The Institute for Palestine Studies’ Congressional Monitor project, launched in 2006, tracks every legislative initiative introduced in the US Congress that mentions Palestine or Israel or has bearing on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The Congressional Monitor Database contains all relevant legislation from the 107th through the 110th Congress (2001-2008) and will be updated on an ongoing basis to include legislation from before 2001 and after 2008. It includes key information such as legislation number, sponsor, party and state represented, number of cosponsors, brief summary, related measures (if any), and final status of the measure.

Amandla has been on the air for 23 years, making it Canada’s longest running African current affairs radio show. It works every week to shift the public’s attention away from the mainstream media’s narrow portrayal of Africans as passive victims of war, famine, drought, dictatorship and corruption. Amandla seeks to explain the root causes of these afflictions, but also to move beyond this focus to encompass the creativity, ingenuity, innovation, ideas and struggles for change that Africa also embodies. Amandla, Wednesday, 7pm to 8pm EST, on

The Somali Journalists Association Network said on 14 June they had learnt that the National Security Agency for the Somali government had detained two radio journalists in the capital city of Mogadishu. Both were working for the privately owned independent Radio Kulmiye Based in the capital Mogadishu.

Public health officials may be able to forecast cholera outbreaks months in advance by looking at temperature and rainfall data, according to a study. Researchers looked at cholera outbreaks in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and found that they correlated with increases in temperature and rainfall. They calculated thata one degree Celsius increase - from 23 to 24 degrees Celsius - was followed by a doubling of cholera cases four months later.

A bewildering list of Cameroonian academics and intellectuals at home and abroad are throwing their full support behind President Biya and the ruling CPDM party, writes Dibussi Tande, in this week’s review of African blogs.

ARTICLE 19 has urged the Rwandan Parliament to pass the Access to Information Bill that was adopted by the Rwandan Cabinet on 1 June 2011 as a matter of priority. 'The Rwandan Government’s adoption of the Access to Information Bill is a clear acknowledgement of the key role free flow of information can play in good governance and transparency and in the sustainable development of the country. The Rwandan Parliament must now expedite the enactment process so that the people of Rwanda can start enjoying the benefits of this law,' said Henry Maina, Director, ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa.

Ibrahim Foday, a reporter of The Exclusive, a Freetown-based independent newspaper, was on 12 June 2011, stabbed to death by unknown assailants in Grafton, a town in the outskirts of Freetown, where Foday lives. The Sierra Leonean authorities have not identified any suspects or disclosed possible motives for the murder, according to a release by the Sierra Leone Association of Journalist (SLAJ), on 13 June 2011. The SLAJ statement linked Foday’s death to an ongoing land dispute between Grafton and another town, Kossoh. Prior to his death the reporter had published a series of articles, on the dispute that the Kossoh people were not pleased with.

Mobile phone users should not expect any further call price cuts for now. This is after Safaricom and Telkom Kenya got backing from the country’s top offices - that of the President and of the Prime Minister to suspend implementation of new termination rates. Safaricom and Telkom Kenya had warned that a further cut would have a negative effect on the sector’s profitability, risk of job losses, curtail new capital investments, reduce government revenue and competitiveness.

South Africa's best-known cartoonist, Zapiro, could again be facing legal action by the African National Congress (ANC) following the publication of a new cartoon of President Jacob Zuma. In Zapiro's latest cartoon in the Mail & Guardian newspaper, published on June 10, Zuma is portrayed with his belt unbuckled, while ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe holds a woman depicting press freedom. 'Lady Justice' is also drawn, and shouts: 'Fight, sister, fight!!' The cartoon is a comment on the ruling party's Protection of Information Bill and the proposed media appeals tribunal.

A Casablanca court on 9 June sentenced opposition journalist Rachid Nini to one year in prison and fined him 1,000 dirhams (100 euros). The Al Massae editor was indicted in late April on charges of disinformation, attacking state institutions, public figures and the 'security and integrity of the nation and citizens'. Nini published a series of articles criticising Moroccan security authorities and other influential figures. In his writing, he cast doubt over the terrorist attacks experienced by Morocco and demanded the abrogation of the Terrorist Act.

