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Links to stories related to World Press Day
NEWS FROM THE DIASPORA: Immigrant boycott day goes ahead in US
ADVOCACY AND CAMPAIGNS: Join the virtual march against genocide in Darfur
PLUS: Internet and Technology, e-Newsletters, Courses and Jobs.

* French speaking? French friends?

Read the Pambazuka News French edition by visiting Subscribe online at http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/subscribe.php or send an email to [email][email protected] with 'subscribe French edition' in the subject line. Please forward widely!

As internet usage in Africa grows, governments are beginning to wake up to the power of the online medium to communicate, influence and organize. Already numerous examples of internet censorship in the form of arrests and website blocking can be found. This is likely to grow, says Patrick Burnett.

News last week was that Internet giant Yahoo! had been fingered in the November 2003 imprisonment of Chinese cyber-dissident Jiang Lijun, who was sentenced to four years for pro-democracy postings on the internet. The company found itself in the hot seat after Reporters Without Borders published documents it said proved that Yahoo! provided information that led to the jailing. Lijun, 40, was sentenced for “subversion”, accused of seeking to use “violent means” to impose democracy. It is the third time that Yahoo! has been implicated in collaborating with the Chinese authorities in tracking down those who use the internet to express divergent opinions, says the press freedom group.

Not that Yahoo! is alone. Microsoft and Google have also been accused of assisting the Chinese government to enforce their censorship laws. An enormous internet market of 111 million users combined with an official intolerance for opposing views has led the Chinese to develop sophisticated web monitoring and censoring systems. Web sites and blogs are frequently blocked and internet searchers disrupted.

Compared to China, Africa has a tiny internet market of only 23 million users, or 2-3 percent of the total population. As a result it has been easy for governments to ignore the threat that the internet poses to them in terms of its organizing potential and its ability to act as a vehicle for diverse thoughts and opinions. The reality is that this is changing. Regimes are likely to make greater use of internet censorship techniques and crack down on those who use the internet to express contrary views. Africa already has a poor record of press freedom and locking up of journalists. This record is likely to be duplicated in cyber-space.

It’s no coincidence that Zimbabwe, which relies heavily on China for financial and technical support, has drafted the Interception of Communications Bill 2006, which seeks to empower the authorities to intercept telephone, e-mail and cell phone messages. When the Bill comes into force the government will establish a telecommunications agency called the Monitoring and Interception of Communications Centre to monitor mail, according to the Zimbabwe Independent (http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/legisl/060324zimind.asp?sector=LEG…). The Bill will compel operators to install software and hardware to enable them to intercept and store information as directed by the state. The service providers will also be asked to link their message monitoring equipment to the government agency. Failure to comply will result in a fine or imprisonment.

While the Zimbabwean government has thus clearly recognised that control of information extends to email and have plans to govern this area, examples of direct internet censorship are already easy to find. In February, the Ugandan government deployed filtering techniques against a Ugandan news radio station's website. This was the first known case of internet censorship in Uganda and came at a time when public debate was crucial - just before presidential and parliamentary elections on 23 February. The blocking was done by local Internet Service Providers, who effectively barred the site’s internet identity number, known as an IP address. This method of censorship meant that 700 other sites hosted by the same server were also blocked, according to tests by Nart Villeneuve, head of research at Toronto University. (http://ice.citizenlab.org/index.php?s=Uganda)

In Ethiopia, where up to 70 journalists are believed to be detained, Ethiopian security forces on January 27 detained Frezer Negash, a correspondent for the US-based Web site Ethiopian Review. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported at the time that Ethiopian officials had cracked down on Negash over her online writings, which were unfavourable to the government. Negash was freed from custody on March 10 after a court ordered her release on bail. (http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/africa/ethiopia30jan06na.html)

But the most sophisticated examples of internet censorship have emerged from North Africa. The extent of the problem was starkly demonstrated by the actions of the Tunisian government during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in November 2005, when it was made clear that any opinions outside what the Tunisian government deemed acceptable were not to be tolerated. Online writers have been imprisoned and websites are routinely blocked. According to a Human Rights Watch report, tests conducted in 2005 found that Tunisia censors hundreds of websites. In addition, Human Rights Watch reported that internet users believed the government monitored email and internet traffic. Stiff laws were used to detain online writers for expressing their opinions. In neighbouring Libya, the government has blocked critical web sites based outside the country and hacked a website critical of the government, Human Rights Watch says. Egypt, reports Human Rights Watch, had detained people for their activities online and used the internet to monitor and entrap homosexuals. (http://hrw.org/reports/2005/mena1105/2.htm#_Toc119125694)

These examples show that some African governments, caught between a rock and a hard place as liberalization of telecommunications opens up the internet market to more users but at the same time reluctant to let go of state controlled information channels, are beginning to wake up to the threat the internet presents to maintaining the status quo. Crucially, governments are not seeking to shut down the internet entirely and in many cases have facilitated its growth, but what they are seeking to do is to control the flow of information, in much the same way as traditional media channels have been controlled. This presents dangers in that it fosters an environment of self-censorship where citizens of a country do not feel free to express their opinions online. Internet Service Providers, fearful that they will face the wrath of the law, would rather remove content that may be remotely offensive, thus abrogating censorship to the private sector. This in itself can be profoundly unscientific. As the Ugandan example demonstrates, by taking down a single internet site, 700 additional sites were inadvertently blocked.

If the above examples and trends are anything to go by, as the internet spreads and new forms of expression such as blogging become more popular, internet censorship is going to increase as governments realize the power of the online medium. Control is likely to involve governments blocking websites they deem undesirable, the arrest and persecution of those who use the internet to express critical views and the introduction of laws that allow government to control the internet, given that in many African countries laws governing traditional media and forms of expression may not extend to the internet. Internet censorship is likely to take place with greater vigour in countries that already have poor freedom of expression records. Unless a government has an entrenched respect for human rights that extends to all areas of society, repression is likely to replicate itself in the virtual environment of the internet.

Lastly, an enormous barrier to the benefits of the internet in Africa lies in the fact that so few people have access – and that this is not going to change in the near future, even though growth rates between 2000-2005 were over 400 percent. In this sense, it is the structural inequities of the global economic order that censor tens of millions of people. As a 2003 Privacy International (http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-103801 ) report noted:

“Thus, the solution to African Internet censorship lies as much in finding global solutions to these problems, as it is about reinforcing national and regional respect for freedom of expression on the medium of the Internet.”

* Patrick Burnett is online news editor, Pambazuka News

* Please send comments to