Confessions of an AI Sceptic

When it comes to generative artificial intelligence, I am a sceptic. Is it just another Big Tech tool for collecting our personal data? Will it just magnify misinformation in a volatile political climate? Will it perpetuate racist, sexist and cultural stereotypes? Will it seem “smarter”...

Holding video streaming services to account

In 2001, Jack G. Shaheen published Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People. In an analysis of over 900 films with Arab and Muslim characters from 1896 to 2000, he showed how moviemakers represented Arabs as heartless, uncivilized, religious fanatics akin to the worst...

The Global Digital Compact: A step in the right direction

In one part of the world, in Nairobi, Kenya, street vendors are doing booming business with “art” generated by artificial intelligence whose pricing matches or is even higher than real art. What constitutes “art” may be in the eyes of the beholder, but it seems...

Summit of a Future for All?

“Summit of the Future” sounds a bit like an Avengers movie. It is in fact a much-anticipated (and much-hyped) United Nations event on 22–23 September that aims to address the critical issues that are increasingly transforming lives – issues such as climate change, digital governance,...

Why we must convene local actors to tackle the climate emergency: The case of Radio Ideal

The climate emergency is a challenge of such magnitude that we tend to forget that solutions are often found at the local level and in unexpected places. Such is the case of Radio Stereo Ideal 98.9 FM, a community radio station based in Tena, in...

Far-right conspiracies and extremist ideologies depend on social media

How to regulate social media platforms effectively has become the quest of liberal and illiberal governments alike. The one to eradicate hate speech, and the other to control rebellious populations. The UN defines hate speech as “any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour,...

Reclaiming the rings: Why Olympic broadcasting rights need a rethink

The 2024 Summer Olympics – or the XXXIII Olympiad – are finally here! Whether you, or I, get to watch any of the games, livestreamed and in full, is a separate issue. Those of us old enough to remember will recall a time when the Olympics...

Football, free expression, and the defeat of fascism

Football (soccer), the world’s most popular—and we would argue most beautiful—sport, has become a multi-million-dollar industry marked by astronomical salaries, stadiums that look like spaceships, and billion-dollar sponsorship and television deals. The sport is regulated by FIFA at the global level and groups like CONMEBOL...

Digitalization should carry a planetary health warning

A large part of the world can no longer function without data centres. These are the networked computing and storage facilities that enable the delivery of software applications and data. They are vital to the daily functioning of governments, societies, and users alike. Currently, there...

It doesn’t have to be hate speech to harm

June 18 is the International Day for Countering Hate Speech and June 20 is World Refugee Day. With migrants and refugees often targeted by hate, it can be natural – and even useful – to mark the days together. Certainly WACC Europe, after their 2017...

#GenerationRestoration: Recognizing media on World Environment Day

This year alone has seen devastating floods in Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania, China, Dubai, Oman, Bahrain, and Qatar. Wildfires broke out in western Canada and Texas. Cyclones swept islands and nations along the Indian Ocean. News reports informed audiences that pets and livestock needed temporarily...

Last chance for a just digital future?

Over the past 20 years, the many structural issues in the world’s communication and information ecosystem tackled by the 2003 and 2005 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) have become more complex, entrenched, and detrimental to democracy and communication rights. Primarily this is a...

He who pays the piper calls the tune

The WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event to be held in Geneva 27-31 May 2024 will mark twenty years of progress made in the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society, which took place in two phases – Geneva in 2003 and...

Stripping away media bias in the interest of greater understanding

The Centre for Media Monitoring report “Media Bias Gaza 2023-24” (published 6 March 2024) exposed significant biases in news coverage in the United Kingdom. The report, published by the Muslim Council of Britain, offers a critical examination of media coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza...

What makes for exemplary war photojournalism?

Nii Obodai, Africa jury chair for the 2024 World Press Photo Contest recognizing the world’s best photojournalism, seeks photography that “shift[s] from hard visualization of violence to a more nuanced approach that empowers viewers towards reaching greater understanding… [Not …] dead bodies, or women and...

Where is the money? How international development is failing democratic communication

In 2016, widespread misinformation fueled hate-filled public debate in the United Kingdon and was a major contributor to the outcome of the Brexit referendum. Since then, the country’s decision to leave the European Union has had very negative economic consequences, resulting in lower productivity, less...

Turning point for Big Tech?

Apple has been fined €1.8bn by the European Commission for breaking competition laws over music streaming. The EU Competition Commissioner said that Apple had restricted “developers from informing consumers about alternative, cheaper music services available outside of the Apple ecosystem.” Although Apple says it will...

