Strategic use of the internet
“In this age, when the mass media rest in fewer and fewer hands, we must have strong, vital, independent voices if we ever want to hear all the stories or seek justice. We have an incredible opportunity to change lives.” (Peter Gabriel – WITNESS co-founder) One of the distinct characteristics of these times is that many people have access to devices that in previous days were limited to an elite or to experts. Many people have a camera in their pocket and many people are fa...
In a changing environment with tremendous competition among messages, how can we ensure that our communications have maximum impact? APCNews talked to Paz Peña, a Chilean journalist and social communicator who has been working on digital rights issues for the past eight years. She was advocacy director for the NGO Derechos Digitales, APC’s member organisation in Chile, until recently when she branched out as an independent consultant. APCNews: What do you understand by “strategic communi...
During the “Arab Spring” of 2011, the internet was a space for mobilisation. Since then, it has become a space for oppression of activism and dissent as well, with the governments of numerous countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA, Maghreb-Machrek in Arabic) adopting or amending legislation to crack down on online speech, deploying censorship and surveillance tools in an attemp...
The Arab world is undergoing tremendous change. From the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia in 2011 to the war and refugee crisis in Syria and the fight against fundamentalists in Iraq, the region is overburdened with change. The strengths and weaknesses of digital rights, as well as the mere ability to use the internet securely, are not immune to these geopolitical shifts. Parallel to these shifts...
"The rich, diverse, free web that I loved – and spent years in an Iranian jail for – is dying. Why is nobody stopping it?” Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan wrote shortly after he was released from Evin prison in northern Tehran. Credited with introducing the blogging culture to Iran, Derakhshan spent six years isolated from the web he had contributed to building. When ...
“It was the first time I attended a training about Internet rights. I had very little idea about this topic before attending, but this two-day extensive workshop titled ‘Internet Rights are Human Rights’ helped me at great length to better understand these rights, especially in online spaces.” -Muhammad Ali Rana, Assistant Professor, Media Studies Department, Fatima Jinnah Women Univer...
Since early 2015, the Local Action to Secure Internet Rights (LASIR) project has focused on empowering national and local actors in their defence of human rights on the internet, in countries as diverse as South Korea, Brazil, the Philippines, India, Jordan, Uganda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bangladesh, Kenya and Tunisia. All LASIR partners are strong local organisations, with ongoing work on int...
Since early 2015, the Local Action to Secure Internet Rights (LASIR) project has focused on empowering national and local actors in their defence of human rights on the internet, in countries as diverse as South Korea, Brazil, the Philippines, India, Jordan, Uganda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bangladesh, Kenya and Tunisia. All LASIR partners are strong local organisations, with ongoing work on int...
Since early 2015, the Local Action to Secure Internet Rights (LASIR) project has focused on empowering national and local actors in their defence of human rights on the internet, in countries as diverse as South Korea, Brazil, the Philippines, India, Jordan, Uganda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bangladesh, Kenya and Tunisia. All LASIR partners are strong local organisations, with ongoing work on int...
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