News Snippets
• Ethiopia is to issue its first-ever private radio broadcasting licences by August 2004. The licences would be issued ahead of the 2005 elections that, analysts say, will test the government's commitment to democracy. All legal TV and radio broadcasting organisations in Ethiopia are currently state-owned.
• Want to help US citizens decide who their president should be? Vote at http://worldpeace.org.au/virtualelection.asp. Only one vote counts, and to do that you shouldn't be an American. You can even see how other countries are voting: for example, 64.4 per cent Indians have voted for Ralph Nader till now.
• Jorge Kahwagi, a member of Mexico's Green Ecologist Party, has created a controversy by appearing in a reality tv show in which he is seen living with 15 other male and female participants shut away in a house. Kahwagi says the show gives him an opportunity to air his views, but his own party colleagues say he is damaging the already poor reputation of Mexican politics.
• A small community radio station in the Democratic Republic of Congo has won the special award at the One World Media Awards in London. The station provides news, health and music programmes to Bunia town. Sisi Watoto (We the Children), a programme produced by teenagers, including child soldiers, from eastern Congo won an award presented by One World and unicef for children's radio programmes.