The weaponization of digital communications

Three years after the Myanmar military seized power in a violent coup, the junta is still carrying out brutal attacks against those resisting its authority. It also uses Internet shutdowns, surveillance, and disappearances to hide its atrocities and to maintain its grip on power. In...

Eroding communication rights top list of global risks in 2024 and beyond

Videos of Elon Musk promoting dubious investments. Popular news anchors advertising all manner of products. Seemingly plausible news articles bearing bylines of known journalists. Welcome to the world of AI-enabled misinformation and disinformation that has rapidly spiraled into the new normal. Over 11,000 business leaders...

The Algorithm Rules – That’s Not OK!

In Britain over 20 years ago a large group of local postmasters were prosecuted for fraud. Many were convicted, some jailed, most lost jobs and incomes. Why? Because the Horizon computer system, used to manage their financial accounts was thought incapable of error. Only later,...

The Economics of Freedom of Expression

Substack is the latest digital communication platform to set off a freedom of expression debate after the co-founder Hamish McKenzie stated that the platform would not demonetize those posting extremist content on the newsletter platform — namely Nazi and white supremacists. The comments sparked both...

What price compassionate communication?

There is no escaping the bitter irony of celebrating a child born in Bethlehem – north-east of the Gaza Strip – and the sickening deaths of more than 6,600 children in Gaza alone since 7 October 2023. Thousands more are missing under the rubble. The...

Fact check, yes. And join a community of trust.

A recent webinar co-organized by WACC and the World Council of Churches on the churches’ role in misinformation and disinformation highlighted the dilemmas all of us face to effectively challenge lies online, whether deliberately created or inadvertently shared. Fact-checking has become one of the essential...

Celebrating the Universal Declaration, condemning attacks on media freedom

On December 10, 2023 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) will be 75 years old. As a benchmark of democracy, we rightly celebrate observance of its Article 19 on freedom of opinion and expression and the right to seek, receive, and impart information. Often...

Regulating digital corporations: A matter of rights

Regulation of digital media may be understood as a means for expanding the space for freedom of expression. There is however a spectrum of reasons for opposition to such regulation, from concerns about potential for abuse by authoritarian States to global big tech’s interest to...

COP 28: Let’s ensure traditional ecological knowledge is integrated into climate policy

Indigenous leaders from around the world gathered in New York last month during UN Climate Week to raise awareness about the need to bring Indigenous and traditional perspectives into climate policy. Their call is to recognize the vital role that these communities, many of which...

Enabling a rights-based AI?

The latest report to warn about the societal risks of artificial Intelligence (AI) documents extensive research of human rights online. Freedom on the Net 2023: The Repressive Power of Artificial Intelligence assesses internet freedom in 70 countries, accounting for almost 90 percent of global internet...

Digital technologies help counter language loss

In 1999, a public hearing on “Languages and Human Rights” took place at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands. A panel of five experts in communication, language rights, and international law heard test cases of threats to linguistic rights. They included the Amazigh...

Africa Climate Summit: To save a planet in crisis, we need community media

The Africa Climate Summit 2023 on September 4–6 in Nairobi came with high expectations of radical proposals to address climate change. “Driving green growth and climate finance solutions for Africa and the world,” the theme promised. In their Nairobi Declaration from the Summit, African heads...

Why grassroots communication is key to stopping Amazon deforestation

The Amazon is being decimated — by the expansion of the agricultural frontier, by illegal economies linked to drug trafficking, and by an economic model that privileges mining and ranching and negatively impacts vulnerable communities. These activities are pushing deforestation levels towards 20%, a point...

Can social media change my mind?

A number of recent research reports investigate the impact social media has on mental health, social well-being – and political polarization. One study, supported by Meta, involved collaboration with a number of US universities to examine the impact of social media – specifically Facebook and...

Derailing the UN Sustainable Development Goals

To mark the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit held in London 25-28 July 2023, Article 19 issued a briefing assessing the progress made towards meeting one of the SDGs’ weaker targets on freedom of expression and access to information. As WACC and other civil society...

Independent investigative journalism in times of crisis

The importance of quality, independent, investigative journalism for bringing clarity to issues cannot be overstated. During times of political crisis, the perceptions of ordinary audiences may be muddied by partisanship, and by hardship when the crisis is economic. When politics and the economy intertwine, the...

Media viability vs. platforms for those without a public voice to be seen and heard

Commercial media outlets around the world are struggling to stay afloat financially. This is related in part to the shift of advertising revenue away from commercial media organizations and towards social media companies like Facebook and Google. This shift is undermining the financial viability of...

