Access to information

There is a need to balance the use of technology with human rights in response to the pandemic. Otherwise, we might risk losing the rights and freedoms we had steadily gained over many years.

While COVID-19 continues to ravage the world, there is growing concern that critical messages about the disease that are disseminated by health authorities, telecom companies, and broadcasters are not reaching persons with visual and hearing impairments.

Following consultation with its stakeholders, the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) prepared this submission to the Kenyan Senate COVID-19 Ad Hoc Committee, with a series of recommendations related to ICT solutions to confront the pandemic.

In a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important that people are able to obtain information that will help them stay safe and aware of an evolving situation, and initiatives like these are crucial for reducing the traditional barriers to information that prevent global access.

Brazil's communications regulator Anatel has acknowledged that community networks are a viable option for Brazilians. This decision provides for both regulation for existing community networks and the creation of future networks. The question now is, what happens next?

In the last two weeks of March 2020, the government issued several directives to Myanmar telecom operators ordering them to block at least 221 websites. We believe that the government’s order to block these websites lacks an adequate legal basis and is in violation of international human rights law.

7amleh concluded the online version of the Palestine Forum for Digital Activism 2020 with the participation of a quarter million Palestinians, Arabs and internationals. The conference was adapted from an offline event with 1,000 participants to an online event in two weeks.

While governments and health workers worldwide are focused on combating the COVID-19 pandemic, they are also busy fighting another related pandemic that cuts across all sectors of society: a massive “infodemic” equally as wide-reaching and harmful.