On Friday 3 June 2011, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Frank La Rue, will present his annual report to the Human Rights Council. This year the report will focus on the internet. Learn how you can support your country’s involvement in the defense of hunan rights on the internet.

A new ruling by the Lahore High Court may result in a total ban of social media in Pakistan reports APC. Critics condemn the ban as unnecessary, unjust and ultimately counterproductive.

Former New Zealand human rights commissioner Joy Liddicoat has just joined APC to lead a new Internet Rights are Human Rights campaign. Although she is busy getting ready for Internet Governance Forum consultations on May 18-19, she took a few moments to talk to APCNews.

One of Paraguay’s most widely-listened to community radio stations, Radio Viva, has recently joined the APC community as a member through its parent organisation, Asociación Trinidad Comunicación, Cultura y Desarollo. Asociación Trinidad works towards the democratisation of communications and improving civil participation through solidarity in action for a sustainable Paraguay. One of the many ways it achieves this work is through Radio Viva.

“It was an eye-opener,” says privacy advocate Gus Hosein when he talks about the findings from APC’s exploratory research on sexuality and the internet in Brazil, India, Lebanon, South Africa, and USA. And it’s given him some good ammunition with which to field those annoying radio callers who question the need for privacy online.

APC members elected a new board of directors for the world’s oldest online network during a ballot at the eleventh face-to-face APC council meeting on March 20.

African countries have committed to migrating to digital broadcasting by June 2015. It will be a costly process and it is not clear who will benefit — or where the resources needed to make the transition will come from. A new website provides independent information for policy-makers about making the transition and reports on digital migration in Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal.

An unprecedented achievement for the study and prevention of further violence against women in Cambodia was announced last month with the opening of a Women and Gender Studies Centre in the capital city Phnom Penh.

Although the political significance of piracy as a form of rebellion in South Africa has mostly dropped away in the post-Apartheid era, “the sharply racialised patterns of inequality and access to media have not,” says a new book that looks at the prevalence of media piracy, how it is organised, and why people buy pirated goods or work in the black market. The book collects case studies from various countries including a chapter on South Africa by APC. The case study of Hanover Park, a township outside Cape Town, reveals that watching pirated films brings families together. And more importantly, allows people with limited means the opportunity to access information and culture they would otherwise not be able to afford, bridging the social gap between the different social classes and making them be a part of a global conversation.