For developing countries, digital broadcasting migration is yet another issue in a long list of challenges. In a new report written by Coura Fall for APC, the ICT (information and communication technology) expert explains that the transition presents more than economic challenges. Social challenges must also be taken into account.

Followers turned to Twitter to receive words of guidance from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Rabbi and Muslim leaders during the London riots in August. APC’s Dafne Plou was in Qatar to follow how today’s religious progressives are using social networking to spread their messages.

As West Africa’s fifteen countries migrate to digital TV by 2015, the people responsible for the change-over in Ghana have been struggling to determine which technology to use. Meanwhile the process hasn’t developed much and most Ghanaians have not been informed of this upcoming migration, says the author of new research carried out for APC.

“We have the skills, the entrepreneurs, a spectrum model we can replicate, the standards, the technology and clearly we have the demand,” said South African Henk Kleynhans in the wake of a TV white spaces workshop in Johannesburg last week. “All we need is a regulatory go-ahead.”

APC’s human rights expert Joy Liddicoat outlines the state of human rights online and the major challenges facing activists and human rights defenders. As levels of censorship and surveillance are increasing worldwide including in democratic countries threaten the lives of democracy activists, APC calls for the theme of the 2012 IGF to focus exclusively on human rights.

Africa has committed to move to digital broadcasting by June 2015. In West Africa, very few countries have begun the migration. Rife with challenges, the process is daunting to most, with the benefits largely unclear. A new paper from APC and Balancing Act investigates.

Turkey abandons plans to install mandatory filtering software after months of widespread protest. The reversal of this controversial policy shows the power of determined advocacy.

Unused TV white spaces could be the way to get highspeed wireless internet to millions living outside major African cities. Manufacturers are gearing up for mass production of white space devices and now is the time to act. APC and partners are coordinating an important workshop for govt officials, regulators and professionals in October.

“Anyone involved in the development of the internet over the last twenty years knows that transgression has probably been a far greater driver of innovation than IP protection,” says APC in a statement which points to “positive signs” coming out of the recent OECD meeting but questions the take on intellectual property as well as internet intermediaries’ responsibility for policing the net.