MEDIA: Watch That Box for Al Jazeera, and More

The appearance of an English language service from Al Jazeera television will mark more than expansion of a company; it will come as one of the biggest challenges yet to the dominance of Western news providers, academics say.

DEVELOPMENT: World’s Poorest Nations Slowly Get Online

An African diplomat from one of the world's 50 poorest nations, described as least developed countries (LDCs), once complained that it took about five to 10 years to get a landline telephone connection in his home country - and an additional five years to get a dial tone on the new phone.

MEDIA-IRAQ/US: Is It the PR, or the Policy?

In a recent speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared that, "The enemy is so much better at communicating. I wish we were better at countering that because the constant drumbeat of things they say - all of which are not true - is harmful."

MEDIA-IRAN: Ban on Newspaper Portends Tighter Censorship

Few were surprised by Monday's ban on Iran's leading reformist newspaper ‘Shargh' (East), which has for some time been boldly voicing dissatisfaction with the outcome of last year's elections that brought President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

U.S.-9/11: Poll Finds Waning Faith in Military Interventions

Five years after "9/11", the U.S. public is considerably less enthusiastic about projecting military power abroad, according to a major new survey, the first of a spate of polls that are likely to released in the run-up to Monday's fifth anniversary of the attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

MEDIA-9/11: Remembering the Journalists

"If there's only one sight I'll remember from the destruction of the World Trade Centre, it is the flight of desperation - the headlong leap from the top-most floors by those who chose a different death than the choking smoke and flame," wrote John Bussey of The Wall Street Journal on Sep. 11, 2001.

LATIN AMERICA: Warning – Used Cell Phones

Although mobile telephony has seen exponential growth in Latin America, the region lacks integrated policies for handling used and obsolete cellular telephones, which are manufactured with materials that are toxic to the environment and human health.

TECHNOLOGY-INDIA: Cyber Coolies Bridge Digital Divide

When Deepak Jagdish, a young Indian student of computer science, explained to Bill Gates last month the complex navigation and processing system of new software, which mimics the echo location system used by bats, to assist visually challenged individuals move about safely, the founder of Microsoft remarked: ''I have never seen something like this''.

MEDIA-IRAN: Crackdown on Satellite TV Taken Stoically

Iranians have taken stoically a crackdown on rooftop satellite dishes that allow then to watch 'decadent' foreign channels as well as a proliferation of Farsi language programmes beamed in by dissident expatriates.

CARIBBEAN: HIV/AIDS Goes Primetime

With persistently high HIV/AIDS rates second only to sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean is stepping up outreach efforts with a new media collaboration that will use everything from documentaries to soap operas to haul the disease out of the shadows and into public consciousness.

ENVIRONMENT: Information Cleansing, Canadian Style

If you're a teacher, student, journalist or just a plain concerned citizen interested in finding well-researched documentation about climate change, you can no longer depend on the Canadian government to supply that information.

MEDIA-PAKISTAN: Taliban Wins Hearts and Minds With Gory Videos

The terror and agony on the faces of the two men, chained to the rear of a moving vehicle and dragged over a rough, unpaved road, are vivid. Relief comes in the shape of a dagger that slits their throats, to shouted cries of Allah-o-Akbar (God is great) in the background.

MEDIA-AFRICA: “Threatened From Everywhere”

Concerns about restrictions on press freedom in Africa have surfaced again, this during a two-day conference held in Kenya that attracted over 100 media representatives from across the continent.

BOOKS: Starting a New Conversation About Iran

Amid the overwhelmingly negative media coverage of Iran in the west, a chorus of new literary voices has emerged that portrays a far more complex image of that nation and its culture.

LATIN AMERICA: Jewish Communities Ratchet Up Complaints of Anti-Semitism

Every time armed conflict flares up in the Middle East, Israeli embassies and Jewish communities around the world step up their efforts in defence of the Israeli cause, regularly accusing the press, or governments that criticise Israel's foreign policy, of anti-Semitism.

MEDIA-NEPAL: Community Radio Makes Reforms Inclusive

Nearly four months after successfully pushing the fight against royal dictatorship, community radio stations in Nepal are at the forefront of another revolution - turning the airwaves into an educational medium for constitutional reforms.

MEDIA-PHILIPPINES: ‘Getting Killed Goes With the Journalist’s Job’

For a country that boasts of having the freest media in South-east Asia, the Philippines bears a stain that is not easy to whitewash. It has an expanding graveyard for journalists killed in the line of duty.

RIGHTS-BURKINA FASO: Journalist Case Puts Spotlight On Justice System

A decision by a judge to drop charges against the suspect in the case of slain journalist Norbert Zongo has placed Burkina Faso's justice system in the spotlight.

DEVELOPMENT: New Move to Bridge Digital Divide

The Commonwealth has launched a new initiative to take information technology to underdeveloped countries that need it most.

MEDIA: Workshop Eyes Millennium Goals Through Gender Lens

Journalists participating in a recent workshop found themselves scrambling when asked to define the words sex and gender - despite having frequently used the terms in their articles.

MEDIA-AFRICA: It Shouldn’t Have to Bleed to Lead

The state of Africa, Charlayne Hunter-Gault says in her most recent book, "New News Out of Africa", is in many ways shaped by the public's image of Africa, and the image of Africa is in the hands of the media.