Get your friends jobs and earn a mint. That is the idea behind a new South African recruitment website, employmint.co.za, which launched this week. Taking advantage of Web 2.0 features and using an innovative business model, the site offers a reward for people who successfully refer a candidate for the job.

The South African Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa-SA) and the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) are appalled at the attack by Patrick Chauke, Chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Home Affairs Committee, on Sanef (SA National Editors' Forum) over the interaction between editors and the cabinet on the ill-conceived Films and Publications Amendment Bill 2006.

The administration of President John Kufuor has begun paying reparations to about 2,000 Ghanaians who suffered human rights abuses under former governments. Individual payments, which began on Monday (16 October), range from about US $217 to US $3,300 depending on the extent of abuse or violation, according to the attorney general's office.

THE SABC yesterday lost, with costs, a last-ditch court bid to force the Mail & Guardian to remove from its website the Sisulu commission report into blacklisting of certain analysts by the public broadcaster. In dismissing the SABC's application, Judge Zukisa Tshiqi found it was in the public interest to release the report, and rejected argument by the public broadcaster that the full report could cause harm to employees.

Columnist Thami Mazwai writes in Business Day: "The furore around Snuki Zikalala and the so-called blacklist is the continuation of a witch-hunt on the one hand and, on the other, a further manifestation of the resentment, or suspicion, in certain quarters when African National Congress (ANC) people are appointed to key positions. Anton Harber, who led the latest charge in his column last week, drags my name into the equation and misquotes me."

The controversial Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy) cable project is moving forwards with the shareholding plan in place and a deadline for the remaining companies to sign the agreement in place. Pressure is building on the parties to the EASSy project as the telecoms companies involved have announced they will sign off on their MOU shortly.

The MTN Group, the GSM Association and Ericsson are joining forces to establish biofuels as an alternative source of power for wireless networks in the developing world. The move comes as mobile operators look to move beyond the established power grids in many countries in Africa and extend their user base into the more rural communities.

On 9 October 2006, a High Court in Banjul unconditionally released Malick Mboob, a journalist and former staff member of the "Daily Observer", a pro-government newspaper, after he was kept for 139 days in illegal detention for allegedly sending damaging information to an online US-based newspaper. According to a Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) Gambia source, the Court's decision followed a request filed by Mboob's counsel, Edward Gomez, seeking his unconditional release.

Reporters without borders (RSF) has condemned the 12 October 2006 destruction by unidentified gunmen of a transmitter in the southeastern province of Katanga, which relayed the satellite broadcasts of Canal Congo Télévision (CCTV), a station owned by presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba. In the 12 October raid, a group of gunmen forced their way into the relay station 15 km south of Lubumbashi, beat and tied up three police officers who were present, and then poured acid on the CCTV transmitter.

The October issue of ReConnect Africa is now online. Connecting Africa to the global world, ReConnect Africa is a unique online publication and portal that provides readily accessible information, articles, interviews and jobs in Africa.

This week, Tajudeen Adbul-Raheem explains his many reasons for giving up smoking. This is a podcast of Tajudeen's popular article published in Pambazuka News.

Much information on PRSPs, where available, is provided by groups heavily involved in the process: governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Press releases on PRSP negotiations are typically written in dry, technical language.But are ordinary people aware of the challenges at stake in discussions on dealing with poverty?

Nigeria’s airtime resellers are commonly referred to as business centres, or “umbrella operators,” a moniker that comes from their typical set-up: a table, some chairs, one or more handsets, and an umbrella. In a market in which affordability has remained an issue, umbrella operators have filled a gap, allowing MNOs to maximize the opportunity by empowering umbrella operators to provide incremental traffic.

Tanzania has introduced a new type of licence, which allows a licensee to provide to end users a range of electronic communication services including among others payphone services, Internet and videoconference. The Director General of the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), Professor John Nkoma said that one of the license categories under the Converged Licensing Framework is application service.

This week saw Cape Verdean incumbent telco Cabo Verde Telecom launch IP-TV ahead of the new competitor in its market. It also saw the introduction of what is probably the first African push-to-talk service by Maroc Telecom. But why is this happening? African markets are different from elsewhere comes the swelling chorus. Well maybe they are but maybe they aren’t. Russell Southwood looks at the two new services.

Open-Of-Course is a multilingual portal offering free online courses and tutorials. The goal is to create a multilingual platform for free quality educational information.

Translate.org.za, which previously released OpenOffice.org in all 11 official South African languages has now created a South African keyboard. The keyboard can be used to type all characters of all the South African languages, including those needed by Venda, Northern Sotho, Tswana and Afrikaans. For English language speakers the idea that words or characters could not be reproduced on a computer is unthinkable.

The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) is concerned about the "By-Law relating to streets, public places and the prevention of nuisances" that has been proposed by the City of Cape Town. While there are a number of concerns about how the proposed legislation disadvantages poor people, our main focus is its draconian section on gatherings and processions.

On 4 October 2006, Ibrahima Sory Dieng, managing director, and Alhassane Souare, editor-in-chief of the state-owned newspaper "Horoya", were suspended indefinitely by the minister of information Aboubacar Sylla, for not publishing a photograph of President Lassana Conte of Guinea alongside his speech.

Cellphone operator MTN had not yet been able to meet its obligations to give away 2,5-million SIM cards and 125000 handsets to poor people, or to roll out internet access to 8000 schools, the company said recently. The social upliftment obligations were imposed as licence conditions when the cellular networks were awarded the 1800MHz spectrum and the high-speed third generation (3G) spectrum to boost their coverage.