Gender equality “moving backwards”

The headline in the Statista information bulletin leapt out at me. Highlighting a recent report from the World Economic Forum, it stated that based on current trends, it will take another 131 years to close the global gender gap, 30% higher than its 2020 prediction...

Migrants and refugees in the media

According to a recent report (The Guardian, 19 May 2023), the BBC has commissioned a study on whether a broad range of viewpoints on migration are being reflected in all aspects of its immigration coverage. Samir Shah, who contributed to the UK government’s controversial Sewell...

Anticipating a Fake News Pandemic

A lot of talk about fake news and chatbots like ChatGBT-4, Bing AI, Jasper, Bard and FreedomGPT. One concern is what threats they pose to the integrity of professional journalism. “This tool is going to be the most powerful tool for spreading misinformation that has...

Speaking up against enforced public amnesia

“History is not mute. However much they burn it, however much they break it, however much they lie about it, human history refuses to shut its mouth. Time past continues pulsating, alive, within time present, although time present doesn’t wish it or doesn’t know it.”...

Artificial Intelligence and the Master’s House

“For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change”– Audre Lorde Audre Lorde’s admonition that the tools of oppression cannot be...

Why communication rights are key to supporting the rights of Ukrainian refugees

Since the start of the Russian invasion more than a year ago, over 8.1 million people have fled Ukraine. Nearly 4.9 million have obtained some form of temporary protection in different European countries —  a major humanitarian challenge for the region, without counting the more...

“Getting our skates on” as communication rights advocates

“Get your skates on!” I sometimes hear, especially from harassed parents trying to speed up apathetic children. I can’t call communication rights advocates apathetic, but we should feel pushed to move faster and harder in response to rapid digital technology developments. It is, of course,...

Communication rights on World Day of Social Justice

The lives of many people today have improved immeasurably compared to the past. On average, income and life expectancy have increased, and extreme poverty has declined. Yet, progress has been extremely uneven. In principle, genuine social progress is high on the agenda of civil society...

#SaferInternetDay: Here’s to a misogyny-free Internet

The message to end misogyny, sexual harassment and gender-based violence in the digital realm has been iterated and reiterated countless times in as many spaces and languages the world over. Yet, there still lacks global consensus on what constitutes such behaviour. Related to the absence...

Climate change and global economics: Whose voices are heard at Davos?

Each year, political and economic leaders gather in Davos, Switzerland, in meetings organized by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Issues discussed at Davos are typically at the top of national and international agendas, and many see the gathering as one of the key spaces from...

Internet Connectivity through Community Resolve

My family decided to move to a rural location in northern England. Knowing that my job depends on excellent internet connections, friends expressed concern that by moving away from towns and their services, I wouldn’t be able to access the internet at the same speeds...

Qatar: Digital surveillance and human rights abuse

For many, digital surveillance is a big “So what?”, the unavoidable risk of using the technology. For others, it can mean obstruction, harassment, detention, unfair trial, and imprisonment. Over 1.2 million international visitors were expected to visit Qatar to watch the FIFA World Cup. Worldwide...

Media gender equality in the era of diversity

Seems like you can’t fight for recognition of women in discussions about diversity without being drawn into TERF wars. The TERF—trans-exclusionary radical feminist—label is increasingly being applied to disparage voices urging protection of the modest gains for women in the steep road to gender equality,...

Communicating climate justice: A vital part of COP27’s outcomes

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s 2021 report unequivocally linked climate change to human activity and predicted more frequent and more severe natural disasters over the coming years. Given the current trajectory of emissions and lack of meaningful climate action, the world...

Rethinking our role as social media “users”

Mozilla, the organization/community that built the Firefox browser and now has a Foundation working to ensure the internet remains an open and accessible public resource, has released a 12-minute documentary, “Unknown Influence” The documentary interviews independent researchers and technology experts from the US, Kenya, France,...

Calling out government censorship of the Internet

The world’s law enforcement services are in cahoots, sharing detailed data about individuals as well as corporations “in the interest of national security”. In 2021, the Agreement between the Government of Australia and the Government of the United States of America on Access to Electronic...

Real people against hate

Pursuit of profit and social media algorithms foster and elevate hate into the mainstream. In yet one more example, misogynistic and violent messages made by influencer Andrew Tate, recently banned from social media platforms, were viewed billions of times on TikTok alone. His rise on...

Why the new Chilean Constitution matters for communication rights

On September 4, 2022, Chilean voters rejected a new proposed constitution that would have set the foundations for a progressive, rights-based, gender-sensitive, decolonial, and ecologically sound form of governance. Despite some gaps in terms of clarity and concerns about the fiscal load that the constitution...

