Access to information
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown why the protection of human rights online is more important now than ever before. The internet has been a gateway for access to critical information, services and opportunities available to many people for the first time, as noted by the GSMA mobile gender gap report.
Rights and advocacy organisation VOICE expresses deep concern over the arrest of journalists, online activists, teachers, students, writers and cartoonists, among others, under the Digital Security Act 2018, and urges the Bangaldeshi government to scrap the law.
APC welcomes this consultation, as it is timely and integral to our work. The pandemic poses challenges for content moderation, and while we recognise that these are extraordinary times, human rights laws and principles should be the default standards guiding companies’ policies and procedures.
The second episode of Pretty Good Podcast delves deeper into the Philippine court cyber libel ruling against journalists Maria Ressa and Reynaldo Santos Jr. of Rappler, a Philippine news organisation known to be critical of incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte.
APC welcomes the invitation of the Human Rights Council’s Special Procedures to reflect on the impacts of COVID-19 on the exercise of human rights offline and online.
For decades, the internet has not reached all areas in Sudan proving the lack of real governmental effort to implement the principles of the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms.
APC joined over 400 other civil society organisations and thousands of individuals in this open letter calling on the US Congress to voice its support for the Open Technology Fund, an independent non-profit grantee of the United States Agency for Global Media in danger of being dismantled.
In early 2020, Thailand saw a wave of student protests challenging the tenure and government of the Thai prime minister, but the pandemic forced a suspension of protests. How has social media been used in response?
From 10 - 12 June, CYRILLA and APC hosted a Twitter campaign. The purpose of #DigitalLawsAsia was to explore the human rights impacts of digital regulation in South and Southeast Asia.
On 15 June, online news organisation Rappler’s CEO and executive editor Maria Ressa and former researcher-writer Reynaldo Santos Jr. were convicted of cyber libel charges, in just one of 11 court cases filed against Rappler, branded one of the staunchest critics of President Duterte.
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2020
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