News
Make the Connection! First winner announced
The first winner of the Connect Your Rights: Make the Connection contest is Charlie Parra del Riego for his hilarious SOPA Guitar Solo. To learn how you can submit your own content, check out our call for submissions.
ICTs, climate change and development workshop
In partnership with the University of Manchester, APC co-hosted a workshop from January 22 – 24 in Johannesburg to discuss findings, challenges and key actions going forward on how ICTs can help mitigate climate change and help communities better adapt to the increasing changes in their local environments.
APC launches new GreeningIT site
While ICTs can help the environment, they can also be harmful. APC’s GreeningIT project takes a look at the green and not so green side of ICTs to find out how they can be used more sustainably by civil society, governments, service providers and users in general.
No copyrights without human rights - APC joins the SOPA blackout
On January 18th, APC joined dozens of sites and organisations in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) by blacking out. These two bills, if passed, represent an unprecedented threat to the open internet as we know it, with impacts felt far beyond the borders of the United States.
Access to the internet and human rights - thanks Vint!
APC responds to Vint Cerf’s recent column, “Access to the Internet is Not a Human Right”, with an open letter supporting his challenge to the technical community and engineers to put human rights to the forefront of internet design.
New gTLD Applicant Support Programme does not go far enough
APC welcomes the proposal, while noting that it does not go far enough in supporting developing country applicants. To be truly successful, the proposal must include provisions for greater capacity building, increased transparency and a more representative review panel which would include experts from developing countries.
Make the Connection
Where were you when you first “connected your rights”? The Connect your rights! campaign is calling for submissions of blogs, poems, digital stories, artwork and other visuals to help others make the connection. The top submissions will be featured on rights.apc.org
Spectrum use in Latin America: relevant aspects, conclusions and recommendations
APC’s “open spectrum” initiative aims to provide an understanding of spectrum regulation by examining the situation in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In this synthesis, the project’s consultant Carlos Afonso brings together the most important aspects of the studies in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.
Take Back the Tech! campaign now a global movement
“A creative and revolutionary movement”, says APC’s women programme coordinator, Jac sm Kee, about the Take Back The Tech! campaign. In this editorial by GenderIT.org, it becomes evident that the campaign is already a global movement.
Campaign Take Back The Tech! registered more than 100 cases of gender violence through ICT
The Take Back The Tech! campaign, run by APC WNSP, launched an interactive mapping platform which collected more than one hundred stories about gender violence online or through mobile phones. In this article by GenderIT.org, Sonia Randhawa outlines some of the tendencies that stand out when analizing the collected information.
SMS cut off in DRC detrimental to ending violence against women
SMS services have been suspended in the Democratic Republic of Congo allegedly to prevent the spread of electoral related rumours. Cutting access to communications is a violation of the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of information protected under the DRC constitution and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Spectrum in Colombia: Towards a participative model
In Colombia, several government initiatives aim at broadening telecommunications access for the whole population through spectrum. Colombian civil society should make the most of recent opportunities to lobby for the design of a management model that is more efficient and that emphasises the social value of the spectrum say Lilian Chamorro and Ariel Barbosa, authors of a new study for APC.
Why the Stop Online Piracy Act might pass -- and why it shouldn't
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is being debated in the US House of Representatives today. Wildly unpopular, this bill is the latest in a series of extreme and reactionary legislation that seek a heavy-handed approach to dealing with copyright infringement online. If passed, SOPA would grant broad powers to censor and restrict content on the Internet.
APC reviews the 2011 IGF
“There were very strong human rights themes across the main sessions, particularly around freedom of expression and freedom of association. However it is time for human rights to be the principal theme of the Seventh IGF,” says APC as the world’s oldest progressive network reflects on the progress of the UN conference on how the internet is run.
Twelve years of leading online communications for social change: APC says goodbye to Karen Higgs
It is with a heavy heart that the APC says farewell to long-standing communications manager Karen Higgs, who is leaving at the end of 2011 to take on new and personal endeavours. Congratulations Karen, and thank you for all you’ve done! All the best down your new path.
Spectrum regulation in Argentina: The need to move from broadcasting to access
Argentina is one of only three countries in the world that privatised spectrum. However the recent renationalisation of its control, together with the participative drafting of a new radio broadcasting law and a national plan for internet access, make this an auspicious time
A key moment for getting spectrum in the public agenda in Peru
Opportunities are emerging in the Peruvian political scenario to liberalise spectrum frequencies for open and community use. However academic institutions and civil society must participate get more involved in the policy and project debates say Maicu Alvarado y Gabriela Perona in a new report for APC.
Join us in putting the internet on the human rights agenda
The Association for Progressive Communications, in coordination with local members and networks, successfully submitted UPR reports for India, Brazil, South Africa and Ecuador focused on internet-related human rights issues. We call on civil society groups and governments to lobby for internet-related rights issues to be on the agenda in their respective countries.
CSISAC Job Opening: Community Manager and Liaison to OECD
The Civil Society Information Society Advisory Committee Liaison (CSISAC) is seeking a community manager and liaison to act as a point of contact with the OECD’s OECD’s Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy (ICCP). The position is half time on a one-year contract. Candidates should be available to begin in February 2012, and should be based in Europe, ideally Paris. The deadline for applications is December 31.
New report on internet and democracy is dedicated to the Arab revolutions
On Human Rights Day APC and Hivos launch Information Society Watch 2011. We investigate how governments and internet and mobile phone companies are restricting freedom online – and how citizens are responding to this using the very same technologies.
