Namibia Media Trust
With the start of The Namibian newspaper in 1985, founders Gwen Lister and Dave Smuts decided not to create an ownership structure with private shareholders, but instead set up a Trust which would aim to further the sustainability of The Namibian, safeguard its assets and reflect and promote the values and principles of press freedom, free speech and independent journalism.
The Trust activities became fully active in October 2011 after Lister handed over the reins of editor to Tangeni Amupadhi and took up the mantle of the Trust. This move put the spotlight on the wider context and workings of the Trust other than just The Namibian as had been the case up until then.
Activities of the Trust include advocacy and policy interventions to promote media freedom, free expression and access to information in Namibia and beyond. The Trust also provides practical, needs-based workshops, training and mentorship for journalists and non-editorial staff.
Link: https://www.nmt.africa/
The digitisation of Zimbabwe’s judiciary marks a significant stride forward in the nation’s digital transformation. However, there’s an immediate need for cross-sector collaboration to ensure that this advancement doesn’t restrict access to justice.
The use of CCTV for face recognition or tracking of motor vehicles based on their number plate registration has raised the important question about a person’s right to privacy and as such a suitable legislation is required to ensure Zambia falls within the universally accepted parameters.
Some of the areas of specific human rights concern raised about the 2022 draft were underdeveloped consent provisions, the almost complete absence of protections for data subjects, and the absence of carve-outs for journalistic, artistic and academic data collection and processing.
In Malawi, authorities are increasingly demanding that citizens surrender personal information for routine activities, ranging from using a mobile phone to participating in elections, and the absence of a robust, currently enacted data protection law jeopardises citizens’ right to privacy.
In Eswatini, two key legislative measures impact internet governance: the Computer Crime and Cyber Crime Act of 2022 and the Data Protection Act of 2022. Concerns loom over potential implications of these statutes, particularly in terms of press freedom and freedom of expression on social media.
This article explores whether e-government in Botswana ensures privacy and protects personal data. E-government collects personal information, which if mishandled, might pose a threat to democracy.
The second issue of the online digest Southern Africa Digital Rights serves to spotlight that privacy and data protections remain and will continue to remain areas that civil society in the region must continue to monitor and address.
What this edition of Southern Africa Digital Rights serves to spotlight is that privacy and data protections remain and will continue to remain areas that civil society in the region must continue to monitor and address.
The initiative has the overall purpose of increasing advocacy for an open and democratic digital environment in Southern Africa that promotes and protects access to the internet and privacy rights online.
There are several factors, some legal, some political and some economic, that continue to impact the exercise of rights online in Zimbabwe, particularly free expression, the right to privacy and access to information.
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2022
Unless otherwise stated, content on the APC website is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)