COMMUNICATIONS: NGOs Complain of Summit Host Tunisia’s Rights Record

One of the biggest clouds looming over the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is the human rights record of Tunisia, which will host the second phase of the Summit, scheduled for Nov. 16-18.

CULTURE: The Home of English Football’s Most Ardent Fans? Uganda

It's a cold, wet Sunday evening outside the Little Highbury pub. Inside, patrons are glued to a huge television screen showing an eagerly awaited football match between two English Premier League teams: Arsenal and Chelsea.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: HIV-Positives in Search of Love, Click Here

Real love, as they say, can be hard to find. And, the odds of coming across a caring partner are even slimmer if you’re open about being HIV-positive.

RIGHTS-EU: Access to Communication Data Opposed

The European Commission proposal for data retention by communication companies is running into considerable opposition.

COMMUNICATIONS: Human Rights at the Information Society Summit

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) managed to avoid a scandal over the exclusion of a group of Chinese activists, but controversy will be difficult to defuse when discussion turns to human rights violations in Tunisia, the host country of the Summit's second phase.

COMMUNICATIONS: Future of Civil Society Participation in Doubt

By the end of the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society this November in Tunis, the role to be played by civil society in bridging the digital gap and democratising communications will be clearly defined. But many activists are less than optimistic about the eventual outcome.

BALKANS: Milosevic Sets Off a Media Debate

Five years after former president Slobodan Milosevic fell from power, he seems to be back, with his wartime ally Vojislav Seselj and with all those speeches of old.

TRINIDAD: News Channel Torpedoed on Maiden Broadcast

The recent decision by the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT) to halt the launch of a news channel here has reignited debate over whether the regulatory body is infringing on press freedom in the country.

MEDIA-THAILAND: Censorship by Proxy, a Looming Threat

Paiboon Damrongchaitham is the new public enemy of Thailand's independent press. ''An arrogant, inconsiderate entertainment mogul'' is how 'The Nation' newspaper described him in an editorial on Monday.

KYRGYZSTAN: Freedom of Speech Comes and Goes

The peaceful spring revolution this year threw out the old president and brought in a new one. For a while it also brought in a new freedom of speech. But government control of media is back.

UAE: Reporter’s Arrest Brings More Press Freedom

With the brief arrest of Basma al-Jandaly, a reporter with a leading English daily in Dubai grabbing headlines around the world, the issue of media censorship in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become a hot topic in the Arabic and English press in the country.

RIGHTS: Sri Lankan Media Failed Tsunami Victims, Report

For a country that suffered more than 35,000 deaths and one billion US dollars in damages, local media coverage of the aftermath of the Dec. 26 tsunami has been woefully inadequate, a study, sponsored by Transparency International in Sri Lanka, has concluded.

DEVELOPMENT: Digital Divide Becoming a Vast Chasm

While information and communications technologies (ICTs) have an important role in meeting internationally agreed development goals, one in every six people still does not even own a telephone, according to experts meeting here.

PORTUGAL: Controversy Burns Over Sensationalist TV Coverage of Fires

The heavy live television coverage of the forest fires that have swept Portugal this summer has sparked critics' complaints of sensationalism and warnings of the danger of encouraging arsonists.

COMMUNICATIONS: No Agreement on Internet Governance

The script for the final act of the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS) will begin to be written on Sep. 19 in this Swiss city, with the participation of a cast that will be made up - for the first time on the international stage - of a wide range of actors: governments, business and civil society.

CHILE: Free Software Activists Criticise Low-Cost Computer Deal

The "My First PC" campaign launched by private companies in Chile with government support has drawn criticism from free software activists, who are working on their own initiatives to expand access to the Internet and the information society.

DEVELOPMENT: Alternative Media a Need, And In Need

The world needs alternative media, and alternative media needs credibility, experts said at a meeting on communication at the start of the Helsinki Conference here Wednesday.

POLITICS-US: Pro-War Groups’ New Tune – ‘Paint It Red’

Late in the evening of Aug. 24, the Drudge Report, one of the Internet's most frequented websites, featured the headline "Anti-War Protesters Target Wounded at Army Hospital", trumpeting a story from the Cybercast News Service claiming that anti-war protesters were taunting wounded soldiers returning from Iraq.

MEDIA-YEMEN: New Struggle for Independence Begins

The abduction of the chief editor of a weekly has brought journalists together in a new struggle to protect their independence.

MALAYSIA: Making Media Monopolies

Visitors to Malaysia would be bewildered by the wide variety of newspapers, TV channels and radio stations that cater to most of the country's several language groups.

POLITICS-US: 9/11 Tapes Underscore Com Breakdown

On Sep. 11, 2001, a New York City police helicopter hovered above the World Trade Centre.