SANGONeT, in association with LINK Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand, is offering a certificate course designed to promote computer literacy.

You are invited to an Open Seminar on the WSSD: International Critiques of Unsustainable Development Coordinated by three international progressive think-tanks: Focus on the Global South (Bangkok), International Forum on Globalization (San Francisco) and the Southern and East African Trade, Information and Negotiations Initiative (Harare).

A group of eight people, including all members of one Florida family, had an implant chip, roughly the size of a grain of rice, injected under their skin on Friday, May 10. Manufactured by Applied Digital Solutions (ADS), the chips store a special identification number that enables the retrieval of personal and medical information. In the event of a medical emergency, a special handheld scanner activates the dormant digital implant, which provides identification data with which medical personnel can query ADS's database, the location of the patient's medical records (from The Internet Scout Report).

The Congress of South African Trade Unions deplores the fact that 40 percent of the new phone lines that Telkom has delivered over the last four years have been subsequently disconnected. This news confirms our worst fears about the effects of the privatisation process.

The report by a panel set up last week by the Federal Government to investigate an allegation in the Time magazine that foreign correspondents resident in the country were bribed with $400 each to give the nation a less negative image described the allegation as unfounded, adding that officials of the Ministry of Information and National Orientation "acted above board in the circumstance."

At its meeting, held in Ljubljana, Slovenia on 9 May 2002, the Executive Board of the International Press Institute (IPI) unanimously agreed to keep Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Venezuela and Zimbabwe on the "IPI Watch List".

This issue of Drum Beat includes just some of the all-embracing, bilateral and multilateral Africa initiatives, and some of the policy frameworks developed on a country level.

TrainingPoint is an experimental project with the goal of creating a self-supporting online community of nonprofit technical assistance providers. Take a look at the online lessons/tutorials (only Microsoft, so far) that are online.

APC Policy Monitor Websites gather legislation, policy information and valuable documentation for campaigners and civil society organisations.

In the past few weeks the National Intelligence Agent (NIA) in South Africa raised an outcry among journalists after it demanded intimate details about their private lives.

The licensing of a wholly owned government signal carrier company, Transmedia, to offer satellite broadcasting services in partnership with the DStv Network represented by MultiChoice-Zimbabwe, has sparked an uproar among other applicants.

A magistrate court in Harare ruled on May 7 that arrested "Daily News" journalist, Lloyd Mudiwa and Zimbabwe correspondent for the British paper "The Guardian", Andrew Meldrum, have a case to answer. The two were remanded out of custody to May 22, 2002. Charges against the other accused, Collin Chiwanza of "The Daily News", have been dropped.

The International Federation of Journalists, the world's largest journalist's group, and the Eastern Africa Journalist Association (EAJA) have expressed their strong concern regarding the adoption of a media regulation that has been passed in Kenya. "This law is repressive regulation that is potentially seriously damaging to press freedom," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary.

Hopes that President Moi would block a controversial law restricting media freedom were dashed on 13th May when he declared his firm support for it. The President said he would assent to the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendment) Bill to curb what he termed as "irresponsible journalism".

The ruling party in Zimbabwe will sue media organisations, including those outside the country, and the main opposition party for reporting a false story, the state-run Sunday Mail reported. The story concerned a false claim by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) two weeks ago that a woman was beheaded by supporters of President Robert Mugabe's party.

Parliament on 9th May closed the door on freedom of the Press when it passed the contentious Media Bill. The draconian law, which awaits the presidential assent, will punish vendors , media houses and journalists. Vendors who peddle newspapers, which are not bonded, will now pay Sh20,000 as fine or face a six months jail-term or both. Media houses will now be required to pay Sh1 million to publish newspapers. The bond was raised from Sh20,000 to Sh1 million.

Parliament's approval of a Bill allowing the government to control the media was condemned as draconian, unnecessary and an assault on free speech. Media owners, lawyers, the Kenya Union of Journalists and a cross section of Kenyans questioned the timing of the Bill. Most of the critics saw the Bill as an attempt to control media coverage of political events in an election year.

Your Excellency, I am writing on behalf of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), a non-profit, non-governmental organization advocating for a free press and freedom of expression around the world. We wish to express our concern about the state of press freedom in Senegal, in particular, with the recent sentencing of journalists Mamadou Oumar Ndiaye and Pape Ndiaye, publication
director and reporter, respectively, of the Dakar-based weekly Le Témoin.

The Ethiopia government has demanded that the military head of the United Nations peacekeepers be removed from his post after a row over the disputed border with Eritrea. It accused Maj-Gen Patrick Cammaert of "serious mistakes" after journalists were flown into a disputed village on the border. "He did not do his job properly, so we want him to be removed," Netsannet Asfaw, Minister of State for Information, told IRIN on Wednesday. "If he is doing his job properly, it is amazing that journalists would enter Ethiopian territory without a visa. What is he doing?"

George Maziku, a correspondent for "Mwananchi" newspaper, is facing a criminal case after being interrogated and detained by the police for several hours. He is alleged to have displayed "contempt of Parliament" by writing a seditious article against Parliament. In his column that appeared on 7 April 2002, entitled "Mabadiliko ya Sheria ya Uchaguzi yanakusudia nini?" (Where does electoral law reform lead us?), Maziku explained how the law reform is used to legalise different election scenarios in favour of the ruling Revolutionary Party of Tanzania (CCM).