EAC membership for South Sudan?

My piece on whether South Sudan should be admitted to the East African Community

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=109316695

The business of oil in South Sudan

An interesting report on business-community relations in the oil sector in South Sudan. It was written by Integrity Research and Consultancy where I work as a consultant in their media development practice.

http://www.integrityresearch.co.uk/integrity-blog/business-community-relations-south-sudans-oil-sector

Journalists released

The journalists held without charge for insulting the president's daughter in a newspaper article have been released.

http://www.sudantribune.com/South-Sudan-releases-two,40769

Journalists Arrested in South Sudan

As some of you know I've been working in Juba, South Sudan on a variety of media development projects (read more about this at http://www.integrityresearch.co.uk/). I was lucky enough to be there on independence day, July 9, along with many colleagues from the local and international press so it is with concern I see that two journalists have been arrested for a story they wrote recently criticising president Salva Kiir.

It was a truly awful piece of journalism (nasty and racist) but absolute proof of 2 things - a) journalists are in danger in South Sudan and b) unethical reporting can get you into a huge amount of trouble. I'm a big believer in teaching journalists in conflict and post conflict countries to work in a more ethical way, for their own safety if nothing else. Here's a press release from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

http://www.cpj.org/2011/11/south-sudan-security-detains-two-journalists.php

Bujumbura, Burundi

Bosco Ntaganda: the Terminator's golden business

A murky deal involving millions of dollars in smuggled gold is the latest scandal engulfing the International Criminal Court indictee Bosco Ntaganda.

http://www.rnw.nl/international-justice/article/bosco-ntaganda-terminator%E2%80%99s-golden-business

Ploughing potential

Large amounts of land coupled with rising food prices and predictions of future shortages means African agribusiness has seldom been more active or tempting.

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/73185875/Agribusinessstory