Reporters Without Borders has learned that six opposition activists, who are also reporters or informants for La Voix de Djibouti, an opposition radio station that broadcasts on the short-wave from Europe, have been held in Djibouti’s Gabode prison for the past four months without being tried. The six detainees - reporters Farah Abadid Hildid and Houssein Ahmed Farah and informants Houssein Robleh Dabar, Abdillahi Aden Ali, Moustapha Abdourahman Houssein and Mohamed Ibrahim Waïss - who are members of various opposition parties, were placed in pre-trial detention on 9 February on a charge of 'participating in an insurrectional movement'.

Few cases of sexual assault against journalists have ever been documented, a product of powerful cultural and professional stigmas. But now dozens of journalists are coming forward to say they have been sexually abused in the course of their work. The Committee to Protect Journalists has interviewed more than four dozen journalists who have undergone varying degrees of sexual violence - from rape by multiple attackers to aggressive groping - either in retaliation for their work or during the course of their reporting. They include 27 local journalists, from top editors to beat reporters, working in regions from the Middle East to South Asia, Africa to the Americas.

A major pan-African science, technology and innovation (ST&I) survey, aimed at mapping the state of research to help with policymaking, was released on 24 May. The 'Africa Innovation Outlook 2010', prepared by the African Science and Technology Indicators Initiative (ASTII) and launched at its workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, covers 19 countries from across the continent and aims to plug an information gap on the state of science in Africa.

The following can be found in the new issue:
- An in-depth look at the food price volatility and food markets
- The launch of the People’s Food Policy in Canada
- Voices and testimonies from Brazil and Mozambique
- An update from the International Seeds meeting in Bali.
Visit the website for more information.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has applauded President Goodluck Jonathan, of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, for signing into law the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill. 'The objective of the act is to make public records and information more freely available and to also protect public records and information to the extent that they are consistent with the public interest and the protection of personal privacy,' according to a statement from the presidency.

'We wholeheartedly endorse the position of our federation COSATU in criticising the current state of the Protection of Information Bill. We are also alarmed that the ANC Parliamentary Caucus is using its majority to ensure that no significant improvements and safeguards against abuse of the bill are being taken into consideration. Many other organisations supporting the growing Right to Know Campaign have eloquently outlined what the implications will be for civil liberties and accountability if the Bill is passed, and we are grateful to them for bringing this to the attention of the South African public, but we also believe that for those of us in the municipal sector, there are particular concerns. SAMWU has been in the forefront of fighting corruption at municipal level, and long before it was politically acceptable to do so.'

'The Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomes the decision by ANC MPs to extend the 24 June deadline to complete drafting the Protection of Information Bill. COSATU hopes that the extra time will be used to re-examine the problematic clauses of the Bill which could conflict with Clause 16 of the Constitution’s Bill of Rights. In particular the parliamentary ad-hoc committee needs to examine the genuine concerns from civil society that the provisions of the bill could be abused to cover up crime, corruption and misuse of funds by allowing officials to classify the evidence of this as secret.'

'Transparent governance, free expression and a free press are essential components of democracy. They are the means by which all people in South Africa, especially the vulnerable and poor, can hold our government to account. Our effectiveness at getting the state to implement HIV treatment and prevention programmes has been dependent on the Constitution being upheld, especially the Bill of Rights. We are therefore deeply concerned by reports that the ANC Parliamentary Caucus is backtracking even on its recent, inadequate concessions in relation to the Protection of Information Bill. As it stands, this bill will restrict media freedom. It will also severely limit the ability of organisations like ours to hold government accountable or to support government in working for a better life for all. The bill will drive a wedge between the state and the people it is supposed to serve.'

'Iman Tari,' a voice calls forward. Tari, a stout woman wearing a black burqa and white headscarf, rises from her seat. A young man in his late 20s stands up beside her and supports her as she walks. Her feet step slowly and steadily across the cement floor to a table laden with microphones and earpieces. Tari inches closer to the microphone and begins her testimony to the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, TJRC, established by Parliament in 2008 to investigate the gross human rights violations and other historical injustices in Kenya committed between 12 December 1963 and 28 February 2008. The TJRC spent 32 days in April and May holding hearings in the Eastern and North Eastern provinces.

It is the time again when we seek entries for the prestigious FitzGerald prize for young African journalists. This offers a scholarship for a promising, young (under 30) African journalist or aspirant journalist to do a post graduate BA hons degree at the University of The Witwatersrand ’s Journalism Programme in Johannesburg, starting in early 2012, and to join Reuters thereafter for a period of work experience.