On 24 March 2009, Akin Orimolade, the Abuja bureau chief of "National Life" newspaper, regained his freedom after one week of detention, when a Magistrate's Court sitting in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital, rescinded a warrant of arrest issued for him and two others over a publication involving Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa state.

One of Africa’s largest countries, DRC, has taken the first towards creating a fibre link to its neighbours and the outside world. A little-noticed announcement was made at the end of last month by the Vice-First Minister for Reconstruction that gave the green light to start construction work on a fibre optic link from the capital Kinshasa to the coastal town of Muanda. Russell Southwood looks at the potential impact on the country’s connectivity.

The SA blog awards is a showcase of the very best of South African blogs. The 2009 SA Blog Awards is scheduled for its annual process of nominations and voting this year from 1st March through to 1st April, and the winners announced on 3rd April. Among those in contention is

The IFJ has called on the Senegalese Government to dialogue with media companies following the threat to close private radios and televisions stations for nonpayment of licenses fees. “This is a serious threat on jobs for journalists and on press freedom. Indeed, it is surprising that this decision was made on a Sunday, the day of election, when the provisional results were not favorable to the government” declared Mr. Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ Africa Office.

Alfred Sirleaf is an analog blogger. He take runs the “Daily News”, a news hut by the side of a major road in the middle of Monrovia. He started it a number of years ago, stating that he wanted to get news into the hands of those who couldn’t afford newspapers, in the language that they could understand. Alfred serves as a reminder to the rest of us, that simple is often better, just because it works. The lack of electricity never throws him off.

Sierra Leone's vice president, Samuel Sam-Sumana, on Mar. 13 ordered an indefinite ban on radio stations owned by the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) and its main rival, the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP). This comes in the wake of a wave of politically-motivated clashes between rival party militants across the country these past two weeks. The situation has deteriorated so much so that by-elections in Gendema, a remote town bordering Liberia, had to be put on hold.

A Malian association uses ICT to gather data from farmers to meet international export standards and makes the same information on the web to help supply chain partners and inform consumers. When the Malian fruit and vegetable export organization, Fruit et Légumes du Mali (Fruiléma), decided to promote locally grown mangoes to markets overseas, it also wanted to give consumers the chance to find out more about the product and where it came from.

The Zambia National Farmers’ Union publishes up to date market information on the web and sends out trader and price details to farmers using a system of SMS messages. ‘I used to sell my crop for a very low price, just because I had no idea of how the market was moving’’ says James, a small-scale farmer from the Chongwe district in Zambia. ‘I often felt confused when I was dealing with traders’, he adds. ‘I thought that I had to take the first bid the retailer offered’.

Harrison Nkomo, a top Zimbabwean human rights lawyer known over the past decade for defending journalists in Zimbabwe, has been nominated for the Bindmans Law and Campaigning Award by Index on Censorship. Nkomo has in the past few years been arrested, intimidated and assaulted by state agents in Zimbabwe while trying to do his job. In March last year he was arrested for allegedly insulting President Robert Mugabe.

Abou Al Abbass Ould Brahim, a Mauritanian journalist, ar rested and detained by Police 15 March for allegedly criticizing the military junta in the country, has been released without being charged to court, the sub-regional press freedom body, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), said in a statement received by PANA Thursday.

UNHCR’s Division of External Relations (DER) in Geneva is looking for a consultant with expertise in the development and use of Social Media platforms. Reporting directly to the Head of the Electronic Publishing Unit (EPU), the consultant will bring with them at least 3 years experience in the field of Social Networking and Web 2.0 interactive platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, Google Earth, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter.

Tata Communications has earned the right to serve as anchor tenant on an undersea fiber-optic cable that’s 9,320 miles long and is poised to connect much of the east African coast. Partly funded by nations along the coast (the cable itself is about three-quarters African-owned), the Sea Cable System, or “SEACOM (News - Alert),” is worth about $650 million.

The African Research and Resource Forum last year held a 3 part seminar series on Discourses for Strengthening the Civil Society in Kenya. As a result, a book ‘Discourses on Civil Society in Kenya’has been published. The book is currently on sale at the ARRF Offices, African Book Services alongKoinange Street and Simply Books at ABC Place.

The cancellation of a popular phone-in show on Namibia's national broadcaster has raised fears that the ruling party is clamping down on media freedom ahead of national polls this year. Last week Namibia's government broadcaster NBC shut down the morning Chat Show, saying callers deluged it with hate speech and cultural insensitivity.

Representatives from 29 different African parliaments met last week in Kigali to reaffirm that “equitable access to information is a right for all” and urge governments to enact laws that promote access to information, knowledge and communication for all citizens. Traditionally seen as civil and political rights, information rights are now becoming acknowledged as rights that are also social and economic, said APC’s Anriette Esterhuysen in her presentation which was framed by APC’s internet rights charter. The charter has just been translated into its twentieth language, Esperanto.

Editor of the daily The Point, Pap Saine, has had two trials in which he is facing charges adjourned to later in the month. In the first, before a court in Kanifing, near Banjul, on a charge of “publication and dissemination of false news”, the judge, Sainabou Wadda-Ceesay, ordered an adjournment until 23 March, because of the need to ensure the charges against the journalist conformed with a 2005 amendment to the criminal code.

Reporters Without Borders has expressed its renewed concern after five newspapers stopped publishing and several journalists were threatened and physically assaulted during the political upheaval of the past few weeks. The media has become the prisoner of a hostile climate for press freedom since the start of the power struggle between the president, Marc Ravalomanana, and the ousted mayor of Antananarivo, Andry Rajoelina, the worldwide press freedom organisation said.

About two weeks ago, traditional authorities in the mountain kingdom of Swaziland slapped the nation's most outspoken political columnist, Mfomfo Nkambule, with a fine--to be paid in cows--for criticism of the administration of King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute ruler.

A radically different website is launched this week – is conceived, designed, funded, written and implemented by a Scottish software developer based in Zimbabwe – Alex Weir. The intention of this site is to stimulate economic development in the Third World – the timing may be fortuitous, since the whole Global Economy is greatly in need of stimulation...

We are writing to express our concern over the lack of progress in the police investigation into the brutal murder of journalist Francis Kainda Nyaruri. In January, the Committee to Protect Journalists urged the police to investigate Nyaruri’s murder, whose slashed and decapitated body was found January 29 in Kodere Forest near his hometown of Nyamira.