The Lubanga case has set important precedents for the rights of victims in international criminal proceedings. For the first time in the history of international criminal justice, victims had the opportunity to present their views and concerns before the ICC.

The Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has criticised ‘empty’ promises of media reform made by the country’s coalition government. The criticism comes with less than a week left for Media and Information Minister Webster Shamu to implement key media reforms, after an alleged agreement by the principals in the unity government. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told a press conference recently that this agreement had been reached during a weekly meeting with his coalition partners more than two weeks ago.

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Togo to investigate a report that police assaulted a photojournalist after he took photos of officers seizing a motorcycle during a protest, according to media reports and local journalists. Koffi Djidonou Frédéric Attipou, a photojournalist with the weekly Le Canard Indépendant and the biweekly magazine Sika, told CPJ he was covering a protest over government human rights violations when he turned his camera to police confiscating a demonstrator's motorcycle nearby. Togolese police, facing numerous allegations of heavy-handed and abusive tactics, have had a number of recent confrontations with journalists covering their activities, according to news accounts and CPJ research.

Following the killing of yet another Somali journalist, Ali Ahmed Abdi, the global media rights body - International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) - on Monday expressed 'total dismay over the serial killing of Journalists' in Somalia, PANA reports. The latest killing followed the 'brutal murder' of another Somali media executive, Abukar Hassan Mahamoud, barely a week ago. According to IFJ, three Somali journalists have been killed since the start of this year and Abdi becomes the 30th journalist murdered in Somalia since 2007.

Africa has been the world’s fastest growing region over the last decade in terms of mobile penetration. While fixed line penetration has stagnated at four per cent in the continent, mobile has grown at an astonishing rate to 45 per cent with North Africa leading at 73 per cent. However broadband is lagging behind considerably when compared to other continents.

Over the past few years, a number of allegations of alleged brutality and the excessive use of force by the Swaziland Police have been made. In the Siteki area, these allegations have recently led to public protests and strikes. It has been reported that four residents of the area have died at the hands of the police. This piece documents testimony from witnesses, friends and family members of the four people who were killed.

Reporters Without Borders says it is disturbed by Morocco's recent newspaper censorship and attempts to suppress online free expression. Distribution of the leading Spanish daily El País was again banned on 26 February while two netizens have been given jail sentences in the past few weeks for criticizing the king on social networks.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Senegalese authorities to thoroughly investigate recent attacks on the media and ensure that the press is able report freely on the country's presidential election results and potential run-off. In a statement, the media rights group said it had documented at least 12 incidents of threats and physical harm against journalists reporting on the campaign, Sunday's vote, and its aftermath.

A leading member of Kenya Indymedia - whose motto was that 'we are servants of the community' - has been gunned down.

It can be argued that the opposition was the main looser in the so-called mediation initiative by former Nigerian President Obasanjo. Obasanjo also kept M23 busy enough to abandon street demonstrations that had become a daily occurrence.

Media and Information Minister Webster Shamu now has days to meet an ultimatum to implement key media reforms, which could usher in some long awaited freedom in Zimbabwe’s media space. he ZANU PF Minister has been ordered to reconstitute the boards of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe and the Mass Media Trust.
Shamu was given the ultimatum after a meeting of the principals in the unity government.

Tunis judge Faouzi Jebali has granted Nasreddine Ben Saida, the publisher of the daily Attounissia, a provisional release and postponed his trial until 8 March. Ben Saida, who went on hunger strike, was held for more than a week for publishing a photo of a football player embracing a naked model.

Reporters Without Borders says it is stunned to learn that Abukar Hassan Mohamoud, the manager of Mogadishu-based radio Somaliweyn, was shot dead 28 February outside his home in the capital’s Aargada district by men armed with pistols. The press freedom organisation condemns his cold-blooded murder, which joins a long list of crimes of violence against journalists in Somalia, and reiterates its call to the international community to do everything possible to ensure that these killings do not go unpunished.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is calling for a global coalition against censorship at a time when repressive governments, 'militants' and criminal groups around the world are controlling information to maintain their grip on power. 'There is a collective interest in ensuring that information flows freely...An attack on an Egyptian, Pakistani, or Mexican journalist inhibits the ability of people around the world to receive the information that journalist would have provided,' CPJ executive director Joel Simon said in CPJ's annual report, Attacks on the Press, launched on 21 February.

Africa Today with Walter Turner recently hosted Southern African activist Prexy Nesbitt, who spoke about developments in South Africa. Nesbitt speaks about the origins of his work and his connection with Southern Africa.

Walter Turner, host of the show, Africa Today, a weekly radio program on Africa and the African Diaspora interviewed Onyango Oloo on 24 February 2012. The focus of the interview was on the political and historical developments in Kenya between 1963 with a special emphasis on the responses of Kenyans to the ICC process.

Following a nine-hour court session, presiding judge Ahmed Refaat announced that the final verdict in Hosni Mubarak’s trial will be pronounced on 2 June, adding that the session will be aired live on national television. In what is known as the trial of the century, Egypt’s ousted president Mubarak, his ex-interior minister and six of his aides face charges of complicity in killing protesters during the popular uprising that toppled the regime in January 2011. Mubarak also faces corruption charges along with his two sons Alaa and Gamal and businessman Hussein Salem in the same case.

There are more than 20 community radio stations in Zambia. Most have a coverage radius of less than 20 kilometres. Yet they are significant to both rural and urban dwellers, whose interests range from politics to agriculture. But Zambia’s progress towards meeting this new demand for information is meeting some obstacles. The country recently dropped four places on the Reporters Without Borders index of press freedom. Gagging of journalists, censorship and political interference have all negatively affected the quality of service delivery to Zambia’s listening audience.

Gasasira has reason to be wary of Rwandan authorities. After three men beat him severely in 2007, his newspaper was suspended in April 2010 and his deputy editor assassinated in unclear circumstances in July that year.

More than 50,000 women have been treated for complications from unsafe abortions in Zambia during the past decade, compared to just 600 women who have received legal abortions in the same period. International organizations and local activists cite barriers to safe and legal abortion, despite a law regarded liberal regionally. Others say abortion should not be legal under any circumstances in a Christian nation such as Zambia.