Putting people first rather than corporate interests

On 5 July 2022, the European Parliament approved the final text of its Digital Services Act (DSA), the new rule book for moderating digital content. The DSA aims to limit the spread of illegal content online and it establishes a new set of obligations for...

#Cybermisogyny

In the Netflix documentary “the most hated man on the Internet”, a mother seeks justice for her daughter and other women whose intimate photos obtained through hacking are posted on a revenge porn website. The magnitude of apathy of the site owner and his upto...

Opportunities for communication rights in the context of Latin America’s ‘Pink Tide’ 2.0

In Latin America, the “pink tide” governments of the first decade of the 21st Century transformed the movement for communication rights by introducing far reaching media reform legislation. As a second wave of progressive governments are elected, the region has a new opportunity to move...

Trustworthy news or the Greatest Show on Earth?

News fatigue is an age-old phenomenon. Not only do media have a reputation for “moving on” after a catastrophe, but readers, listeners, and viewers have a tendency to get bored. Sadly, extended calamities – the drought in the Horn of Africa, the war in Ukraine...

Why a gender lens in news coverage of violent crime is paramount

Whether inroads are made to reducing violent crime depends to an extent on the media. On 24 May 2022 another massacre of children in an American school took place, this time in Uvalde, Texas (1), Russia’s war on Ukraine raged on, (2) and a woman...

Language rights and digital justice

Some 7,100 languages are spoken in the world today, of which only some 400 are spoken by the great majority of the world’s people. Every language is a uniquely important way to describe and make sense of the world. Every language and every dialect –...

Independent media in retreat?

The war in Ukraine and Russian authorities’ move to close independent media and censor news and social media information in the country has been spotlighted in Western countries. In a letter to subscribers, the Guardian shared how it has joined other news agencies in Europe...

Web3 – the Internet’s illusionary or visionary future?

Communication rights activists are calling for greater accountability from Big Tech and social media platforms. They also want a seat at the table when it comes to devising ways of regulating and monitoring social media content and use of personal data. Alternatively, Web3 may be...

Media Activism Against Extractivism

Social movements need to embrace participatory media practices to organize in their struggles against an extractivist economic model A hugely significant bill has been making its way through the Brazilian congress. According to Amazon Watch, Bill 191/2020 is a piece of legislation that “in addition...

Information access under threat

A recently released UNESCO report confirms comprehensively what many of us have sensed: the rise of social media and digital communication platforms have created an existential challenge to independent media and journalism. “Journalism is a public good: World trends in freedom of expression and media...

News media and disinformation in an unpredictable world

The 50th anniversary celebrations of NGO CSW/NY, which organizes the civil society side of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)  commence this month. The civil society forum is the central stage for global advocacy to promote women’s empowerment, human rights and gender...

Media ‘platforming’ and the oxygen of publicity

In 1985, following the hijacking of a Trans World Airlines flight by a Shi’ite Muslim group, UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher accused the news media of providing the terrorists with the “oxygen of publicity”. Thatcher misconstrued the role of public interest media, but the underlying...

Tackling Digital Colonialism

Civil Society in the South needs to be empowered to prevent a new “Scramble for Africa” as tech giants seek to access and monetize data in countries with weak data protection regimes The expression “data is the new oil” has become commonplace over the past...

‘Journalist’ or ‘Activist’?

In a recent training session for current and would be journalists, a repeated question came up – can a journalist be an activist? Or – asked with even more urgency in the context of injustice – how can a journalist not be an activist? There...

New threat to human rights in Putin’s Russia

Russia’s supreme court has ordered the closure of Memorial International, the country’s oldest human rights group. Memorial has joined a growing list of investigative news outlets, journalists, and rights organisations classed as being an agent of foreign powers. Many believe the move is politically motivated....

Chile at a Crossroads

Optimism brought about by drafting of new constitution dampened by polarizing presidential election Chile, a country known for being among the most prosperous and politically stable countries in Latin America over the past 30 years, is at a crossroads. And like most  crossroads, there are...

Are we our worst enemies in an increasingly authoritarian world?

In its 2021 report on the Global State of Democracy, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) stated that “the number of countries moving in an authoritarian direction exceeds the number of countries moving in a democratic direction” – for the fifth year...

Raising the bar in climate change communication #COP26

Thanks to the just-concluded UN climate summit COP26 (Glasgow, 31 Oct-12 November), conditions were just right to see climate change communication at its best, or worst. Over the two-week period, news media worldwide were presented with opportunities to grow or muddy their audiences’ understanding of climate change...

