The Somali government has stopped evicting internally displaced persons (IDPs) from government buildings, in a bid to stem displacement in the capital, Mogadishu, an official told IRIN on 26 September. Dahir Mohamed Burale, the commissioner of the National Refugee Commission of Somalia (NRCS), said it had convinced the government it should provide alternative accommodation for the IDPs before evicting them.

Nine African countries have won the first ever awards given for promoting the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by governments in fulfilling their public service delivery functions, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has announced. The Technology in Government in Africa (TIGA) awards came about through collaboration between UNECA and the Canadian Policy Resource Centre in training African policy-makers.

The Uganda National Council for Science has asked the Government to change the school curriculum to develop science and technology at early stages. The executive secretary, Dr Peter Ndemere, on Monday said they were working on a US$30,000,000 (about 48 bilion Kenya shillings) project to address research, curriculum development and the transfer of knowledge to the market. The five-year project started in February this year.

ICT has a major role to play in knowledge development in many areas, but also offers the possibility to improve governance. Basic infrastructure is therefore indispensable. In Tanzania access to the internet has increased considerably in recent years. However, much has to be done to reduce costs and improve the quality of the services, since affordable access is key to development. In this paper, Liang Tan of IICD captured the lessons learned from setting up and managing IICD supported ruralcommunication access centres.

The Overseas Development Institute in the UK recently carried out a study on ICT for rural livelihoods, commissioned by InfoDev. The study included a literature and donor review in collaboration with the Institute of Development Studies, and country studies carried out with partners in Argentina, Uruguay, Tanzania, South Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. ICT was defined broadly to include broadcast media as well as internet and wireless technologies.

The arrival of new technologies often results in a wider gap between the rich and the poor. Yet some innovations fail to be applied in developing countries where there is a real need. As E.F. Schumacher observed, 'new technologies are developed only when people of power and wealth back the development'. The International Council for Science argues, as do many others, that developing countries lack an infrastructure base for exploiting technology, and suggests increased investment in universities.

In a conversation with Magharebia, al-Watan al-An Editor-in-Chief Abderrahim Ariri expressed his dissatisfaction with the decision of a Casablanca appeals court's on September, 18 to uphold convictions – although with reduced sentences – against him and journalist Moustapha Hormatallah. Rather than use the press code, the authorities brought criminal charges against the two journalists. A Casablanca appeals court handed Ariri a five-month suspended prison sentence and Moustapha Hormatallah a seven-month prison sentence on September, 18 for publishing classified government documents.

A Cairo court has sentenced four journalists and a newspaper executive to two months in jail with labour for publishing 'false news' about a businessman, judicial sources said on Wednesday. The verdicts, which come amidst concern from rights groups about what they call a pattern of harassment of the press by authorities, were passed last Saturday after an in absentia trial, the sources said. The defendants can ask for a retrial.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the government of Zimbabwe to guarantee the safety of 15 journalists named on a hit list that appeared to have been leaked from official sources. 'The government of President Robert Mugabe must make it clear to the international community that it is not targeting journalists', said IFJ General Secretary Aidan White. 'It can do that by guaranteeing the safety of all the journalists named and all other journalists in Zimbabwe.'

In the first case of its kind, a Harare magistrate has tried and convicted a man who was found in possession of a printed email message containing information that was said to denigrate President Robert Mugabe and Vice President Joice Mujuru.

Thousands of school children have been forced to stay at home as schools remain closed due to flooding in eastern Uganda. More than 150 educational institutions failed to open at the beginning of the new term on 17 September after the floods washed away roads, homes, buildings and crops in the region. Education minister, Namirembe Bitamazire, told reporters the Ugandan government was trying to find alternative strategies to allow the schools to reopen, especially in the districts of Amuria, Katakwi, Manafwa and Bukedea.

Zambia and India have signed an agreement that will see India fund Zambian centres to train researchers and the public in information and communication technology (ICT) skills. Peter Daka, the Zambian minister of science and technology, and River Wallang, the Indian high commissioner to Zambia, signed the agreement in Lusaka on 12 September 2007.

Reporters Without Borders condemns a violent assault on Tope Abiola, the deputy editor of the privately-owned Nigeria Tribune daily newspaper, who was beaten unconscious by prison guards and police at Agadi prison in Ibadan (in the southwestern state of Oyo) on 11 September while trying to cover the aftermath of a riot by inmates. “Nigerian journalists are often subjected to violence on the least pretext, without anyone ever being punished,” the press freedom organisation said.

Somali police have surrounded the offices of an independent radio station in the capital Mogadishu and opened fire on the building, according to station officials. Tuesday's operation came three days after security forces raided Shabelle's offices, detaining 14 members of staff and accusing one journalist of throwing a grenade at police.

Ericsson, the world's leading telecommunications supplier, has announced that it is partnering with The Earth Institute at Columbia University to provide connectivity to the Millennium Villages project. The partnership is designed to bring mobile communication and Internet services to approximately 400,000 people in ten African countries where the project is being implemented.

A United Nations-backed Africa communications summit in Rwanda next month will seek to boost high-speed internet access to match the continent's explosive growth in cellphones, officials said on Wednesday. The 'Connect Africa' gathering of African political leaders and international investors to be held on 29 and 30 October 2007 in the Rwandan capital Kigali will be a networking opportunity, not a forum for negotiating new regulations, they said.

On 23 August 2007, Tendai Murove was charged and convicted, on his own plea of guilt, to contravening section 26(1)(a) as read with section 33 of the colonial Censorship and Entertainment Control Act, after he was found in possession of a six-page letter, allegedly sent to him by a friend. Section 26 prohibits the possession of prohibited articles; while section 33 states the determination of what is indecent, obscene, offensive or harmful to public morals.

On 13 September 2007, Asana Gordon, central regional correspondent of the Accra-based privately owned daily newspaper Daily Dispatch, was barred from covering the Central Regional Health Service awards ceremony to honour stakeholders in the health sector by Clarence Lartey, the public relations officer of the Central Regional Coordinating Council (RCC).

Mobile technology organisation kiwanja.net has launched its latest non-profit mobile initiative - nGOmobile, a competition to help grassroots NGOs take advantage of text messaging.

An Egyptian court sentenced four outspoken newspaper editors to one year in prison with labour on Thursday for defaming President Hosni Mubarak and his politician son Gamal, court sources said. The court also ordered Ibrahim Issa, Adel Hammouda, Wael el-Ebrashi and Abdel-Halim Qandil to pay fines of 20 000 Egyptian pounds each.