South Africa's economic management is as risky as unsafe sex.

A top Moroccan newspaper editor, convicted and jailed under the penal code for his writings, has been freed after serving a year in prison. 'I denounce my imprisonment and conviction under the penal code, and I hope I am the last journalist to be tried under it,' said Rachid Nini, editor of the country's most popular daily, al-Massae, on Saturday.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has expressed deep concern about current or recent moves in a number of countries to curtail the freedom of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other civil society actors to operate independently and effectively. Pillay noted that freedom of association is under increasing pressure in many countries across the world. 'Freedom of association is the lifeblood of NGOs,' she said. 'Systemic legal or administrative attempts to curtail their activities can be very damaging.'

Egyptian freedom of expression advocates are in an uproar over the banning of a play over its alleged use of 'foul language'. Rights movements issued a joint statement condemning al-Sawy Cultural Center in Cairo for banning the play 'Mono-drama Auto bus' from showing at the center’s 7th Mono-drama theater festival taking place this month. The Egyptian Women Union, the New Woman Foundation, the Egyptian Coalition and the Egyptian Democratic Institution are among the organization who have signed on in condemnation.

Participants at the NGOs Forum of African Commission on Human and People’s Right (ACHPR) on 12 April added their voice to the widespread condemnation of the Gambian authorities over their deliberate policy of blocking access to critical online news websites in the country. Systematically, the Gambia authorities have either attacked the online news newspapers by hacking into their websites or blocking their IP addresses, making it impossible for Gambians to access the news sites.

The African Media Barometer (AMB) is an in-depth and comprehensive description and measurement system for national media environments on the African continent. Unlike other press surveys or media indices the AMB is a self assessment exercise based on home-grown criteria derived from African Protocols and Declarations like the 'Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa' (2002) by the 'African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights'. The instrument was jointly developed by fesmedia Africa, the Media Project of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Africa, and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) in 2004.

The African Platform on Access to Information (APAI), an intercontinental initiative to promote Access to Information on the Continent, took the campaign a step further in its address to the 51st session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The APAI working group, composed of MISA, AFIC, Article 19, IFJ, TAEF, MRA, MFWA, ODAC, and Highway Africa, called on the Commission to recognize 28 September as International Right to Know day, as well as for an expansion of article IV of the Declaration of Principles of Expression in Africa to incorporate the principles of the African Platform on Access to Information Declaration.

Osange Silou-Kieffer, the wife of Franco-Canadian journalist Guy-André Kieffer missing in Côte d’Ivoire, has received an assurance from President Alassane Ouattara that no-one would be protected in the investigation into her husband’s disappearance. Visiting Abidjan, the country’s business capital, to mark the eighth anniversary of his disappearance, Silou-Kieffer and a Reporters Without Borders representative met Ouattara to tell him of their concern at the lack of progress in the investigation.

The recent deaths of journalists in Nigeria, Lebanon, Somalia and Indonesia bring the number of journalists killed so far in 2012 to 36 - which means this year is on track to be the deadliest for the media since International Press Institute (IPI) began keeping records in 1997. 'We are witnessing, by a significant margin, the deadliest start to a year for the media in recent memory,' IPI executive director Alison Bethel McKenzie said. 'As movements for democracy spread across the world, journalists - whose work is critical to any free society - are increasingly coming under violent attack.'

LAP GreenN, the Libyan Investment Authority’s international telecommunications arm and a major foreign investor in Zambia, said on Monday that it was disturbed by the decision last week in the Zambian High Court not to grant interim protection for its seized assets, which were legitimately purchased at a cost of US$257 million. In a statement, made available to PANA here, LAP GreenN said it had decided for valid reasons not to appeal the court decision, but to address the issue in its case against the government, which is scheduled in the Zambian High Court on 9 July, 2012. LAP-GreenN is an US$8 billion telecommunications investment arm of Libyan African Investment Portfolio (LAP) and it claims that its assets in Zambia now have a market-value of approximately US$480 million.

In this Newsclick video, Professor Samir Amin discuses with Aijaz Ahmad on developments in Egypt over the last one year. Samir Amin details the correlation of forces in Egypt today and identifies the current phase as the beginning of a long period of democratic change with its ups and downs.

For its ninth annual meeting, the CPA now invites the submission of papers and panels that will engage various aspects of this question of regional race/ethnic change or stability as a result of major tremors and aftershocks in the capitalist world economy.

In Malawi, an audience-driven radio programme - Nkhani Zam’maboma or 'News from Districts' - has captivated the nation by exposing everyday injustices experienced by Malawians. Grievances are articulated through local idioms and proverbs that have little in common with the individual freedoms espoused by human rights activists. Never before has it been possible for Malawians to share experiences of injustice so publically.

In March 2012, the Government of Uganda tabled the Communications Regulatory Authority Bill, 2012 (the Bill), a major piece of legislation intended to consolidate and harmonise two existing and overlapping laws – the Uganda Communications Act and the Electronic Media Act – and merge the regulators they establish into a single Communications Regulatory Authority (the Authority). Article 19 has pointed out that the bill is out of step with international standards in many and significant ways. Most notably, with the exception of the funding arrangements, it fails to provide any credible safeguards of the Authority’s independence from the Government.

On Monday, 23 April 2012, Eddie Webster will be presenting the next instalment of the monthly Ndifuna Ukwazi seminar series. This public talk examines the rise of the workers’ movement and the politics of the ANC (1973–1994). Prof Webster will discuss the historical origins of the links between the ruling party - then a liberation movement struggling through the worst years of Apartheid - and the workers’ movements, which were rapidly developing and newly energised during this period. This question has continued relevance for current politics, given the political affiliation between the ANC, Cosatu, and the South African Communist Party (SACP). It is especially relevant in the year the ANC celebrates its 100 year anniversary, amidst ongoing debates about the state of our new democracy and the future of the party. For those who cannot attend, the event will be live-streamed:

Protection to victims of domestic violence has been extended significantly by the granting of a protection order to a learner at a school in Gauteng against her teacher. Last week, a magistrate granted a final protection order to the learner who alleged that her teacher harassed, intimidated and physically and sexually abused her. The learner reported an alleged rape to the police late last year. The Gauteng Department of Education has placed the teacher on precautionary suspension. Since then, the teacher has attempted through harassment and intimidation to force the learner and her family not to pursue the case against him.

It is not only African presidents who are corrupted by European aid-with-strings-attached. Evidence abounds showing a secret and extensive “suitcase” system in which millions of dollars are sent by African dictators to corrupt the European political process.

Representing the struggles for political and societal changes in the Middle East merely as a ‘Social Media Revolution’ of an upper middle class youth is selective and simply does not correspond to the situation, says this article from International Affairs. 'It ignores the majority of poor people, also among the urban youth, and misses out the various forms of creative activism on the ground and their grass-root organisation in forms of neighbourhood patrols and cleaning troops.'

The latest issue of the Mozambique Political Process Bulletin is available and deals with anti-corruption legislation.
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