A wake up call to the spectre of ‘anti-woke’ news

There is widespread dismay at the spectre of former US President Donald Trump setting up his own social media app provocatively named TRUTH. A press release dated 20 October 2021 announced a merger between Trump Media & Technology Group and Digital World Acquisition Corp., stating...

A global call to defend independent journalism

The last time a working journalist won the Nobel Peace Prize, Europe – and eventually nations around the globe – were on the brink of World War II. German editor Carl von Ossietzky won the prize in 1936, “for his burning love for freedom of...

Language diversity and the Internet

Global internet freedom has declined for the 11th consecutive year, according to the latest report from Freedom House. “Freedom on the Internet 2021” focuses on surveillance, censorship, privacy legislation, and encryption. The report notes that “unequal access to the internet entrenches societal inequity” and calls...

Communication rights are central to climate justice

On 8 August 2021, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a major reportthat unequivocally links climate change to human activity and predicts more frequent and more severe heat waves, droughts, and floods over the coming years. The report, released ahead of...

Newsrooms without women: The future of journalism in Afghanistan

Imagine a newsroom without women, where all staff, without exception, are men. Now imagine all newsrooms in an entire nation with men only, across all jobs, from the reporters, to the technicians, to the editing staff and managers. This threatens to be the future of...

Afghanistan: Is digital communication a blessing or curse?

The swift takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban following the withdrawal of foreign forces has shocked and appalled human rights defenders. It has led to wholesale urgent calls to assist Afghans – particularly women, journalists, and those who have worked for or aided humanitarian aid...

Restoring a sense of justice to history

By targeting monuments that celebrate historic figures who actively contributed to institutional racism and the oppression of marginalised peoples, Black Lives Matter and others have implicitly questioned the way collective memory is fashioned. Protests of this kind are an effective communication strategy for challenging political,...

Call for a public service Internet

“The dominant forms and uses of digital technologies and the Internet endanger democracy. They undermine the indispensable resources of trusted information, in-depth analysis, rational debate, and diversity of representation that allow us to fully understand the challenges we face.” To tackle these limitations, a coalition...

The state of digital news and the world we want to see

The 2021 Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute points to some promising findings for those who value independent and reliable news. The Covid-19 pandemic appears to have increased trust in mainstream news – at least back to 2018 levels. Three quarters of the survey...

Colombia: Journalists need to be protected when covering protests

Since April 28, Colombia has seen an unprecedented wave of demonstrations against various government policies. What started as a national strike against a tax reform bill led by students and labour unions has developed into an ongoing series of protests.  Most have been peaceful, but...

Public service journalism at its very best

Reporters Without Borders has underlined growing concerns about a steady decline of press freedom in several European Union member states, including Greece, Malta, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia. In “‘Worrying picture’: Journalists in Europe face increasing risk, press freedom group warns” (The Guardian, 14 April...

In the battle of giants, who to root for?

The tech headlines in the past week have marked the growing data privacy battle between Apple and Facebook. The latest update to iPads and iPhones includes an App Tracking Transparency feature which will force app developers to ask users permission to collect their data. This...

Global tax reforms and communication rights

Do current shifts in economic thinking represent an opportunity for communication rights?   On April 5th, United States Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen issued a call for a global corporate tax rate, a major shift from the neoliberal consensus that has governed the global...

Trust is a two-way street

The theme of WACC’s annual report for 2020 is “Truthful Voices Matter”. What appears to be self-evident reflects a growing perception that public interest media need to rebuild trust in their news content and opinions: by demonstrating impartiality, balance, and transparency. Why is trust eroding,...

Digital justice, still waiting in the wings

Everyone agrees that social media are failing to distinguish between truth and lies. That’s partly because the line is easily blurred, but also because social media are corporate entities running on profit. Few people agree on how to tackle the problem of fake news or...

#IWD 2021: Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world

March, the month set aside to honour women’s contributions to American history is today commemorated worldwide as “Women’s history month”. Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world is the theme of International Women’s Day March 8. If there’s anything that a quarter century of media...

Unmoored from the truth: Holding social media to account

The Washington Post (2 February 2021) reported, “Former president Donald Trump lost the 2020 election largely due to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a post-election autopsy completed by Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio. The 27-page document shows that voters in 10 key...

Time to regain public trust in the media

American citizens are not alone in realising that press freedom is under attack. Russians, Poles, Hungarians, Brazilians and Filipinos – to name just a few – are also deeply concerned. They can all learn from PEN America which has put forward An Agenda for the...

