A French court has declared the US biotech giant Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, a judgment that could lend weight to other health claims against pesticides. In the first such case heard in court in France, the grain grower Paul Francois, 47, said he suffered neurological problems including memory loss, headaches and stammering after inhaling Monsanto's Lasso weedkiller in 2004. He blames Monsanto for not providing adequate warnings on the product label.

The DRC Government has pulled three media stations off air. The media houses, two close to opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba and one belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, saw their signals stopped by the ministry of Information. 'Last Friday, we just received a letter from the minister of Information urging us to refrain from broadcasting commercial advertisement allegedly because, as a private community media, we are not allowed. We do not know why exactly our signal has been stopped,' Mr Patrick Nsiala, the programme officer of the Catholic TV (RTCE) told the Africa Review. Unconfirmed reports indicated that the minister for Information, Mr Lambert Mende, had invited the affected media houses for talks.

Tense negotiations are underway for the release of two Swedish journalists jailed by Ethiopia on terrorism charges in September. A delegation from the European Union, of which Sweden is a member, is said to have already met with Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi. EU and Swedish officials are this week expected to outline options to further press the Horn of Africa country into releasing the journalists, including a review of aid obligations.

The ECOWAS Community Court in Abuja, Nigeria, on 6 February 2012 ordered the Gambian government to comply with its ruling on Musa Saidykahn, a former editor-in-chief of the banned The Independent newspaper, by compensating him for violating his human rights in 2006. On 16 December 2010, the regional court confirmed that Saidykhan was tortured by President Yahya Jammeh's security agents while in detention in 2006. It also ruled that Saidykhan’s arrest and subsequent detention were illegal and violated his right to personal liberty and a fair hearing as guaranteed by Articles 6 and 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights. The ECOWAS court, therefore, awarded Saidykhan damages of US$200,000.

In this East African article, Charles Onyango-Obbo, writes about the old school information sharing approach of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF). It has reduced the regular press briefings to a drip. And even when it brings the generals out to speak to the media, they give very little away. There are rarely any leaks. But a juicy leak about the KDF's approach to Kismayu did come through - revealing important implications for businessmen, tax collectors, Al Shabaab and the environment.

Global Press Institute reports that rape victims in Kenya are encouraged to seek immediate medical attention and report cases to the police. But a lack of government coordination leads to long delays in the justice system. Parliament is set to debate a bill to consolidate services in order to hasten the process for victims soon.

The Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS) has condemned what it believes is an attempt by the Mugabe regime to target community radio initiatives in the country. Speaking to SW Radio Africa’s Behind the Headlines programme Gift Mambipiri, the ZACRAS chairperson, said police officers from Gwanda visited Mvelo Zondo, a committee member of the Ntepe rural community radio station. The officers wanted to know the project’s ‘agenda and activities’. The police officers who were from the Law and Order Section told Zondo that they had been led to believe that 'Ntepe was established with the goal of disseminating information which undermines the President'.

In January 2012, International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) staff traveled to Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria, known as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), to assess the state of the news media and examine the prospects for developing a journalistic information network. They have posted a photo gallery which shows the state of media and life in the camps more generally.

The January 2011 revolution in Tunisia brought an end to Internet filtering and control of online content but old habits seem to be resurfacing and Reporters Without Borders urges the Tunisian courts not to take any decision that could lead to the restoration of filtering. A court order requiring the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) to block access to pornographic websites, upheld by a Tunis appeal court in August 2011, revived the debate about censorship. If the order is confirmed, the ATI will be forced to censor online content in accordance with a complaint brought by a group of lawyers calling for the blocking of pornographic content that poses a threat to minors and Muslim values.

22 February is the third anniversary of a raid on Radio Bana in central Asmara in which about 50 journalists were arrested. Most were released but at least 11 are still held and are in solitary confinement. Reporters Without Borders is continuing to campaign for them and other journalists who are imprisoned in Eritrea, some since September 2001.

In November last year CODESERIA held its annual Gender Symposium in Cairo, Egypt on the theme 'Gender and the Media in Africa', opening up a much needed platform on which gender and media scholars could renew reflection on the multi-faceted connection between media and gender in Africa. This special issue of Africa Media Review seeks to continue the dialogue by examining how political and social transformations on the continent resulting from re-democratisation, neo-liberalism and globalisation are implicating the nature of the relationship between media and gender.

Solange Lusiku Nsimire is editor-in-chief and publisher of the independent newspaper Le Souverain in her hometown Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province in eastern Congo, one of the most troubled regions of the DRC. It is a small and crusading newspaper devoted to promotion of democracy and women in a country where abuses against democracy and against women are too often the norm. On 2 February Lusiku had been awarded a prestigious honorary doctorate degree at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), a tribute to her courage as a journalist and women's rights defender.

Nigeria’s military has harassed and obstructed journalists trying to report on unrest in recent days, according to local journalists and news reports. On Sunday in the city of Jos, in Nigeria’s north central region, soldiers detained Jeremie Drieu, a videographer with French television station TF1, and local journalist Ahmad Salkida after they sought permission to film in the area, The Associated Press reported. The Nigerian federal government has been enforcing a state of emergency in Jos following bloody clashes between Muslims and Christians that have claimed the lives of at least two journalists, according to CPJ research.

Somalia President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has announced the government's plan to establish 100 schools in the capital Mogadishu. Several countries and institutions have expressed willingness to offer development assistance to Somalia, especially after the militants of Al-Shabaab, the radical Islamist group, were largely driven out of Mogadishu.

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed issues a decree for people living in government houses to immediately vacate to give the transitional federal government ample time to renovate the badly damaged buildings. More than 60,000 people are said to be sheltering in these government owned houses and ministries, however the Somali government argues that it now has the funds to refurbish the badly ruined buildings that have been left in dilapidated state.

The Committee to Protect Journalists on 6 February condemned official attacks on journalists covering political unrest in Egypt. 'At least two journalists were shot by security forces in the past three days, and a third journalist was assaulted in police custody, according to news reports,' said the organisation.

When the Muslim Brotherhood’s Twitter account asked the seemingly innocent question, 'why do you hate us?' the Islamic group likely did not anticipate the reaction it stirred. The question was directed at Egyptian activists who do not shy away from criticizing the group, especially now that their political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), are in power. The level of intensity soars high. Hundreds of activists took turns in answering the question, as candidly as possible. Feelings of frustration at the groups’s actions thus far and a lack of support for the revolution and its unmet demands were clear in all the responses.

A renowned journalist was humiliated and beaten by security guards manning South Sudan’s National Assembly on Monday, eye witnesses told Sudan Tribune. Mading Ngor, host of the popular ’Wake Up Juba’ show on Bakhita FM, was roughed up by at least four security men and wrestled to the ground in front of other journalists. Only when a MP intervened was he let go by the security services.

Africa Today on KPFA 94.1 FM carries an interview with Yao Graham, executive director of the Third World Network in Accra, Ghana. Graham has written extensively on development and the role of extractive industries in Africa.

Libya's Lap Green Networks has dragged the Zambian government to court over its decision to take over telecoms and Internet service provider Zamtel. The Libyan government says the takeover is illegal, as the company was genuinely acquired and rightly belongs to the Libyan people. A report by a Zambian commission of inquiry, which was constituted by that country's president Michael Sata last year, concluded that the sale of Zamtel to Lap Green Networks by the previous government was 'fraudulent and irregular'.