MEDIA-NEPAL: Radio Faces the Music, Again

Eastern classical music has been playing across a wider than usual band of the FM radio spectrum in Nepal's capital, since Sunday night, when the government shut down the country's first community radio station for "encouraging terrorism".

RELIGION: Dispute Rises Over Cartoons of Prophet

Islamic organisations are engaged in growing conflict with a Danish newspaper over its publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

MEDIA: New Network to Promote Journalism with a Gender Perspective

More than 100 journalists from 14 countries have started networking to find ways round censorship, give gender equality greater prominence in the media, and promote the use of non-sexist language.

MEDIA: Born Again Non-Aligned News Network Has Chances

Hopes for a Non-aligned News Network (NNN) have been rekindled at a ministerial meeting of non-aligned countries here, this week, but the hurdles it faces are very different from those existing when the idea was first floated, in the heady days before the collapse of the Soviet empire.

POLITICS-US: A Close Call for Al-Jazeera?

The White House emphatically denied a report by a British tabloid Tuesday that U.S. President George W. Bush considered bombing the headquarters of the al-Jazeera satellite television station in Qatar during the U.S. Marine assault on Falluja in April 2004.

MEDIA: Poverty Missing from the News Agenda

How can problems like poverty, education, health, the environment and gender equality make it to the front pages of newspapers or onto radio and TV newscasts?

WSIS: This Cranked Up Computer Could Close a Gap

This little green computer runs without electricity or batteries, and it costs 100 dollars. And it could do more than all thhe speeches made at the World Summit on the Information Society to help narrow that 'digital divide'.

WSIS: Internet Can Create, Not Crush, Culture

You cannot resist the Internet, so you might as well bathe in its tidal wave-like wash over the world's cultures, says the director of the centuries old Alexandria Library in Egypt.

COMMUNICATION: Internet Boosts Reach of Alternative Radio

While the transnational corporations showed off the latest in information and communication technologies (ICTs) at the world summit that ended Friday in Tunis, reporters from alternative radio stations remained loyal to their old tape recorders and microphones.

MEDIA: South Seeks News “For Us and By Us”

In an interview with a U.N. correspondent many moons ago, an outspoken Asian politician was asked to name the "leading newspapers" in his country.

WSIS: Civil Society in Worried Celebration

Despite failing to get its alternative citizens summit off the ground, and in the face of disappointment over some decisions at the World Summit on the Information Society, and repression by the Tunisian government, civil society groups joined officials and businessmen Friday in celebrating the outcome of the meeting.

WSIS: Private Sector Advances In Public Space

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) concluded Friday night with claims of success by the United Nations, governments and the private sector, but civil society refused to wholeheartedly embrace its outcome.

WSIS: Civil Society in Worried Celebration

Despite failing to get its alternative citizens summit off the ground, and in the face of disappointment over some decisions at the World Summit on the Information Society, and repression by the Tunisian government, civil society groups joined officials and businessmen Friday in celebrating the outcome of the meeting.

WSIS: Private Sector Advances In Public Space

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) concluded Friday night with claims of success by the United Nations, governments and the private sector, but civil society refused to wholeheartedly embrace its outcome.

PARAGUAY: Internet Access? What About Just a Telephone?

When Emilio Contrera, a small farmer in Paraguay who is nearly 80 years old, wants to phone his daughter in the capital, he must first overcome a number of hurdles.

WSIS: Wiring Women Won’t Close the Gap

"People say, 'what are you talking about: it's just a computer, it's just a telephone - how can there be gender issues over technology?' There's still no understanding of how things like computers get into institutions and are incorporated into existing male-dominated power structures," says an Indian woman delegate here for a global meeting on making the so-called Information Age benefit all people.

WSIS: Criticism Was Conviction, Say Swiss

The Swiss government has been at the centre of controversy here over host government Tunisia's treatment of journalists and human rights activists prior to the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

MEDIA: Defining Limits to Internet Freedom

While maximising Internet access is a global concern, this net-savvy island nation is grappling with problems arising from attitudes and behaviour considered incompatible with a wired world.

WSIS: Gadgets Win the Debate

Heads of state issue eloquent policy statements at the gold-domed compound of the 176- nation summit. Vocal civil society groups and the best of academia are engaged in debates. They have the words, but the real action lies at a glittering pavilion where the latest gadgets and systems are exhibited by the likes of Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Nokia.

WSIS: Civil Society Highlights Tunisia’s Human Rights Record

With a solidarity visit to a group of Tunisian hunger strikers, non-governmental organisations continued their efforts Thursday to highlight Tunisia's human rights record.

WSIS: More Internet, Less Poverty?

Building a bridge across the digital divide might not be the smooth path to poverty reduction that many people believe.