Argentina: Making Access to Communication more Affordable

Affordability a major hurdle in ensuring equitable access Today, access to the internet and mobile phones is critical for people everywhere. Still, 40% of the world’s population has no access to the internet[i], with countries such as India (50%), Ethiopia (81%), and Brazil (29%) having...

Silencing Trump, preserving free speech?

Following the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, the social media platforms Facebook and Twitter, followed by other online platforms, suspended and then banned President Donald Trump’s accounts due, as Twitter put it, “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

New Year, new digital responsibilities

Last year – and even as recently as January 6, 2021 – saw anti-democratic tendencies and misinformation magnified by social media in several countries, contributing to near breakdowns in the rule of law. It is time for stringent regulation of social media companies and online...

Remembering the past to reimagine the future

Cloud storage and hard drives are today’s scrapbooks, records, and memories. In his book delete (2009), Viktor Mayer-Schönberger explored “The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age”.

Empowering women by tackling online harassment and abuse

Section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996 says, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

Speaking up for decency and dialogue

Stars on the digital Walk of Infamy are being awarded to world leaders. Former US President Donald Trump, current Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and current Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro have each received one. They have been admonished by Twitter and Facebook for posts that violate...

Facial recognition use and abuse

Public safety and national security are two advantages of facial recognition technology. Law enforcement agencies use the technology to identify known criminals and to find missing children or seniors. Airports are increasingly adding facial recognition technology to security checkpoints. Unsurprisingly, the U.S. Department of Homeland...

Biosurveillance can threaten human rights

Using smartphones to track and trace during the Covid-19 epidemic creates a smokescreen for wider surveillance measures that may infringe people’s right to privacy. Human rights activists are concerned that such data can be used to discriminate against migrants, refugees, and on racial grounds.

Time to detrumpify the media

The antics of the outgoing US president have raised profound questions about the role of mass and social media in society today. How do public interest media – the kind that publish information and points of view on important issues that affect policies, lives, and...

16 Days of Activism and the News Media in 2020

This month marks the start of the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence campaign running from November 25 to Human Rights Day December 10. Unlike previous years, lockdowns and curfews intended to arrest the spread of Covid-19 have led to a free-fall into...

Democracy is freedom of the press

People the world over are willing – some are even praying for – a free and fair election in the USA on November 3. In ordinary times, for that to happen the media must also be free and fair. But these have not been ordinary...

Our common digital future

In his 2011 book, The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding From You, Eli Pariser wrote, “the rise of pervasive, embedded filtering is changing the way we experience the internet and ultimately the world.”

Investigative journalism is a form of activism

October 19, 2020 — Covid-19, migrants, and the climate crisis apart, public interest media is today’s hot topic. In the USA, Hungary, and the Philippines – to cite just three countries – some politicians have labelled media outlets critical of their policies and actions “fake media” or...

In bringing about gender justice, men have a role to play

Women all over the world are celebrating the sixth instalment in 25 years of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP). What is it? A series of extensive gender and media monitoring studies conducted every five years since 1995 by WACC Global, an international NGO that...

Communication as a building block of a post-pandemic world

Since the emergence of the communication rights movements in the 1980s, activists have advanced a vision of the right to communicate as a highly political enterprise. The main idea at the heart of the movement has always been that democratizing media and communication is a...

Investing in journalism that serves the public interest

Public interest journalism addresses the needs of citizens in a democratic community. Journalism that serves the public interest acknowledges that citizens are able to comprehend the policies and decisions that affect them. It assumes they are capable of applying their experience and values to arguments...

Instagram – the opium of the people

Once used mainly by teens and young millennials, Instagram continues to grow as one of the most popular social media platforms. As of June 2018, Instagram had reached one billion monthly active users. More than 500 million use the platform daily.

Challenging voter manipulation in the US elections

Free Press and four allies have filed a lawsuit (27 August 2020) challenging an order against social media companies. The US District Court, Northern District of California, will hear a complaint against President Trump’s “Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship”, which targets online platforms with...

Democracy demands diversity in the news

How can news organizations practice diversity and how can newsmakers contribute to overcoming division and exclusion? A digital panel session discussed these questions as part of German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle’s Global Media Forum 2020. It focused on the need for news organizations to promote...

Staying silent about Hong Kong is not an option

Media freedom is the freedom to protest. “Hong Kong has long been respected as a powerful global economic hub and lively political and democratic space, supported by a proud and strong independent media. Yet the imposition of the new national security law… has undermined fundamental...

New media laws obstruct the right to communicate

A new law in Tanzania tightens controls on cooperation between local and international media outlets. Under new regulations announced by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority, which came into force on 10 August 2020, local media must now seek government permission to broadcast foreign content. They...

