TECHNOLOGY-AFRICA: Poverty an Impediment to Internet Growth

Africa's editors are communicating more and more through the Internet, forming members-only chat-rooms to exchange thoughts on the issues that confront the continent, and to share solutions when these appear.

POLITICS-MALAYSIA: Critics Hit Weaknesses of Rights

For Yong Kai Ping, the editor of the Chinese-language magazine 'Perspektif Pedas' (Spicy-hot Perspective), the last one year has been hotter than usual.

VENEZUELA: Opposition Mayor Shuts Down Community TV Station

The Venezuelan government and rights activists charge that the Caracas city hall - under a mayor who opposes the Hugo Chávez administration - has violated freedom of expression by ordering the closure of a community television station.

CULTURE-THAILAND: Hill Tribes Go High-Tech to Preserve Way of Life

As the sun sets, all the traits of a community light years away from modernity emerge in this northern Thai village. There is, after all, no electricity to illuminate the homes made of bamboo walls and thatched roofs, and to keep out the invading darkness.

COMMUNICATIONS-MEXICO: The Ripe Business of TV and Elections

The costs to the state of election campaigns in Mexico are among the highest in the world, and it is the major television networks that cash in on the situation.

MEDIA-EGYPT: Anti-American Press Pays the Price

The regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak continued its crackdown on media earlier this week as the police banned an anti-American weekly.

MEDIA-INDONESIA: Revolution Underway in People’s Radio

The hundreds of community-owned radio stations beaming local music and people's voices across the huge Indonesian archipelago today reflect a sea change from the Suharto years, when a handful of the former president's business cronies dominated local media.

TECHNOLOGY-SOUTHERN AFRICA: A Tall Order for IT to Fill

Southern African nations are entering the modern information age by hammering out polices to coordinate the growth of information and communications technologies (ICT) in their countries.

MEDIA-IRAQ: The Real Danger Lies Within

If the reality in Iraq is one thing and the reporting of it remains another, it is because much of the media wants it that way, say two leading journalists who have been reporting the 'other' side of the Iraq story.

MEDIA-JAMAICA: Gov’t to Revive Public Broadcasting System

Mindful of the problems public broadcasting is facing in other countries, and its own history of politicised programming, Jamaican authorities nonetheless have decided to restore high-quality state radio and television here.

RIGHTS-US: Washington Rolls Out Big Brother Database

The Hollywood movie "Minority Report" starred Tom Cruise as a cop in a world where a trio of omnipotent psychics predict crimes before they happen and suspects are punished before they can do the deed. The U.S. government, in similar fashion, is developing a sprawling computer system to predict terrorist activity and identify terrorists.

RIGHTS-VENEZUELA: Attacks on Press Going Unpunished, HRW Reports

Continuing violence against journalists in Venezuela is threatening the right of freedom of expression in the South American country, Human Rights Watch said today.

DEVELOPMENT: The Revolution Will Be Wireless, Experts Say

While rich nations of the world continue to reap hefty profits from the use of wireless internet, most poor countries remain shut out from this phenomenal technology, say U.N. officials, policy makers and information technology experts.

MEDIA-CHINA: Brief Period of Openness Now on Hold

A brief period of relative openness in the tightly controlled state media in China has been put on hold as the Communist Party braces for an upcoming speech by party chief Hu Jintao, where he is expected to push for much delayed political reforms.

MEDIA-VENEZUELA: Pushing Freedom of the Press to the Limit

''If there is a country where freedom of the press exists and where that freedom has been pushed to the limit, it is Venezuela,'' the executive director of Human Rights Watch/Americas, Jorge Vivanco, said Thursday at the World Social Thematic Forum (WSTF) in Colombia.

RIGHTS-MOROCCO: Freedom of Expression Held Captive

International journalist rights organisations on Monday demanded the release of Moroccan colleague Ali Lmrabet, on the eve of the court's decision on his appeal and coinciding with the 41st day of the prisoner's hunger strike, which is now life-threatening.

MEDIA-MIDEAST: Arabs Debate ‘Misinformation’ during War on Iraq

Two months after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the Arab media is coming under scrutiny for 'misleading' people in the region into believing that Iraq would provide stiff resistance and even win the war against the U.S.-led forces.

PHILIPPINES: Teaching through Mobile Technology Debuts in Schools

When classes begin this month, students in the fifth and sixth grades from selected public and private schools in the Philippines will not just be leafing through pages of their textbooks or listening to their teachers' lectures on science.

MEDIA-INDONESIA: Crackdown on Aceh a Propaganda War Too

The Indonesian government is once again using nationalistic propaganda and media censorship to gain public support in its military offensive in Aceh, but journalists and activists say Jakarta would do well to learn from its previous mistakes in East Timor.

RIGHTS: EU Urged to Combat Child Pornography on Internet

The European Union needs to step up measures to combat child pornography on the internet, according to members of civil society groups.

COMMUNICATIONS: Three Who Are Not a Crowd

The state, civil society and the private sector must work together to foment more widespread use of the latest information technologies, which are vital for the economic and social development of all countries, say experts from the sector.