The Harry Chapin Media Awards (HCMA) was created to encourage the media to tell the stories of hunger and economic poverty. The HCMAs honour print and electronic media for outstanding coverage of hunger and economic poverty and the underlying root causes of these problems.

While Article 39 of Kenya’s Revised Harmonised Draft Constitution makes giant steps in guaranteeing media freedom, Henry Maina finds it still lacking. Maina explores Article 39’s shortcomings in the areas of licensing, censorship and confidentiality and suggests some fundamental safeguards as solutions.

Jacques Depelchin

Alfredo Prado

A court in the capital N’Djamena has found the privately owned weekly La Voix “not guilty” of charges against it and lifted a provisional order for automatic seizure of all copies of the paper made on 3 December 2009. An appeal will be heard on 13 January

An Amazigh-language TV channel first proposed three years ago finally hit Moroccan airwaves on January 6th, satisfying a long-awaited demand by a significant percentage of the country’s citizens.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the unlawful, arbitrary and unjustified detention of Hannevy Ould Dehah, Director of Taqadoumy website in Dar Nahim prison in Nouakchott, after he had served his term.

The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the African regional organisation of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), is calling on the Zambian authorities to immediately end attacks on Zambian media as they work to establish self-regulatory mechanism.

An Egyptian court has sentenced two journalists to one year in prison after finding them guilty of printing a report in their newspaper about the alleged homosexuality of three celebrities.

Namibia's national broadcaster's Director-General (DG) Mathew Gowaseb has quit his job, becoming the third DG to leave the public broadcaster in one year. Media reports said that Gowaseb, who was appointed in acting capacity at the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) last year, had thrown in the towel citing political interference.

Some elements within the Kenyan government are not sincere on the constitutional review process and are using the media gagging law, and some politicians, to scuttle the just released Harmonised Draft Constitution. The Release Political Prisoners (RPP) castigates such a move and implores upon the two principals (His Excellency Mwai Kibaki and the Honourable Raila Odinga) to show leadership on the constitutional review process.

Publishing scientific findings and accessing the research of others is an essential part of the academic process, particularly to encourage debate and foster innovation. But many research institutions in Africa cannot afford to subscribe to many scientific journals, making it hard for scientists to keep up with research, writes Joseph Musakali.

In 1995, Cameroon initiated a restructuring process in the telecommunications sector. Placed among the least-connected countries in Africa (ranked 179th out of 206 countries classified by the International Telecommunication Union), the Telecommunications Regulation Agency (ART) was established to ensure healthy competition between operators at the time of this restructuring.

This week, Libyan blogs addressed several thorny issues including racial discrimination, corruption and the responsibilities and freedom of bloggers.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called for more action from governments and the United Nations to protect media as it announced a grim total of 137 journalists and media personnel killed during 2009.

The University of Dar es Salaam Computing Centre (UCC) has launched a two-year project on capacity building on the effective use and management of information and communication technology in the public sector.

Zimbabwe hopes to improve on its technological sector in the next five years. Technology Minister, Nelson Chamisa, said the country is embarking on a technological revolution path and drastic changes would soon be realized.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the unlawful, arbitrary and unjustified detention of Hannevy Ould Dehah, Director of Taqadoumy website in Dar Nahim prison in Nouakchott, after he had served his term.

Don't miss this excellent opportunity to learn how to respond to the emerging youth market in sub-Saharan Africa through the development of Youth Inclusive Financial Services. This two week course will be offered at the Sustainable Microenterprise and Development Program (SMDP) Ghana in Accra from March 15-26, 2010.

The 2009 was a year of darkness, death, displacement, detention and violence against journalists and the entire media fraternity in Somalia, according to the annual report unveiled by the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ).

Somali prominent journalists in Mogadishu have for the first time officially launched a new Press Freedom Group.Somali Foreign Correspondents Association (SOFCA), after meeting at Nasahablod hotel in Mogadishu.