Time for Facebook to face the music

There are laws about what can be seen or said in public. So why don’t they apply to social media? In principle they do. The problem is enforcing them. In part it’s a problem of scale.

Tackling hate speech online and offline

There is nothing new about hate speech. What has changed is the mode of delivery. In Nazi Germany, it was state-controlled newspapers and radio. At the time of the genocide in Rwanda, it was a radio station run by the Hutu government. Today, it is...

VAW: A plague within the pandemic but not headline news

Last year the South African president elevated the epidemic of violence against women to national crisis level following pressure from activists, promising to put in place a public national register of offenders, a review of cold cases and harsher penalties for perpetrators.

News media, discrimination, and bias

No apologies for quoting at length from “The Media Isn’t Ready to Cover Climate Apartheid” by Michelle García (The Nation, 17 June 2020). While praising the public service ethic of many media outlets, whose coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic has been exemplary, she notes an...

Enabling community engagement in humanitarian responses

In times of disaster, the need to engage with affected communities to ensure useful, timely and accurate information is mutually shared is increasingly recognised as essential.

Speaking up for free speech

A group of 153 academics, writers, and social activists published a letter in Harper’s Magazine (7 July 2020) expressing concern that “a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments” are tending “to weaken norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of...

The enemy on your wrist

Tags: surveillance, wearables, monitoring tools, privacy Electronic tagging has always been controversial. Today it is being touted in the name of health security.

Toppling statues are opportunities for collective reflection

Protests against racism unleashed by the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, at the hands of police in Minneapolis spread all over the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe in May and June of this year.

Protecting journalists is a balancing act between dictums and dictators

The Philippines is facing another crackdown on media freedoms. On June 15, 2020, a court in the capital Manila, convicted former CNN journalist Maria Ressa and former Rappler writer Reynaldo Santos Jr. of cyber libel for publishing an article that implicated a prominent businessman who...

Time to stand up for journalism and journalists – again!

Democracy stands or falls by its guarantee of freedom of expression and opinion and an independent press. Two tragic events have thrown that statement into sharp relief: the global coronavirus pandemic and the murder of George Floyd in the USA.

Upgrading digital infrastructure to serve all people everywhere

Ownership of mobile phones, especially smartphones, is spreading rapidly across the globe. Yet, there are still many people in emerging economies who do not own a mobile phone, or who share one with others. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2019 mobile divides were...

Advocating freedom from fear

At a time when the world is rightly focused on the coronavirus pandemic and its long-term consequences, under-reported news includes how far down the road we are (or not) toward the abolition of nuclear weapons. The report “Enough is Enough: Global Nuclear Weapons Spending in...

Journalists are key workers in a chaotic world

It’s a familiar story. Toe the government line – any government – and survive. Criticize the government, or its cronies, or policies that benefit the few rather than the majority, and risk censure or worse. Investigative journalism examines questions of public interest: crime and corruption,...

Migrant voices in the time of Covid-19

With the onset of the current pandemic, things are bound to get a lot more challenging for many migrants and refugees, as well as for the societies that host them. The number of forcibly displaced people worldwide was already the highest it had been in decades even...

A pandemic of mistrust

The World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), suggests that the coming decade will be decisive for the future of journalism. The 2020 edition of the Index, which evaluates the situation for journalists in 180 countries and territories, identifies five converging crises: geopolitical...

No surveillance without safeguarding privacy!

A key issue arising from responses to the Covid-19 pandemic is surveillance. Once governments have established ways of tracking and monitoring individuals in the name of national health security, they may become very difficult to undo.

Extraordinary measures, extraordinary protections

More than 100 civil society groups have urged governments not to use the global coronavirus pandemic as cover for future pervasive electronic snooping but to make sure data is erased once the health crisis is over.

To deny information is to deny human rights

Even faced with COVID-19, despotic regimes will stop at nothing. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has expressed its concern at some Middle Eastern governments taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to increase state censorship and to clamp down on the dissemination of news and information.

Zoom zooms to rectify digital rights breach

Civil liberties are most fragile during times of crisis. As conflict the world over has shown, digital communications infrastructures can easily be used to censor, to silence, to monitor, and ultimately to sanction. In China, WeChat and Weibo are extremely popular. China introduced new laws...

Backsliding for profit

Trade relations must not be allowed to threaten hard-won universal rights. The United Kingdom appears to be trying to wriggle out of applying the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to its post-Brexit existence as a non-member of the European Union (EU).

Digital privacy and the need to know

Collecting personal data for the best of reasons – such as tackling the coronavirus pandemic – has triggered a wave of misgivings. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) has responded to growing concerns with a statement (10 March 2020) urging “a balance between collective good and...

