access to information
In August 2021, Zambia became the latest country to restrict citizens’ access to social media platforms as the country went to the polls. The disruption of digital communications has become a recurring theme in numerous countries during elections and in times of public protest.
The Internet Archive is a non-profit organisation that started building a digital library of internet sites and digital artifacts 25 years ago. In 2021, it is commemorating the titanic achievement of two and a half decades of providing universal access to all knowledge.
On 28-30 September, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa will host the eighth annual Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica), an event that convenes a wide spectrum of stakeholders from across the internet governance and digital rights arenas.
Together with other civil society and human rights institutions, members of the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms Coalition demonstrated the gravity of online rights violations on the continent in the reports presented during the human rights situation sessions.
In an increasingly digitised world, safeguarding data rights has become central to protecting individuals’ rights to access and share information, express themselves, and associate using the internet and related platforms.
Though Africa has developed several normative frameworks and legal instruments defining democratic elections, the wider dissemination of relevant information during the electoral process remains a challenge, putting the credibility of the process into question.
On Wednesday 13 January 2021, the eve of Uganda’s general elections, Uganda’s communications regulator UCC ordered telecoms operators and internet service providers in the country to suspend all internet gateways until further notice.
Shivkumari, an Internet Saathi from Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, is currently producing 300 masks per day and supplying them to the local hospitals. At the time of writing, she had received an order for 16,000 masks from a government hospital, out of which she has delivered 2,500.
Amid the current COVID-19 pandemic, health recommendations need to be conveyed to communities in remote areas that are separated both by distance and by the minority languages they speak. One medium that can be used to convey public messages is through song.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries are resorting other measures that may have the incidental effect of concentrating power to a few, providing an opportunity for authoritarian leaders to consolidate the government’s might in order to stifle some essential freedoms.
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2020
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