The Mail and Guardian highlights key points from APC’s contribution to the 2013 State of Civil Society Report published by Civicus:
“The potential of arguably the most liberating tool for activism – the internet and social media – is under threat by new restrictions limiting citizens’ ability to mobilise or hold governments to account. The Johannesburg-based Association for Progressive Communications estimates that 30% of global internet users face restrictions on access to content. Social media has mobilised citizen action, governments are placing greater restrictions on technology or taking action against those using it. More than 45 countries have imposed online restrictions.”

APC’s Jennifer Radloff, project coordinator for the Women’s Rights Programme, participates in an online panel hosted by the Guardian, debating how ICTs have the potential to transform activism and the new digital security risks associated:
Jennifer Radloff, project co-ordinator (capacity building in secure online communications), Association for Progressive Communications, … “Partnerships can help alert technology companies to the realities of users, encourage governments to create policies to improve accessibility and show NGOs how technology actually works, how the internet works, and where the points of engagement are between development issues and technology.”

[…] USIP’s New Media and Peacebuilding Resource Center provides peacebuilders with various tools that will help them integrate new media tools – mobile phones, social networking websites, and crisis mapping tools – into their work more effectively. New media tools change the way peacebuilders do their work in country, but they also bring with them a growing body of knowledge around security concerns, infrastructure needs, and best practices. This Resource Center aggregates this body of knowledge in one place, making it an ideal, one-stop-shop for NGOs, trainers, and peacebuilding professionals who are trying to expand their toolset to include new technology innovations.

[…] Anriette Esterhuysen, director of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), adds that TV white spaces technology is ideally suited to the provision of Internet services in rural Africa. Not only do television broadcast frequencies cover enormous geographic areas, but in Africa, there are very few broadcasters and therefore fewer opportunities for interference between different transmissions, she says. APC’s call for the deregulation of the TV white spaces spectrum is part of its wider campaign aimed at ensuring free and open Internet access for all people in SA.

[…] “What we have seen in the last three years is that no longer do governments shy away from attempting to regulate Internet content,” said Joy Liddicoat, project co-ordinator at New Zealand-based Association for Progressive Communications, which seeks to protect people’s rights on and to the Internet.

[…] The Global Information Society Watch reported last year that ICTs could help to cut total production of greenhouse gases by as much as fifteen percent by twenty twenty. Alan Finlay is with the Association for Progressive Communications. He also helped to prepare the GISWatch report. He says the effect of using ICTs to build cleaner environments is far more powerful than their harmful effects

[…] APC is strongly opposed to holding intermediaries liable in this way for what users do on their network. Intermediaries are neither appropriate nor qualified actors to enforce copyright policy. There are many legitimate uses of copyright material such as fair use for news reporting, political satire, and research.

[…] Moawad is part of a women’s collective called Nasawiya which runs programs in various fields from politics to writing. It has an ongoing program called Take Back the Tech aimed mainly at women in their 20s.

The Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court has ruled in favour of a petition to ban several
social networking websites including Facebook Yahoo, MSN and Wikipedia. The ruling released on 13 May 13 found that Facebook and other websites were in violation of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, and should be banned. Clea Caulcutt of RFI interviews APC’s Grady Johnson to find out more.