sixty. one. this is deja news africa coming up in the next fifteen minutes digital democracy with internet censorship on the rise in africa we are asked just how important cyber freedom is on the continent. and one of africa's great lakes is running out of fish we'll tell you why that's happening and what people are doing about it.

i'm christine windell welcome to news africa i'm glad you're cheated and internet censorship is on the rise in africa with many governments increasingly controlling the web in order to quote descents this often results to people in those countries not having access to information all the outside world some of the more recent examples are in zimbabwe sudan and the democratic republic of congo way and she government protests and in elections they have restricted internet axis so what are some of the ways that this is being done for a ts can i the throttle the band with with makes it impossible to share photos and videos sometimes avoids he's broke access to social media sites like facebook and twitter or in extreme cases they completely shut down the internet like what we saw in zimbabwe last month during protests there not civil group. in zimbabwe legal

challenge the internet shut down cheering those protests and then a courtroom that the government had acted unconstitutionally human rights groups were among those championing the fight against the shutdown let's hear from one of them. we was all sorts. you know. playing hide and seek with sometimes. so to talk more on this we've invited all of the author of the book digital democracy and politics way she writes about how the internet era has transformed kenya in particular but she's also explored trends on the wide continent time angela it's good to see you. just how important is the internet to our

democracy in africa. i think the internet is turning out to be a major site for consist a sham and a democratic politics and not just in africa really around the world we're seeing this is the new frontier not in one hand it's a place where a lot of key question conversations are happening so we're seeing a lot in the more political debates being given online space is whether you're talking about social media or blogs or websites or even use those seeking much of their coverage onto their websites but on the other hand we're also seeing its digital technologies as opening up a space for new types of political manipulation new types of misinformation new types. interference really with political processes and we've been talking about elections in africa a great deal in the last few years but there are also issues that have come up in the west as well which is you know public relations at what point does a political advertisement become a form of political manipulation these are some of the things that i look into in

my book which is really about. how just the existence of the internet and the intersection between the internet and how we do politics and how we do democracy around the world is really raising some interesting and challenging questions all right and staying on that just haven't because i want to introduce the the minister of finance from zimbabwe he was basically asa question why did the government shutdown the incident with the dead last month and this is how he responded i've had complaints about all the step all the shouldn't it being shut down look this is one of the things you do if you're trying to bring things under control it was temporary it was talked for but you know if you do not know now we do it it is up to you go to reform is not to me easy ones are i'm afraid here but we are moving forward to stay for course in the result of this is my bones together ok then tennessee you're hearing saying they have that this is what you do to keep things

under control do governments make a case when they say look we're trying to contain the spread of false news etc this is why we restrict the end of the internet is there a case to be made there what do you make of it. i think the key thing is what he said which is we're trying to keep things under control and the question is what beings are they trying to achieve if the trial and for who spend it in most of the cases where seeing into shutdowns in africa especially it's been where there's been dissent and perfectly legitimate the sense in the case of a government excess and this was the case and zimbabwe it was a case where by people protesting what they saw as an illegitimate price rise in diligence in its increasing cost of living over a very short period of time in each of the streets to protest and what was trying to be control of the government says it's trying to control is the news that was fretting about what was happening in zimbabwe so it's not really it's in the a legitimate thing to shut down the entire internet just to control information that makes the government look bad because ultimately

a good government should be able to withstand criticism from its citizens yet there is another interesting element to this in bali issue which is that they shut down the internet in a country where by and shunning money is one of the major forms of currency exchange and so it only compounded the issue further and that's why it's really interesting that the finance minister of all the ministers in what we should be defending this action here. money is for many people is the only entity that the able to access shortfall that is mccain yes sure that is the case but very briefly had one gentleman last person would be here to see you that ok so in many cases in africa it is state's own companies that have full control over the internet is that bad for africa. it is it is and it's without saying that private corporations are the same thing because we've seen private corporations like n.c. and they also being implicated in the shutdowns but when the state owns the monopoly the people are particularly vulnerable going into shutdown went on for almost two years and covered it went on for almost all of it will get of time

another two years when there's a monopoly we see the secular the inability because there's just not much option ordinary people to do anything about it all right. the author of the book digital democracy and. thank you for your insights. ok so our next story is one about creating solutions it's tough for fishermen at lake victoria because stocks off wild fish are dwindling so many of them are turning to fish farming to make ends meet but breeding fish requires flushing farms with massive amounts of clean fresh water now a team of scientists from europe are working with communities in uganda and kenya and tanzania to get around that. muhammad has been fishing if they were going to shows for more than twenty five years.

