Access to information
Ocean in a Drop is a documentary film about emergent online populations told by rural Indian women and children, artisans and entrepreneurs. The book, Right to Know describes, in part, how Ocean in a Drop came about, goes on to describe the more nuanced observations on the impact the internet is having on rural and tribal communities in India. It provides a more in depth and personal view of the many stories shared with us, so many more than the film could tell.
With the introduction of 3G and 4G technology in the last couple of years, access to the internet has become easier and Pakistan has seen a drastic increase in internet users over the past year. Pakistan currently stands 11th globally in terms of cellular subscribers. As of September 2017, cellular subscribers were around 140.76 million, which according to Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) stood at 70.25%. However, internet dispersion is still low when compared to the world and the Asian ...
From the Amazonian jungle, to the Andean region, to African rural communities, Carlos Rey-Moreno has observed and been involved in many processes where local communities realised that they could benefit immensely from access to information and communications technology (ICT). But this was the first step; the next step was building the local conditions to use it for their own...
The APC communications team has a new member: her name is Cathy Chen, born in Taiwan and Canadian by choice, but mostly a world traveller. She joined the APC staff in July as our new publications and multimedia coordinator, and she started with a big challenge, which was designing the visuals for APC's Member Meeting 2017. She defines herself as a "visual communication strategist" and has ...
The increased digital access in human lives has facilitated work and appended additional spaces to the existing ones. Knowledge is no longer inaccessible or confined to books; rather, it has been taken to virtual spaces. Pakistan is relatively a new to this advancement, yet there has been a meticulous debate in progress to regulate these spaces and counter the crimes facilitated by the internet...
APC's Annual Report for 2016 narrates organisational life matters and the year's work around our six strategic areas: access, rights, a feminist internet, governance, use and development and the APC community, told through 60 short stories, 25 of them contributed by our members. 2016 was a year of several changes for APC. It is quite remarkable, this characteristic of change: it is slippery whi...
Much of the studies on hate speech use legal analyses and focus on the speaker. While this is important to any understanding of incitement to hatred and violence, it does not always capture the sociopolitical and historical developments that could explain why we are witnessing serious consequences of speech that does not necessarily meet the threshold or definition of hate speech, or the lack o...
The ability to receive and impart information online, in particular through the internet, has become central to the exercise and enjoyment of fundamental human rights and freedoms. It enables people to engage in an array of learning experiences, build information and knowledge societies, foster public and private debate, establish organisations, and contribute to public interest innovation. Thr...
A coalition of some 35 civil society organisations has written to several international bodies including the African Union and the United Nations Human Rights Council over the recent internet shutdown in Togo. Signatories to the letter include Paradigm Initiative, Reporters Without Borders, World Wide Web Foundation, Access Now, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), G...
Access to information and knowledge has been recognised as a key principle for achieving the WSIS vision since 2003. Information and knowledge for all are key for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals because they link to empowerment and mobility, enabling people to improve their lives. In this statement delivered at the High-Level Policy Session on Inclusiveness – Access to Information...
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2018
Unless otherwise stated, content on the APC website is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)