Since the November 2004 murder of Frank Kangundu, journalist with the Congolese daily ‘La Référence Plus’, and his wife, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has entered a sad cycle of killings of media professionals. The most recent target was Didace Namujimbo, a journalist with Radio Okapi, who was shot in the head by unidentified assailants near his home in Ndendere, in South Kivu’s Ibanda county (eastern DRC) on Nov. 22, 2008.

In a bid to lure votes and increase their exposure, presidential candidates in Tunisia are taking their campaigns to the pages of popular social networking website Facebook. At least two candidates, Mohamed Bouchiha of the People's Unity Party (PUP) and Ahmed Nejib Chebbi of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), have created their own pages on the website to campaign in the October 2009 elections.

Kano State government has said it would make the teaching of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) mandatory at all levels of education and that it had commenced the training of teachers on its use, as well as upgrading libraries to digital ones.

This study commissioned by APC and written by wireless expert Ian Howard explores sustainable ICT and the need for wireless internet access for development (W4D). Intended to serve as a guide to members of the W4D community involved in African initiatives, Howard draws conclusions based on his observations of two telecentres in Tanzania with very different business models.

The Kenyan government has defended a contentious media bill which critics say is intended to gag the press. The Kenya Communications Amendment Bill, which was passed by parliament, gives the state power to raid media houses and control broadcast content.

The rise of the mobile phone as a bank account substitute in Africa was reinforced as Vodafone announced the launch of a cross-border mobile money transfer service between the UK and Kenya.

Media owners on Thursday urged President Kibaki to withhold his signature from the controversial Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill, describing it as the “most draconian Bill on the media since Independence” that was passed “out of revenge.”

The Mozambican police have re-arrested Anibal dos Santos Junior ("Anibalzinho"), the man who led the death squad that murdered top investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso in November 1980. Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo). Anibalzinho escaped from the cells in the Maputo City Police Command on Sunday morning, with two other murderers, Samuel Chavengueza ("Samito") and Custodio Luis de Jesus ("Todinho").

South Africa’s Sumbandila microsatellite is scheduled for launch on March 25 next year, which will be a Wednesday. The launch will be on a Soyuz launch vehicle of the Russian Roscosmos space agency, from the renowned Russian-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. SumbandilaSat will form a secondary payload for the rocket, the primary being a Russian Meteor M weather satellite.

We are concerned that the media community is sitting idly and letting politicians decide our fate. We cannot afford to allow Parliament to pass the Kenya Communications Amendment Act with its provisions that will definitely lead to our emasculation. And nobody should be deceived that this Act will be good for the media and the country. The devil is in the detail, and upon a closer look, one will discover that what the Government has done or condoned in the past against the media – the May, 2005 attack by First Lady Lucy Kibaki on hapless journalists, the March, 2006 raid by Mamlukis at the Standard, and the ban on live broadcasts early this year — will just be but a prick compared to the proposals in the Kenya Communications Amendment Act. We met Members of Parliament serving in the committee that deals with media, led by Eng. James Rege, on September 15, 2008 at their invitation to discuss this Kenya Communications Amendment Act, and gave them a raft of proposals.

Africa's first communications satellite has suffered an energy failure just 18 months after its launch. The solar panels have malfunctioned on the Chinese-manufactured satellite, according to Alhassan Zaku, Nigeria's minister of state for science and technology.

A new law that, if passed, will allow the Kenyan government to determine the content, style, manner and schedule of broadcasting, has drawn fierce resistance from the media industry. The Kenya Communications Amendment Bill 2008, which is now in its final stages of the legislative process in Kenya's Parliament, proposes to set up a communications commission appointed by the government to issue licences to broadcasters and a raft of heavy fines and prison sentences for various offences.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the imprisonment of Abdel Fettah Ould Abeidna, the editor of the privately-owned Arabic-language weekly Al-Aqsa, in Nouakchott on a criminal libel charge. Abeidna was immediately jailed on his arrival from Dubai, from where he was extradited.

Ten Sudanese newspapers have suspended publication as part of a growing protest against state censorship, Sudanese journalists said. Reporters said on Tuesday that it was the biggest voluntary shutdown of the media since the days of British rule in the 1950s.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has today welcomed the conclusion of the first working congress of the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), held in Nairobi, Kenya last week end as a historic milestone in strengthening African Journalists. "IFJ affiliates in Africa have finally realised a long-held ambition to set up their own federation. This will have a tremendous impact on journalists and media in Africa.

Students at the correspondence-based University of South Africa (Unisa) will be required to sign up for a Microsoft-provided email address before they are able to receive correspondence from the university. The required email address is part of the first phase to build the MyLife portal to foster a “sense of belonging” among students, the university says.

US district court jury acquitted San Ramon-based Chevron Corporation of complicity in human rights abuses. The case of Bowoto v. Chevron, which pitted Chevron and its relationship with the notoriously violent Nigerian police and military against Nigerians who peacefully protested the destruction of their environment and livelihood by Chevron’s oil production activities. Despite the verdict, corporate accountability advocates vowed to continue the struggle to bring Chevron and other corporations to justice for human rights violations they commit overseas.

We, the undersigned organizations, register our serious distress and concern on the news received this morning concerning the abduction of Zimbabwe Peace Project Director, Jestina Mukoko. Ms Mukoko was reported as having been forcefully taken from her home in Norton Harare, at 5am, this morning still wearing her nightdress. Her abductors are suspected CIO and police agents.

A24 Media is Africa’s first online delivery site for material from journalists, African broadcasters and NGO’s from around the Continent. A24 Media’s business model ensures that all contributors receive a wide and previously unknown exposure to their content, thereby generating sustainable and generous revenues from the sale of their stories on a 60:40 basis in favour of the contributor. Most importantly, the contributor will continue to OWN the copyright of the original footage.

L’Essor and Radio Klédu have been named “Centers of Excellence” in the International Women’s Media Foundation’s (IWMF) new initiative, Reporting on Agriculture and Women: Africa. The goal of the four-year initiative is to enhance news media coverage of agriculture, women in agriculture and rural development in Africa.