we no longer catch fish like we used to. be economic impact on us out there right now you can see it traps and come up empty just one cut away. in the old days we would get a good catch. the main cause for the depletion of stokes over fishing pollution from industrial activity is another problem these issues have made it harder to meet the rising demand for fish. this has prompted some ugandans to set up fish farms. one of the biggest challenges is the lack of clean fresh water. fish from outside the capital kampala. to fish farming you have to keep flushing your ponds all the time so you can

imagine the amount of money that was spent just to make sure that we had water running into the different points every ten thousand. she's taking part in a union funded project called one. of the fish from us are learning about a new technology. by a team of european and african scientists the project is led by professor john from the university of khan's way in germany the team has come up with a new system use west water order to cut costs while boosting efficiency. one develop a system for the market it's called research collating aquaculture so this is to makes use of hundred percent water reuse water recycle ation so it's mentally very friendly because there's no water going through and there's no

nothing spoiling the environment and we make use of renewable energy in order to reduce the c o two footprint in the tunnel on the can and side of the lake a pilot project is already in place the water is filtered using what's known as membrane bioreactor technology in uganda has been using recycled water for the last eighteen months the used water is pumped into our tongue from there it flows into this busines which contains tons and sun that help clean the water now wants to use recycled water to have big points too so we already have that system and it has proved to be very efficient for us using the same water would maintain the same temperatures because that's also very crucial when you're watching exit to the in the hatchery so for the points that still work in progress for us to see how well be able to integrate it. with this and just like more farmers to cycle water ideally using renewable energy the professor and his team

have been working on this project for the last three years so far their work has brought them to uganda kenya and tanzania. we want to train we want to show people and we want to see how everything develops in the future and finally very very. this we need to dept this solution for the local market so at the moment we brought a lot of ideas from europe and now we need the feedback of the local people to give us a guidance in future how can we develop a low cost system one of the ways they're hoping to achieve that is by promoting exchange between scientists and from us the established best practices that boost fish stocks and protect the environment. ok now see the south african city of durban where a local artist is building up

a collection of life sized statues of famous african icons in a way the artist and sculptor. hopes to create africa's version of the famous wax museum. he has a growing collection of african political figures and other icons statues have already started bringing him local fame and only him a living moving him closer or one step closer to history we would be incumbant get from. visions us to the ones museum as you can see of course the shoes of. course because if you go to shoes of mean. homewards to shoes of countries because you know i'm trying to do the thing that i'm. trying to do this do shoes of. the i heroes of struggle you know different in different categories. that's it for news africa you can catch all our stories on our website and facebook page for leaving you with images from boston in

a fashion week with models from the south african fashion label. side by. current. and take a closer look at modern culture from germany would be a. real. job. extravagant didn't. really know their stuff.

which is going to pull me and definitional. party in chat with seditions from around the world. groups every week. welcome to news from the culture i'm robin merrill and let's have a look at what we've got in store for you today. this painting will self-destruct and so it did straight off his banks he made waves with his high jinx now the infamous shredded picture finally goes on display. a musical talent sophie hope is

shaking up the seat here in new york with a fresh mix of jazz rock and pop she'll be here in the studio. and a look into the all called inspirations of three women credits is with inventing abstract full that best counterpart. last october at sotheby's auction house in london the anonymous british street artist banksy told a mischievous artistic prank by triggering a device that started to shred a painting of his that just sold for one point two million euros go with the balloon has now been renamed love is in the bin and has pride of place in an exhibition in southern germany. not fans of queuing in the cold to get a glimpse of banksy is go with the balloon or as much of her as they can see anyway it's the hot i don't want to miss out stuff to else i thought it was a new picture that was partly shredded but it really does look messed up. the

picture caused a global sensation last october that's not the bees auction house in london go with the.