Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has threatened to sue a local newspaper, NEXT, over its report on Sunday that he voted four times during the 2007 general elections, when he was a state governor and a vice presidential candidate under the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Accusing the newspaper of waging a 'malicious campaign of falsehood and calumny' against him, the President also demanded a retraction of the story, which the paper credited to whistleblower website Wikileaks. NEXT, quoting Wikileaks, said the disclosure that Jonathan, then the governor of oil-producing Bayelsa, voted several times was made by the Governor of southern Edo state and former labour leader Adams Oshiomhole to US Political Officers (poloffs), who visited him shortly after the court victory in his election petition.

The independent news magazine Kontext TV, supported by Noam Chomsky and others, was at the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal in February and has produced a series of broadcasts on the occasion of the Forum's 10th anniversary. The first programme is now online in English and German versions under The programme reports about some of the key issues at the Forum such as the impacts of the revolutions in North Africa and the formation of a worldwide movement for climate justice and land grabbing. Another broadcast focussing on Africa is going to follow.

Citizens in Equatorial Guinea trying to take advantage of the government’s pledge to allow greater citizen participation continue to face serious obstacles that hinder their efforts, EG Justice says in a new report. The country was delisted from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) - a voluntary international effort to strengthen governance in resource-rich countries through improved transparency and accountability - in April 2010 for its failure to comply with the EITI’s requirements, including failing to allow unfettered civil society engagement. Nearly one year later, the Equatoguinean government has not implemented the necessary reforms to guarantee citizen participation and to increase the likelihood that the country will be readmitted to the EITI. The 37 page report, 'Disempowered Voices: The Status of Civil Society in Equatorial Guinea', identifies systematic failures on the part of the Equatoguinean government to allow the full and independent participation of civil society organisations.