COMMUNICATIONS-CUBA: Internet Only in Dollars, and Away from Home

Internet access will become even more limited in Cuba when a government resolution takes effect later this month, allowing only those who pay for telephone service in dollars to connect - except for some specially authorised cases.

MEDIA-AFRICA: A Depressing Start to 2004 for African Journalists

The new year has started on a bad note for the media in Africa, with journalists under siege in various parts of the continent.

MEDIA-U.S.: Iraq Blotted Out Rest of the World in 2003 TV News

AIDS killed three million people around the world last year, more than two million of them in Africa. The three major U.S. television networks' evening news programmes devoted a combined total of 39 minutes to the issue.

RIGHTS: Killings of Journalists Soared in 2003 – Reports

The news was not good for journalists in 2003, as media workers were killed, jailed and censored at much higher rates than a year earlier, according to reports by two watchdog groups.

COSTA RICA: Hired Killers of Journalists – a New Phenomenon

The peaceful Central American country of Costa Rica was recently shaken by the second murder of a journalist committed by paid killers in just over two years.

ASIA: Community Radio’s Voice Gets Louder, So Does Interference

The voice of community radio is getting louder across Asia, but so is the interference coming from governments that are wary about their growing strength.

MEDIA-CHILE: Protesting Threats to Freedom of Speech

Dressed in black and with their mouths gagged, a group of young journalists gathered Monday outside Chile's lower house of Congress to protest recent developments that activists say are threatening freedom of speech in this South American nation.

ECUADOR: Micro-Entrepreneurs Set Sights on E-Commerce

A community project in Ecuador is making the most of the Internet economy, which is otherwise considered out of reach for most countries of the developing South, according to the United Nations E-Commerce and Development Report 2003.

SRI LANKA: ‘Free Media’ Panel Part of Political Games

Sri Lanka's media have come under the microscope once again with this week's creation of a task force to formulate a free media policy, a move that has been praised but also slammed as a political move.

CHILE: Stations Opposed to AIDS Campaign Accused of Double Standards

Scantily-clad models and actors telling off-colour jokes are stars on the same TV channels in Chile that have refused to run government ads that encourage the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

COMMUNICATIONS: Mobile Phones in Vogue in Africa

Africans' insatiable appetite for cell phones has made the continent a profitable market for the high-tech gadgets, which were introduced only a decade ago. But in the intervening ten years, the sales figures have masked a larger social story: how the proliferation of cell phones is changing Africans' relationships with one another.

COMMUNICATION: Civil Society Goes for Own WSIS Declaration

Civil society groups' issuance of their own version of a declaration - apart from the official document of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) that ended Friday - reflects their disappointment over the meeting's failure to push for people-centred information and communication societies.

COMMUNICATIONS: Civil Society’s Star Rises at WSIS

For the first time, an international summit of representatives from civil society and the private sector took place with the participation of governments, said one observer with irony, surprised by the role played by non-governmental organisations at the World Summit on the Information Society.

CULTURE: Global Systems Selling Out Indigenous Knowledge – Forum

In one part of the northern Philippines, the naming of a child begins with a history "lesson".

RIGHTS-ASIA: ‘Free’ Societies Battle Trickier Media Woes

India is often called the world's biggest democracy, but journalists there are increasingly becoming targets for reprisals and police coercion, as well as legal action from state governments.

DEVELOPMENT: Digital Fund to be Considered Later

A decision to set up a Digital Solidarity Fund advocated by some of the poorest countries will have to await the second phase of the global information summit.

COMMUNICATION: Everyone Wants to Govern the Internet

When typing in a web address (like www.ipsnews.net) or sending an e-mail, most people probably don't give much thought to how Internet domain names are assigned.

SCIENCE: Experts Probe How to Apply Knowledge Beyond Creating ICTs

As the acknowledged engine behind the sweeping technological advances of our time, scientific discoveries and innovations are at the heart of discussions on how the information society - which science itself has made possible - can better serve the needs of humanity, particularly of peoples in the developing countries.

DEVELOPMENT: WSIS Focuses on Illiteracy and Poverty

Share the benefits of information technology with the poorest countries and shape its use to fight illiteracy and poverty: this is the gist of appeals to rich countries and business organisations at the first global summit on information.

MEDIA-BALKANS: Journalists Face Increasing Threats

Reporters are facing increasing violence in the Balkans for writing critical reports on political leaders.

COMMUNICATIONS: No Mysteries at WSIS

The World Summit on the Information Society is proving a rara avis of international conferences in the sense that before it began Wednesday all of the major controversies that emerged during the two years of preparations had largely been resolved.