Constitutional Court Justice Albie Sachs has handed down judgment in the Biowatch case. Calling the case “a matter of great interest to thelegal profession, the general public, and bodies concerned with public interest litigation”, Justice Sachs set aside the costs order awarded against Biowatch in favour of Monsanto and further awarded legal costs in the High Court hearings in favour of Biowatch and against the state. The bench of eleven judges was unanimous in its decision.

WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange has won the Amnesty 2009 New Media Award for work exposing hundreds of recent extrajudicial assassinations in Kenya. The award was presented last night at a ceremony in London. Four people associated with investigating the killings have themselves been murdered, including noted human rights lawyers Oscar Kingara and John Paul Oulo, who were assassinated driving to an afternoon meeting at the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights in March.

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) on June 2, 2009, officially denied any involvement of its members in the recent vandalisation of privately-owned Techiman-based Classic FM in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. The regional chairman of NDC, John Owusu Agyeman, told Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) in a telephone interview that no party member took part in the alleged attack on the radio station and therefore called for police investigations into the matter.

Chinadialogue.net, the bilingual Chinese-English website on environment and climate, is delighted to welcome Linden Ellis as United States project director. Linden Ellis will be based in San Francisco and will guide China Dialogue’s future US operations and development. Linden Ellis will be building on the achievements of Kate Cheney-Davidson, China Dialogue’s first US editor.