Constitutional Court Justice Albie Sachs has handed down judgment in the Biowatch case. Calling the case “a matter of great interest to thelegal profession, the general public, and bodies concerned with public interest litigation”, Justice Sachs set aside the costs order awarded against Biowatch in favour of Monsanto and further awarded legal costs in the High Court hearings in favour of Biowatch and against the state. The bench of eleven judges was unanimous in its decision.

WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange has won the Amnesty 2009 New Media Award for work exposing hundreds of recent extrajudicial assassinations in Kenya. The award was presented last night at a ceremony in London. Four people associated with investigating the killings have themselves been murdered, including noted human rights lawyers Oscar Kingara and John Paul Oulo, who were assassinated driving to an afternoon meeting at the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights in March.

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) on June 2, 2009, officially denied any involvement of its members in the recent vandalisation of privately-owned Techiman-based Classic FM in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. The regional chairman of NDC, John Owusu Agyeman, told Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) in a telephone interview that no party member took part in the alleged attack on the radio station and therefore called for police investigations into the matter.

The Alternative Information Development Centre (AIDC) is working in partnership with the National Community Radio forum (NCRF) to produce a quarterly Amandla! News Diary. The Diary aims to support community media projects in South Africa to set a progressive news agenda and plan for their current affairs programing/ editorial - supporting them to develop a practice of 'peoples media' rather than aping the commercial and public media (following their stories, angles, and sources).

What is the media’s role in development and how can they take a more meaningful part in helping rural communities in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to achieve the millennium development goals? These are the core issues to be addressed in Brussels, Belgium from 12 to 16 October, when the ACP/EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), together with its partners, will host an international seminar on the "Role of the media in agricultural development in ACP countries".

The first Kenyan photojournalist to win the CNN Multichoice Journalist Award has been banned by social networking site Facebook. Boniface Mwangi who won the CNN Africa Photojournalist of the Year 2008 is starting up a new Facebook profile after his was deleted last week due to his radical status updates. Commenting on the issue he said, “I was removed from Facebook due to controversial updates calling for political change and the youth to stop hero worshiping tribal leaders who have messed up our country.” One of his last comments before his profile was deleted was “Kenyans elect criminals to parliament all you need is money to get elected.” He had over 1,500 friends.

African synergy is focused on facilitating cultural collaboration across Africa - in every way possible. Our goal is to see a decisive break with the legacy of ‘cultural isolation’ between African countries. To this end, we build arts linkages cross Africa - between French, Portuguese and English speaking Africa – the major fault-lines of isolation – as well between the regions of East, West and Southern Africa. African Synergy works through a network of festivals, venues and arts NGOs, comprising 75 cultural operators in 15 countries. We work in partnership.

* Are you an Executive Director or manager of a non-profit organization
* Are you working in the NGO sector?
* Is your organization’s sustainability threatened by shrinking donor support?
* Are you in charge of fundraising and resource mobilisation in your organization
* Do want to enhance your skills in fundraising?
* Are you a trainer or consultant in fundraising and resource mobilisation for the non-profit sector?
If your answer to any or all of the above questions is yes, then this 20 days course organised jointly by GIMPA, the Resource Alliance (UK) and the African Women’s Development Foundation (AWDF) Ghana is definitely a must!

A radio producer was gunned down last week in crossfire in Mogadishu, while another journalist died on 26 May from gunshot wounds suffered while covering fighting in central Somalia in April. They are the third and fourth journalists to be killed in Somalia this year, report the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

The APC Africa ICT Policy Monitor website was launched in late 2001 with a goal to provide information to African civil society organisations to fruitfully engage in information and communications technology (ICT) policy advocacy in Africa. At that time the idea of ICT policy advocacy was a relatively new one in many countries on the continent, and we wanted governments and policy-makers to recognise that access to and the use of ICTs is a basic human right.

In 1997, the people of Benin were definitely ready for the arrival of cellular phones, referred to as GSMs in the area (GSM stands for Global System for Mobile communication, a specific mobile standard). The fixed telephone was not widely adopted due to a lack of bandwidth and of technology adequate enough to allow the volume of connections necessary to serve Benin.

2009 is the year of the Big Change. Cheaper and more abundant international fibre capacity will come to East Africa and 2010 will see the same happen in West Africa. New cross-border fibre connections will tie more countries together: two announcements are in the news sections below. But Africa is in danger of getting all the pipes and hardware in place and missing out on thinking about the user and the services and applications they might use.

There was much activity in the magistrates’ courts in Harare on Thursday when human rights lawyers, two senior journalists and WOZA activists appeared in court for separate, routine, remand hearings. Two editors from the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper, Vincent Kahiya and Constantine Chimakure, appeared before Magistrate Catherine Chimanda, who ruled that they will stand trial on June 16 th. This was after the State Prosecutor, Moses Musendo, argued that they face serious charges that justifies them standing trial.

For the first time, at this year’s eLearning Africa in Dakar, delegates from all over Africa and beyond will join leading international experts for a major debate on an issue of central importance for the future of education in Africa. The subject for this year’s debate is technology, an issue that is likely to stir up a lively discussion among delegates. The debate, which will be held in English and French, will be co-chaired by former British parliamentarian Dr Harold Elletson, a member of the advisory board of eLearning Africa, and the well-known Senegalese television presenter Khalil Gueye.

Harare Magistrate, Catherine Chimanda on 28 May 2009 ruled that editors of the Zimbabwe Independent , Vincent Kahiya and Constantine Chimakure, appear for trial on 16 June 2009. The two are charged under Section 31 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act which criminalises the communication of statements that are likely to undermine public confidence in the law enforcement agents.

Amina Saho-Ceesay, sitting at Banjul Magistrates' Court, has set 15 June for ruling on Point Newspaper's Managing Editor and Reuters correspondent, Pap Saine's matter, PANA was informed Thursday. According to reliable sources, the judgement date was fixed during the Wednesday session of the court after Saine's lawyers had urged the magistrate to “acquit and discharge” the journalist, arguing that the prosecution had failed to establish “a prima-facie case” and that Saine had “no case” to answer.

Authorities in Freetown have charged Sylvia Blyden, Publisher and managing editor of the privately-owned 'Awareness Times' newspaper in Sierra Leone, with “defaming” President Ernest Bai Koroma, the sub-regional rights body, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), said in a statement received by PANA Thursday.

Even by Africa’s grim standards, it was a horrendous statistic: 5.4m people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo from “war-related causes since 1998”, claimed the International Rescue Committee in January last year. The figure, based on a series of house-to-house visits across the country conducted by the New York-based agency, won widespread acceptance. It was used by the IRC and other relief bodies in their appeals for funds, cited by diplomats in their efforts to restore peace to the region and reported by journalists seeking a statistical shorthand for an African catastrophe.

Following a concerted campaign, the Kenyan government has published amendments to the Communications Act, which will delete a controversial clause that allows the government to raid broadcasting stations, report the Africa Free Media Foundation, the Media Institute and local news reports.

While Asia and Latin America are seeing a boom in the use of free software, now taking the global lead, Africa is still lagging behind, depending largely on expensive programmes and pirate copies. Researchers from the University of Seville, Spain, have carried out a report mapping the use of free software around the world, concluding that the use of free software in South America and Asia will be around 70 percent in 2010, with a special relevance in the education sector.