Asia/Pacific
Victory for freedom of expression in South Korea
On the 23rd of August 2012, South Korean digital rights organisation Jinbonet won a long struggle. For the last five years, the APC member group fought an internet real name system regulation, ruled unconstitutional by the country’s highest court.
New guide: Digital Security and Journalists: A Snapshot of Awareness and Practice in Pakistan
B4A Pakistan has recently published new research on “Digital Security and Journalists: A Snapshot of Awareness and Practice in Pakistan”, which aims to help journalists and bloggers – especially women – better understand the dangers online, and provides them with tools to communicate online in a secure way.
Locking up cyberspace for minorities in Pakistan
Since 2007, freedom of expression on the internet has been compromised in Pakistan. The authorities started with blocking blasphemous content, went on to national security issues, then religious morality, and they are now targeting online content pertaining to minorities.
Open Letter: Google in Pakistan - Local and global civil society raises eyebrows
The Association for Progressive Communications and its member group in Pakistan, Bytes For All, is deeply concerned about Google’s latest business trip to Pakistan. Here are a few questions on Google’s planned policy on data retention and collection.
Flash mob Korean style
In Seoul for the Asia Europe Foundation’s Informal Meeting on Human Rights, looking at human rights and ICTs, I made a few extra-curricular stops – it was hard not to, when just outside our hotel is an ongoing protest about labour rights…
Read more on GenderIT.org
Rio+20: A voice from Dhaka, Bangladesh
As sustainable development was being discussed in the UN Conference Rio+20, The Guardian asked a number of activists and researchers what they thought about the conference and which changes they had seen since the first summit 20 years ago. Read what APC member VOICE’s Ahmed Swapan Mahmud had to say about Bangladesh.
New report: "Mobile Southeast Asia 2012: Crossroads of Innovation"
Southeast Asia has been a trade hub for thousands of years and is a digital crossroads for internet and mobile innovation now as well, according to the new report by Mobilemonday, “Mobile SouthEast Asia 2012: Crossroads of Innoivation,” available online
Bytes for All calls for civil society participation in drafting cyber crime legislation in Pakistan
The Government of Pakistan is working to revive and restructure the cyber crime law, which lapsed in 2009. Stakeholders who are being consulted are corporations such as telecom operators, ISPs, and governmental organisations. However, no representative civil society organisation holds an opinion even though it is a globally accepted norm that governments use a multi-stakeholder process to ensure active participation by civil society.
Malaysia: Bad laws won’t stop cyber crime
The recent amendments to the Malaysian Evidence Act, passed without debate at Parliament on May 19 2012, clearly signal the government’s intention to increase censorship on the internet.
Information Society Innovation Fund Program Accepting Applications for 2012
The Information Society Innovation Fund (ISIF) is a grants and awards
program that aims to stimulate creative solutions to ICT needs in the
Asia Pacific region.
2012 ISIF program
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This year, there are four new categories for ISIF projects.

