The South African courts and the Truth and Reconciliation process largely failed to unravel the whole truth around apartheid atrocities, and this left people angry and disquieted, Cape High Court Judge Dennis Davis said on Wednesday. Davis said the acquittal of apartheid-era chemical warfare expert Wouter Basson left people with the feeling that they had been "denied the truth".

One day after his passport was confiscated, veteran journalist and editor of the weekly independent "Dira" newspaper in Zanzibar, Ali Nabwa, has reached an agreement with the Department of Immigration that he would surrender his Tanzanian citizenship and reapply for it as the Department had demanded earlier this year.

"The Daily News" editor Nqobile Nyathi was arrested and charged under the Public Order and Security Act for allegedly publishing advertisements insulting the president. Nyathi confirmed that she had been summoned to Harare Central Police Station.

The World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) has included in its deliberations the issue of Internet governance with various stakeholders voicing their concerns around governance issues during the recently concluded call for inputs to the WSIS draft declaration and action plan. Chakula staff took a look at some of those inputs, which focus on the role of different stakeholders in the management of public resources such as the country top level domains (ccTLDs) and some reflections on the overall governance of the Internet at global level. (Chakula is produced by the Africa ICT Policy Monitor Project of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) -

Karti News is released every two weeks and contains the latest news and information about Somalia, Somaliland and the Horn of Africa. The newsletter has sections on the peace process taking place in Kenya, human rights, health and education, women and gender and civil society. Karti News forms part of a project whose overall objectives is the achievement of permanent respect for human rights, justice through rule of law, pluralism, good governance and sustainable peace in Somalia and Somaliland. To subscribe, send an e-mail to editor@somali-civilsociety.org with only the word 'subscribe' in the subject or body of the message.

President Bakili Muluzi has threatened to deal with media houses that probe the way he distributes maize to his supporters during political rallies. Muluzi was apparently incensed by a lead article in the "Weekend Nation" of June 21-22, 2003, that questioned the source of the alms the president doles out at his rallies.

Barring any last minute hitches, Nigeria's proposed National Virtual Library Project (NVLP) will come on stream in October, reports www.balancingact-africa.com. The project is aimed at providing Nigerian students, academics and administrators, access to current books and journals in their fields using computer technology as a tool. This is expected to boost learning, teaching and research in the nation¹s institutions of higher learning.

A monthly electronic newsletter from Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) - http://www.wougnet.org. For comments or queries, contact info@wougnet.org. To subscribe/unsubscribe to the WOUGNET Update Newsletter, send a message to wougnet-update-request@wougnet.org with the following command in the subject or body of your message: subscribe/unsubscribe.

The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN has welcomed the release of Daher Ahmed Farah, editor of the newspaper Le Renouveau and leader of the Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development. Farah was released on 23 June 2003 when the presiding judge at his hearing ruled that no crime had been committed and that the defendant was therefore not guilty. He had been accused of libel and had been detained since 20 April 2003.

"Today" newspaper editor, Masautso Phiri, has defied an order to present himself for interviews at police headquarters in Lusaka. Phiri told the Zambia Independent Media Association (ZIMA), the Zambian Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), that he had decided to "make himself unavailable" to the police until they say why they wanted him to report to them.

The Media Monitoring Project has noted with concern the recent suspension of the publication of The Daily Mirror, which its publisher, Ibbo Mandaza, attributed to the “dire economic situation”. "Its contribution in the provision of information to the public and media diversity in the country cannot be understated. It is through a diverse media that the public gets a platform to express themselves and access information of their choice, as should be the case in a democratic society. Therefore, the closure of the publication is indeed a blow to the country’s democratic struggles," said the Media Monitoring Project.

CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights has condemned the Nigerian authorities “mop up” of this week’s edition of the investigative news magazine Tell. In a nation wide operation lasting about a day and a half at the beginning of the week, virtually the entire print run of the weekly magazine normally available for four to six days after publication was bought up by hundreds of teams of plain clothes security agents. Although a good number of the “mop up” teams were reportedly “polite”, in many cases, the “mop up” was enforced by intimidation where distributors, newsagents and vendors rejected generous sums well beyond the cover price. Commenting on the developments, CREDO’S Coordinator Rotimi Sankore condemned the “mop up” stating: “While it is less brutal than outright seizure of publications and the locking up of journalists, the mass buying up of the latest edition of Tell magazine, utilising what appears to be public funds, represents a new and sinister censorship strategy by what is supposedly a newly elected democratic government.”

MISA-South Africa says it is "deeply concerned" about a proposed upward referral system contained in a draft editorial policy for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). "It is, in our view, an attempt to deliberately compromise the editorial independence of the editors and journalists. While the Draft Editorial Policy document duly acknowledges the essence of time in journalism and programming, we are concerned that the SABC would even consider a system that would clearly violate fundamental principles of editorial independence and compromises the South African public's right to receive and impart information."

The Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed alarm that Ugandan authorities have closed the Catholic Church-owned Radio Kyoga Veritas FM, in the north-eastern town of Soroti. The station was reportedly closed for airing reports about fighting in the region between government forces and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

Transparency International-Kenya's fortnightly newsletter is called Aldi, a Kiswahili (Kenya's national language) word meaning integrity. To receive the newslettter by email please visit the web site.

This past year has seen the world of Weblogs, aka the blogosphere, grow in power and stature, if not to the general public, then to the other media. Check out this graphical depiction of the most influential blogs - considered to have pushed the direction of media coverage and public policy.

With millions of people in the world's poorest countries still excluded from the right to communicate, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for bridging the digital divide between developed and developing countries. "The terms 'information society,' 'digital era,' or the 'information age' have all been used to describe this age," Mr. Annan said in a message marking World Telecommunication Day. "Whatever term we use, the society we build must be open and pluralistic – one in which all people, in all countries, have access to information and knowledge.

At a meeting of high-tech specialists organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa, leaders in southern Africa expressed concern over their ability to deliver on the promise of ICT for development when funds are low.

The South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) says it is concerned at the impact the current version of the draft Anti-Terrorism Bill could have on individuals and broad civil society in South Africa. In a submission to the National Assembly's safety and security committee on Tuesday, it said the draft legislation as it stood lacked a clear and unambiguous definition of what would constitute an act or acts of terrorism.

Cyber cafés catering mainly to students and young people are proliferating around Bamako, Mali's capital, showing the growing importance of information and communications technology (ICT) in the landlocked West African country. However, most Malians have yet to join the digital age. To make the Internet and other digital tools available to all sectors of society, the Government is formulating and implementing a national ICT strategy.