Information management

Rights organisation VOICE calls on Bangladeshi government to scrap repressive Digital Security Act
Rights organisation VOICE calls on Bangladeshi government to scrap repressive Digital Security Act 28 June 2020 VOICE

Rights and advocacy organisation VOICE expresses deep concern over the arrest of journalists, online activists, teachers, students, writers and cartoonists, among others, under the Digital Security Act 2018, and urges the Bangaldeshi government to scrap the law.

Engage Media's Pretty Good Podcast: Discussions on digital rights in Asia-Pacific
Engage Media's Pretty Good Podcast: Discussions on digital rights in Asia-Pacific 25 June 2020 Sara Pacia for EngageMedia

The second episode of Pretty Good Podcast delves deeper into the Philippine court cyber libel ruling against journalists Maria Ressa and Reynaldo Santos Jr. of Rappler, a Philippine news organisation known to be critical of incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte.

Compulsory e-learning in Namibia’s public schools: A commendable idea marred by the digital divide?
Compulsory e-learning in Namibia’s public schools: A commendable idea marred by the digital divide? 24 June 2020 Nashilongo Gervasius

Cracks within the Namibian education system have been exposed by COVID-19, and the detrimental effects they pose to the right to development and access to knowledge, as set out in Principle 7 of the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms, have increasingly become apparent.

Can we address sexual violence by collecting more data?
Can we address sexual violence by collecting more data? 24 June 2020 Kate Sim for Point of View

Kate Sim is a DPhil student at the Oxford Internet Institute researching the datafication and automation of sexual harassment reporting systems in US higher education. In this interview with Deep Dives, Kate talks about her research on sexual harassment, digital technologies and big data.

The  shrinking of the digital space during the COVID-19 pandemic: Movement building and internet governance in North Africa
The shrinking of the digital space during the COVID-19 pandemic: Movement building and internet governance in North Africa 23 June 2020 Sodfa Daaji and Rim Menia

The analysis of the sphere of movement building and internet governance in North Africa leads inevitably to assess the shrinking of digital space and online mobilisation during the COVID-19 pandemic in the region.

Privacy and the pandemic: An African response
Privacy and the pandemic: An African response 21 June 2020 Gabriella Razzano

COVID-19 has led to a surge of efforts by both state and private actors to manage the pandemic itself, and the consequences of it, with the aid of technology. Yet privacy has immediately been cast as a required trade-off in the efforts to combat the disease.

EngageMedia: Monitoring the ruling on 2019 internet shutdowns in Papua and West Papua
EngageMedia: Monitoring the ruling on 2019 internet shutdowns in Papua and West Papua 15 June 2020 EngageMedia

Earlier this month, the Jakarta State Administrative Court declared as illegal the internet shutdowns in Papua and West Papua enforced by the Indonesian government in 2019.

7amleh: Palestinian Digital Rights Coalition warns against phone application "The Coordinator"
7amleh: Palestinian Digital Rights Coalition warns against phone application "The Coordinator" 15 June 2020

Al Munasq, a dangerous application launched by Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (COGAT) unit last year, violates Palestinians' privacy and can lead to other human rights violations.

Can the social contract theory justify data rights violations? A review of South Africa's contact tracing regulations
Can the social contract theory justify data rights violations? A review of South Africa's contact tracing regulations 13 June 2020 Rumbidzai Matamba and Chenai Chair

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a need for solutions to “flatten the curve”. This essay by Rumbidzai Matamba and Chenai Chair employs the use of the South African government’s contact tracing initiatives to assess whether the social contract theory can be employed as a tool to justify privacy violations for public health.

Free online course on media freedom in Africa
Free online course on media freedom in Africa 29 May 2020 APCNews

The University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg is launching the third iteration of their online course Media Freedom and Freedom of Expression in Africa. The updated version includes a session on African media in the time of COVID-19 as well as the impact of the pandemic on journalists.

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