While hidden cameras can document and flag human rights abuses by authoritarian governments, these same videos can then be used to identify dissidents who are later detained and tortured, explains David Sasaki in his introduction to this year’s Global Information Society Watch, which focuses on transparency and accountability online.

APC and Hivos launched the 2012 edition of the Global Information Society Watch during the second day of the Internet Governance Forum that took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, in a joint presentation with the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Internet & Society Co:llaboratory.

On 7 November 2012, on the second day of the IGF, APC and Hivos will launch the 2012 edition of the Global Information Society Watch, which focuses on the internet and corruption. The launch will take place in Room 9 of the Baku Expo Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan, at 12:30 local time.

This second special edition is a follow-up to the 2011 Global Information Society Watch publication. It specifically maps themes and trends that emerged in the 2011 edition, and also follows up on the action steps suggested in the country reports to see how relevant they still are one year later. The publication is available for download.

This special edition of Global Information Society Watch 2011, “Internet rights and democratisation: focus on freedom of expression and association online” features updates from six countries on the state of internet rights and an introduction from the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Jillian York.

“South Africa has adopted some of the more problematic elements of the new post-9/11 surveillance regime, many of which have been authored in supposedly liberal democracies, while failing to incorporate key safeguards that may have been incorporated in these democracies,” says Jane Duncan in an interview for the forthcoming Global Information Society Watch.

“Unfortunately I hold a pessimistic view with regards to content regulation in Saudi Arabia. That said, I think a good starting point is demanding more transparency with regards to blocked content,” says Rafid Fatani in an interview related to a forthcoming report he wrote for the Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch 2011 Update I).

“Both the issues of human rights and the rights of internet expression are still in the margins of the mainstream political stage in Indonesia,” says Ferdiansyah Thajib in an interview related to a forthcoming report he wrote for the Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch 2011 Update I).

The Association for Progressive Communications, in close cooperation with APC members, networks and civil society groups, is pleased to accept the WSIS Project Prize from the International Telecommunications Union for the achievements of the GISWatch project in “the role of public governance authorities and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICT for development.”