The National Assembly has been urged to pass the freedom of Information Bill before the end of its tenure. The call was made by the executive secretary of the Human Rights Commission, Bukhari Bello, at a roundtable in Abuja on the Bill which is pending before the National Assembly. The Human Rights Commission has been paying advocacy visits to a number of government organisations to drum up support for the quick passage of the Bill.

PEN American Centre has named Zouhair Yahyaoui, a Tunisian Internet activist whose popular electronic magazine earned him a 2-year prison term, as a recipient of its 2003 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards. The awards, which honor international literary figures who have been persecuted or imprisoned for exercising or defending the right to freedom of expression, will be presented at PEN's Annual Gala on April 22, 2003 at the Pierre Hotel in New York City.

The media in Nigeria should do more to exert pressure on politicians and political parties to always publicise donations they receive. This was the assertion of Abiodun Uwadia, a retired colonel and member of the President Olusegun Obasanjo re-election campaign, in Ilorin. Uwadia described money as an intrinsic part of democracy both in the developed and developing countries, but explained that the alarm being raised in Nigeria about the negative influence of money in the nation's politics arose from the "unnecessary" secrecy in which politicians chose to shroud such political contributions.

The International Federation of Journalists recently announced that it is accepting applications for the 2003 Natali Prize for Journalism. The prize will be awarded in five regions: Europe; Africa; the Arab World, Iran and Israel; Asia and the Pacific; and Latin America and the Caribbean. The Natali Prize for Journalism rewards print and online journalists for outstanding reporting on human rights issues, especially within the context of the development process.  The prestigious award carries a 10,000 Euro prize for each region's winner.  The deadline for applications is May 31, 2003.

This innovative distance learning course on developing participatory leadership skills is intended for leaders, activists, and staff of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in promoting human rights and equitable societies. The course is based on a conceptualization of leadership as horizontal, inclusive, and participatory. Leadership is approached as a process that leads to greater choices for all by fostering communication among individuals who learn from each other, create a shared vision, and reach a common goal forged by consensus.

This article takes a step back from the policy issues surrounding biotechnology and its role in development to present a broad discussion of the biotechnology sector and its implications. The paper argues that if biotechnology is to develop usefully, the risks involved with it should be prevented.

The Editor of weekly "Dira" newspaper in the semi-autonomous state of Zanzibar Ali Nabwa has vehemently refuted government charges that he is not a citizen of Tanzania and that he has been living illegally in the country since 1993.

Conservative estimates by Wilma Meeus and David Sanders at the University of the Western Cape’s School of Public Health show that the United States has saved at least U$3,86-million(R30,9 million) in training fees by employing doctors from Nigeria, which has lost 21 000 doctors to the superpower.

Geneticists and archaeologists could soon be working together to investigate the genetic diversity of our human ancestors in Africa, a meeting on the 'Human Genome and Africa' was told last month. In Europe, Neanderthal DNA has already been sequenced successfully. But ancient DNA has not yet been extracted from African hominid fossils, partly because very little organic material is preserved in African fossils more than 10,000 years old, as preservation requires cool, dry conditions.

The open source software (OSS) movement is undoubtedly gaining momentum in SA with the local enterprise market and government starting to gain a better understanding of the value proposition behind the adoption of OSS. This is according to Mark Rotter, senior analyst at African ICT research house BMI-TechKnowledge.

A computer centre that will allow Zimbabwean children orphaned by HIV/AIDS access to Internet facilities has been opened in Harare's high-density suburb of Glenview. The centre, named Cybergateway, was opened last Sunday and will enable HIV /AIDS orphans in Glenview to receive and send electronic mail messages free of charge.

A science and technology stakeholders' workshop aimed at discussing the importance of technology in modern society was held in Harare recently. Among some of the workshop's objectives included promoting public awareness of science and technology.

Columnist Mike Cassidy is encouraged by the role of the Web and email in organizing and informing political movements. He notes that new communication technologies have connected people with causes as big as the anti-war movement and as small as a one-day fast in protest of corrupt Indian politics. (Sourced from the The TAD Consortium. Contact neilshel@icon.co.za)

As bombs blasted Baghdad last week, dozens of cell phones in China buzzed with messages about where to stage an anti-war protest. In Cairo, activists tapped out text messages to summon 5,000 demonstrators to a central square, and in San Francisco, technophiles beamed live footage from protests to anti-war Web sites. Prohibitively expensive only a few years ago, gadgets ranging from the cell phone to the mini digital video camera simplify protests from Brussels to Manila.

A Franschhoek farmworker has won a historic victory for women's rights and the rights of farmworkers in the Land Claims Court. Clarina Julius - a worker at the farm Wonderland that belonged to Anglo American Farms until recently - opposed an application by the company to evict her and 14 other families from their home at Languedoc, near Franschhoek.

The Atua Government Hospital has been selected as one of the health institutions to administer anti-retroviral drugs to full-blown AIDS patients as from May this year. The drugs are expected to boost the health of AIDS patients to ensure prolonged lifespan. The hospital is the only one selected for the pilot project on the administration of Nevirapine, the drug for the prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS positive women during labour as well as the newly-born baby.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has called on the European Union to intervene on behalf of detained journalists in Eritrea. RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said in a letter: "Our organisation particularly calls on the European Union to condition the resumption of economic aid to Eritrea on the release of the 18 journalists it has imprisoned and the re-emergence of a free, privately-owned press in the country."

Mutare-based freelance reporter Stanley Karombo says police beat him and searched his home after arresting him on 19 March 2003. The police also confiscated his mobile phone and tape recorder. Karombo was arrested under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) for allegedly practicing journalism without accreditation. He was released on 24 March on Z$5,000 (approx. US$6) bail.

The number of journalists behind bars rose sharply in 2002, while heightened awareness of journalist safety and a decline in the number of global conflicts last year contributed to a decrease in the number of journalists killed for their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists' (CPJ's) annual survey of press freedom conditions around the world.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) reports that on March 26 the Communications Ministry's press attaché informed all foreign correspondents, including those with Radio France Internationale, Agence France-Presse, Reuters and the BBC, that the minister was barring them from practicing their jobs "until further notice."