Access to information

Computer networking pioneer Karen Banks, APC's director of operations and a former core part of GreenNet, an APC founding member, was recognised with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The 39th session of the HRC is taking place on 10-28 September 2018 in Geneva. A number of reports, resolutions and side events will address the online dimension of human rights issues, in addition to Universal Periodic Review reports that touch on specific governments’ records on internet rights.

The purpose of this review was to look back over the past decade of country reports published in Global Information Society Watch (GISWatch) and attempt to identify trends in civil society perspectives on what needed to be done to create a people- centred information society.

APC welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression on content regulation in the digital age, a topic that is of great concern to APC and our members.

As of midnight on 1 July 2018, telecom companies in Uganda blocked access to social media platforms for all users and required them to pay a newly introduced "over-the-top” (OTT) tax before regaining access. The tax will likely push basic connectivity further out of reach for millions.

In October 2017, APC member organisation Media Matters for Democracy and its team of reporters started a journalistic endeavour to test the effectiveness of the right to information (RTI) laws in Pakistan. This piece details their experience with the implementation of the laws.

This report presents an analysis of experiences with filing and following up on 195 right to information requests in the Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federal regions of Pakistan.

This toolkit, produced between A4AI, the Worldwide Web Foundation, the GSMA and APC, has been designed for stakeholders who are interested in integrating gender into their research projects in order to better understand this gender gap in internet access and use.