For the first time ever, South Africa's intelligence chiefs are summoned to parliament to discuss their spending secrets with elected public representatives. Those summoned before parliament's newly-formed Intelligence Committee included the head of the National Intelligence Agency, Dr Sezakele Sigxhashe, the Head of the Secret Service, Dr Mike Louw and the Deputy Minister of Intelligence, Mr Joe Nhlanhla.
South Africa's elected political parties agree to maintain the new South African flag, which was designed specifically for the interim period. The decision was taken during a meeting of the Sub-Committee of the Constitutional Committee.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation announces that it will launch four new satellite television channels by the end of the year and another seven by July next year. The new T.V. channels will include a freely available "Open Democracy Channel", which will provide continuous coverage of Parliament, the provincial legislatures, Truth Commission hearings and other hearings of public interest.
The book, "The Liberal Slideaway" by Jill Wentzel is released in South Africa. In the book, Wentzel, a founding member of the Black Sash organisation, alleges that at the hight of the liberation struggle of the 1980's and the government repression in response to it, liberals in South Africa compromised their principles by turning a blind eye to the infringement of liberal values by members of the liberation struggle.
Kenyan writer and human rights activist Koigi wa Wamwere is sentenced to four years in prison and six strokes of the cane. He will remain under police supervision for an additional five years upon his released. According to Writers in Prison Committee of the International PEN, Wa Wamwere was sentenced after a grossly unfair trial, which was widely thought to be politically motivated.
Omar Quartilan, the editor-in-chief of one of Algeria's top Arab-language dailies is shot dead in the capital, Algiers. His death brings to 49 the number of journalists murdered in Algeria since May 1993.
The SABC announces that it will go ahead with the integration of the SABC and the former homeland broadcasters into a single national public broadcasting service. The broadcasters that will be merged with the SABC are those of the former Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei.
Fred M'membe, the Managing Director of the Post newspaper in Zambia, is awarded the Media Institute of Southern Africa's Press Freedom award for 1995. The award is presented annually to a Southern African journalist or media institution considered to have made a significant contribution to the promotion of media freedom in the region.
The South African Union of Journalists condemns the spokesman for the African National Congress in KwaZulu/Natal, Mr Duminsane Makhaye, saying Makhaye was endangering the lives of journalists working in the province. This follows a recent statement by Makaye accusing two SABC radio journalists of conspiring with security force members and of formenting violence in KwaZulu/Natal.
The Conference of Editors agrees to meet a delegation from the Black Editors Forum to discuss the establishment of a single press body. The divide between the two bodies was highlighted late last month when City Press Editor, Khulu Sibiya, resigned from the predominantly white Conference of Editors expressing disillusionment with the direction in which the body was moving.
Journalist Cherno Ceesey, a correspondent for the Gambian newspaper "Daily Observer" is expelled from Gambia back to his native Sierra Leone. Ceesey fled Sierra Leone, where he was editor of the newspaper "The Pool", in April this year following harassment from the military junta in that country. He was accused of collaborating with the Revolutionary United Front rebellion, which plunged Sierra Leone into civil war since 1991. No reason was given for his expulsion from Gambia.
South Africa's Atomic Energy Corporation obtains an urgent court interdict preventing the SABC from screening the latest episode of the Afrikaans T.V. seies, "Die Laksman". The fictional series deals with individuals who buy nuclear weapons under false pretences from South Africa.
A Commercial Director at the Ec-Chaab newspaper in Algeria, Abdelwahad Sadaoui, is abducted and later found shot dead in a suburb of the capital, Algiers.
The owners of East London's "Daily Dispatch" newspaper agree to provide the South African Union of Journalists with a written guarantee of the paper's editorial independence and job security for union members. This followed the announcement last month of the imminent sale of the newspaper to the Times Media Limited.
In the Ivory Coast, the managing editor of the newspaper "Le Lynx", Souleymanne Diallo, is given a three month suspended prison sentence and fined 2,5-million Guinean Francs (about R18 000). He was charged with offending of the head of state following a editorial cartoon in his newspaper in August this year.
The Pretoria Supreme Court rejects the application by the Atomic Energy Corporation to stop the SABC from televising the Afrikaans series, "Die Laksman".
The first working draft of the final constitution for post-apartheid South Africa is published by the Constitutional Assembly in Cape Town. The draft would be published formerly on November 15, when it will be subject to two months of public discussion.
In Azerbaijan, a court sentences six people to labour camp terms ranging from two to five years for insulting President Gaidar Aliyev in a newspaper article. All but one of the group were journalists.
The government releases its official yearbook, with the history section showing a distinct and radical shift from the past. It describes the early white settlers as slave traders, land grabbers and suppressor of black people. It goes on to say that black people were already settled in what is now South Africa when Boer farmers came across them "in land which they thought was empty".
The editor of "The Star" newspaper, Mr Peter Sullivan, raises the idea of an ANC newspaper. The idea was first raised by New York Times Editor Joseph Lelyveld in his keynote address at the Sowetan Press Freedom Day Seminar earlier in the month. In his editorial, Sullivan notes that the South African press has grown up in an environment of being critical, especially towards politicians. He says, "In many countries, there are newspapers which actively and vehemently support a political party, especially when that party is in government. The media diversity which is really needed in this country is that kind: a strong, active daily newspaper supporting the ANC almost unconditionally would be a welcome addition to the diversity of newspapers in this country."
The government of the North West Province announces a two year moratorium on all retrenchments at the former Bop Broadcasting Corporation. This followed earlier announcements that BBC management had offered retrenchment packages in excess of R400 million to various staff members.
Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and three others are sentenced to death in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt. Saro-Wiwa, the leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogani People (MOSOP) was accused of incitement to murder of four Ogani leaders. He had been prison since May 1994 and the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN and Human Rights Watch said he was "believed to have been detained and tried because of his advocacy of minority rights and MOSOP's campaign against enviromental pollution by oil companies". Saro-Wiwa was granted no right of appeal against his sentence