Somalia is usually in the limelight for crises: civil war, famine, drought, Somalian pirates attacking international shipping... And when the spotlight turns off it's hard to maintain the international community's attention focused on the country.

This is the aim of Somalia Speaks, a project launched recently by a joint team of partners "to catalyze global media attention on Somalia by letting Somali voices take center stage", as Patrick Meier of Ushahidi, one of the founder organizations, explained - and all this via SMS services.

Somalia Speaks is the result of multiple efforts. It is hosted - and publicised - by Al Jazeera; the SMS messaging service is provided by Souktel, a Palestinian-based organization, while Ushahidi - whose role is well-known in crisis mapping - and Crowdflower - a crowdsourcing platform - translate, categorize and map the incoming responses.

What's in your journalism kit? A notepad? A laptop? A smartphone? A video camera? How about a remote control aeroplane...?

Crazy as it might sound, The Washington Post published an article at the beginning of this month about reporters using unmanned aircraft, or drones, to collect footage for news stories.

The idea seems to be taking off. Last Friday the BBC College of Journalism published a piece about drone journalism, showing some impressive images of protests in Russia captured by an unmanned aircraft. Just yesterday, the International Journalists' Network and Mashable published a story detailing the "5 things you need to know about drone journalism".

Journalists and legal commentators can live tweet court proceedings without getting special permission from a judge, declared the UK's Lord Chief Justice yesterday.

"Twitter as much as you wish," said the judge as he handed down the guidance, which comes into effect immediately and determines the use of laptops and handheld devices in court.

In the past, journalists had to get special permission from the judge in order to be allowed to tweet, text or email live from the courtroom. These rules were based on guidelines issued December 2010.

But although the new guidance lifts restrictions, there are still caveats. Journalists' rights to use Twitter, text and email inside the courtroom can be withdrawn by the judge at any time if they seem to be compromising the administration of justice. Journalists are still bound by rules on legal reporting that were established in the 1981 Contempt of Court Act. The ruling only applies to legal proceedings that are open to the public. Photography and tape recording is still not allowed in court.

Within these boundaries, the Justice was positive about tweeting in court: 'a fundamental aspect of the proper administration of justice is the principle of open justice. Fair and accurate reporting of court proceedings forms part of that principle.'

It's not just print that's going digital, but radio as well.

NPR has been granted $1.5 million by the Knight Foundation to train staff at local radio stations to use digital media effectively. The money will be used to help member stations collaborate with each other as part of a news network and to grow the stations' audience across different platforms.

The Knight Foundation's funding will power a two-year program, training reporters at 70 of NPR's 268 stations. The scheme follows on from the $1.5 million grant that the foundation gave NPR in 2007 to improve its journalists' digital skills.

Knight Foundation president and CEO Alberto Ibargüen is quoted in a press release: "NPR is a great news organization and has become an essential part of American democracy. We want to support their embrace of the Internet." The Knight Foundation is serious about its support of public radio; it has invested a total of $5.4 million in NPR since 1992.