/REPEAT/TECHNOLOGY-AFRICA: Internet Users Ripped Off by Western Companies

African Internet users are being forced by Western companies to pay the full cost of connecting to the World Wide Web, while European and American users pay nothing. This is one of the main hurdles blamed for the slow spread of the Internet in the world's poorest continent.

/REPEAT/TECHNOLOGY-AFRICA: Internet Users Ripped Off by Western Companies

African Internet users are being forced by Western companies to pay the full cost of connecting to the World Wide Web, while European and American users pay nothing. This is one of the main hurdles blamed for the slow spread of the Internet in the world's poorest continent.

TECHNOLOGY-AFRICA: Internet Users Ripped Off by Western Companies

African Internet users are being forced by Western companies to pay the full cost of connecting to the World Wide Web, while European and American users pay nothing. This is one of the main hurdles blamed for the slow spread of the Internet in the world's poorest continent.

POLITICS-PAKISTAN: Media Criticism Infuriates Govt Ahead of Vote

In the weeks before an Apr. 30 referendum on giving Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf another five years in power, the government has been ultra-sensitive to criticism from the press.

VENEZUELA: Crisis Raises Questions about the Media’s Role

Venezuela's short-lived coup d'etat and President Hugo Chávez's return to power not only threw the political system into crisis, but the public and private media as well, which analysts say will have to answer to the citizenry for the role they played in the recent events.

CULTURE-JAPAN: Mobile Phone Use Creating New Language

When 16-year-old Miri Takahashi wants to tell her friends she cannot go the movies, she does not call them. Instead, she presses several arrow buttons on her mobile phone to send a picture of a sad face.

MEDIA-AUSTRALIA: Proposed Laws Could Snuff out Diversity

For the first time, Australia newspapers could come under bureaucratic controls in a market with fewer owners and less content diversity if Parliament passes proposed government legislation to overhaul media ownership laws.

RIGHTS-INDONESIA: Freedom of Information Bill Hits Snag

When the Indonesian House of Representatives announced in mid-March that it would soon put the freedom of information bill on its agenda, local journalists and reformists of all political stripes were beside themselves with excitement.

MEDIA-BRAZIL: Foreign Capital to Boost Local Programming Content

The Brazilian parliament is set to approve a constitutional amendment that pursues apparently contradictory objectives: opening the media, especially TV, up to foreign investment in order to increase local content in programming.

TECHNOLOGY-CHILE: Gov’t Promotes Insertion in New Economy

The Chilean government has designated more resources aimed at making the Internet available to more people, and President Ricardo Lagos enacted a law creating the "digital signature", part of a package of initiatives to put this South American country "in the vanguard" of the so-called new economy.

MEDIA-CANADA: Gold Giant’s Lawsuits Silence Press

A litigious "war on reporters" by Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp. may have kept the press from discovering what really happened when miners were evicted from a site in Tanzania now owned by Barrick, says a journalist sued by the company.

RIGHTS: More Journalists Killed, Jailed in 2001

Killings and imprisonment of journalists world-wide rose sharply in 2001 over the previous several years, due in part to the U.S. "war against terrorism", says the annual report of a major press watchdog group.

POLITICS-JAMAICA: NGOs Say Information Act Has Too Many Holes

Some local groups are saying that several key clauses in the government's newly tabled Access to Information Act will actually reduce, not increase, the material available for public scrutiny.

COMMUNICATIONS: Internet Marks North-South Telecoms Gap

The expansion of communication information technologies continues at a rapid pace worldwide, but the gap separating rich and poor countries when it comes to Internet access continues to widen just as quickly.

ECONOMY-JAMAICA: Technology Sector Struggles to Regain Focus

Despite an audit cataloguing mismanagement of public funds and continued opposition calls for his resignation, Jamaica's embattled Minister of Industry, Commerce and Technology, Phillip Paulwell , says his technology policies will attract investment and create jobs. His critics say neither will happen.

MEDIA-MALAWI: Fire Guts TV Station

Malawi's only television station - TVM - has been burnt down to ashes. Its director general, Benson Tembo, says TVM's studios, including its transmitting studio, have been completely destroyed.

RIGHTS-THAILAND: Independent Media Tells Government to Back Off

In a vivid demonstration of unity, Thailand's independent media have been shedding their political differences to challenge the government's latest measures at silencing its critics in the press and on the airwaves.

MEDIA-DR CONGO: New Radio Broadcasting for Peace

A new radio network has been launched in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to coincide with the start of the Inter-Congolese dialogue in Sun City, South Africa.

MEDIA-HAITI: Journalists Confront Dire Situation

Sitting upright and looking tense in a hotel room on the outskirts of this capital, top Haitian journalists Guy Delva and Leopold Berlanger do their best to explain just how dangerous life has become for the free press here over the past two years.

RIGHTS-VENEZUELA: Chavez Fuels Anti-Media Climate, says Watchdog

The Venezuelan government's attitude towards freedom of expression has continued to come under international scrutiny, with the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) complaining that the discourse of President Hugo Chávez encourages aggression against reporters and the press.

MEDIA: Broadcasters Grapple With Environmental Agenda

The 1992 Earth Summit triggered a surge in media reporting on the environment but television journalists say they still find it difficult to sustain coverage of sustainable development.