The week under review witnessed increasingly hysterical attempts by the state controlled media to convince its audiences that the government had fulfilled its obligations to the Abuja Accord but that white farmers and ex-Rhodesian racists resident in Australia were attempting to bury the agreement by discrediting the government’s land reforms at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Brisbane.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is gravely concerned for the safety of seven Sierra Leonean journalists, all longtime critics of the government who received identical anonymous death threats during the last week.

When Ghana’s new president, J.A. Kufuor, declared “zero tolerance for corruption” in his inaugural address, most Ghanaians welcomed the move. Yet public opinion appeared to have shifted when the policy claimed its first victim, the naive-looking, ever-smiling youth and sports minister, Mallam Isa.

The International Distance Learning Course Finder is the world's largest online directory of e-learning courses from 130 countries. This universal distance education resource has information on over 55,000 distance learning courses and programs offered from a multitude of universities, colleges and companies.

The free, open-source operating system LINUX is often cited as a good option for organisations and individuals. It's free - many cannot afford to purchase Windows and all the software that goes with it. This review provides links to various web sites about the practical implications of installing Linux on your desktop.

In what is regarded as a victory for media freedom and freedom of expression, the Botswana High Court this week declared a government ban on advertising in two newspapers unconstitutional.

The government-appointed Media Ethics Committee is set to be a permanent fixture on Zimbabwe's media scene after locating a head office and recruiting permanent staff.

The Community Education Computer Society - a computer training NGO established in 1985 for the technological empowerment of the historically disadvantaged - now offers several computer courses for up to 33% discount to organisations and individuals.

The World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum have written a letter of protest to Eritrean President Isayas Aferwerki to express their "serious concern at the government's closure of Eritrea's eight private newspapers". The letter was sent in response to the indefinite closure on government orders of the country's free press last week.

The Media Institute of Southern Africa said in a statement on Wednesday that it was "gravely concerned" about the restrictive provisions contained in the proposed Defence Bill. The Namibian government on Tuesday tabled a law aimed at limiting media coverage of security and defence issues.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Monday expressed "deep concern" at what it described as the increased harassment of Senegalese journalists by government authorities since President Abdoulaye Wade took office in April 2000.

The course is presented by Dr Albert Nolan and Theo Coggin, both highly experienced communicators in the religious and NGO fields in Southern Africa, and is intended for those responsible for compiling newsletters and reports, anyone who needs to improve their writing skills as well as those in executive positions charged with communication in their organisation.

Media liaison, training and crisis communication specialists, Quo Vadis Communications, offers a stimulating two-day course for company executives, the NPO sector and anyone tasked with handling the media in their organisations.

SANGONeT has vacancies for two positions at its Johannesburg offices:
Project Manager: Thusanang, South Africa’s Online Funding Resource Facility.
The successful candidate should have at least two years working experience in the field of managing information, previous experience in project work at a senior level and an interest in the southern African NGO sector and the funding challenges it faces.
Information Co-ordinator should have good writing skills, an ability and interest in working with information, from data capturing to news-writing and provision and an interest in the southern African NGO sector and the challenges it faces.
Contract Period: One-year, with the possibility of an extension
Remuneration will be competitive and is dependent on previous experience and skills. Please e-mail a CV, with references, of no longer than three pages.

Aimed at project leaders, programme managers and monitoring officials, this popular 4 day course aims to equip participants with skills needed to develop tools for a monitoring system. Topics covered include setting 'SMART' objectives, indicator development, planning a stakeholder analysis, identifying various data collection and analysis techniques and constructing an evaluation report. The course is run in a workshop style, whilst adopting a case study approach. For this reason participants should come to the workshop with a project in mind to work on throughout the course.

This is a challenging post with great potential. Primarily responsible for working with local broadcasters to develop HIV radio programming in Sofala, Manica and Tete provinces.

A rogue computer program has been copying itself from computer to computer since Tuesday morning, causing slowdowns for many Internet users as it grabs network bandwidth and individual computers' system resources. The "Nimda" worm spreads by sending infected e-mails that carry an attachment labeled "readme.exe." Do not open any e-mails with suspicious ".exe" attachments. The worm also propagates by infiltrating unsecured Web sites and attaching itself to an unsuspecting computer user's Web browser, IT officials said. Its target is personal computers and Microsoft computer servers, making it a more malicious and versatile strain than the similar "Code Red" worm that surfaced in July and August.

CONTENTS: A. From the desk of the CIVICUS Secretary General, B. General news about civil society and citizen action, C. International, conferences/workshops/meetings/fairs and exhibitions, D. Training courses, E. New publications, F. Internet news and websites, G. Scholarly support and awards, H. From the Reader, I. Funders and donors profile