When mainstream media get it right

Interesting to see the media’s largely positive role in helping to combat the coronavirus crisis. According to Forbes Magazine (March 16), the World Health Organization (WHO) is becoming the planet’s most important social media influencer.

Public service broadcasting: It’s political

Attacks on the independence of the BBC are multiplying. The principle of public service broadcasting – or, in these days of digital convergence, public service media – ought to be sacrosanct. The question then becomes one of the need for unbiased oversight and financial autonomy.

Pushing the limits of media freedom in the interest of democratic protest

A report from Lebanon’s Maharat Foundation examines the role of freedom of expression and media during the 2019 uprising. Maharat’s aim is to create societal and political conditions that enhance freedom of expression and access to information both online and offline. It equips a progressive...

International digital taxation: It’s long overdue

“Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.” Pulitzer Prize winning American author Herman Wouk may have written that, but it certainly seems to be true of some of the major tech companies whose profits include those from dubious digital surveillance techniques.

Civil society has a chance to regain the high ground

Surveillance and loss of privacy are watchwords in the digital transformation of societies worldwide. Who is watching us and for what purposes? Who is infringing private spaces and closing down public spaces? When it comes to communication infrastructures and technologies, accessibility and affordability are no...

Giving migrants a voice – and others a history lesson

National Public Radio (NPR) in the United States is demonstrating the importance both of giving a voice to migrants in media, and of ensuring the independence of the public broadcasting platform. As reported by another public broadcaster, BBC (“The immigrants telling stories history missed” 10...

Measures to tackle disinformation and propaganda in Europe

Recently, the European parliament voted in favour of stronger EU measures aimed at countering “highly dangerous” Russian disinformation and at upgrading the EU’s anti-propaganda unit.

‘It takes a village to keep children safe both online and offline’

Children now represent one third of all Internet users.

This number is expected to increase once developing countries – where most of the world’s children live –become digitized.
This is both exciting and worrisome. Exciting because it has been established that connectivity opens doors to new educational experiences, skills, and other benefits. Worrisome because of what we know and experience about the Internet’s darker side.

Media reform is alive and kicking!

In September 2019, in a victory for the principles underlying media democracy, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rebuked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by overturning the agency’s latest attempts to eliminate long-standing limits on local-media ownership.

Protest in the digital realm

Digital technology is a growing force in today’s world. Since advocacy groups during the Vietnam War became incensed by televised images of suffering and torture, information and communication technology has changed the way we interact with the world around us.

Media independence: A fundamental question

It’s surprising that the issue of “fake news” took so long to raise its head. Deliberate misinformation and bias have been around for as long as journalism itself – more than 400 years by some accounts. The yellow press (a term coined in the 1890s...

How the 5G wireless dividend can help connect those left behind

Private, public, and civil society actors should work together to encourage more sustainable financing of universal access efforts Access to communication and information tools and platforms, including digital platforms, is essential to enable us all to exercise our human rights. In today’s world, fully exercising...

How the 5G wireless dividend can help connect those left behind

Private, public, and civil society actors should work together to encourage more sustainable financing of universal access efforts

Political accountability in the age of Twitter

Photo: London UK. 24th July 2019. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, delivers a speech outside 10 Downing Street. Credit: Michael Tubi/Shutterstock On 19 September, Veteran BBC journalist John Humphreys hosted his last “Today” radio programme after 32 years. Known for his aggressive interviewing on a...

When fact-checking isn’t about ‘right’ or ‘wrong’

The rise of “fake news” charges and deliberate disinformation have  led to an important counter effort: fact-checking. News agencies, civil society organisations, and concerned individuals have taken on the fight for “truth” – assessing political claims and struggling to prevent misinformation guiding our decisions and...

Children’s communication rights need better protection

Google should have known better! An Associated Press piece in The Guardian newspaper (“YouTube fined $170m for collecting children’s personal data”, 4 September 2019) notes a serious violation of children’s right to privacy: “Google’s video site YouTube has been fined $170m to settle allegations it collected children’s...

Climate change literacy and community media

Not everyone is familiar with climate change. A new survey released by Afrobarometer paints a bleak picture of how agriculture conditions are worsening due to higher temperatures, delayed rainfall, and crop failure. Crucially, among some people, it also identifies little or no knowledge about climate...

Privacy on the frontier of lawlessness

Privacy was something that used to be taken for granted. Ordinarily, the private life of an individual was not open to scrutiny, while public life was the concern of law and order and decency. In communication terms, privacy meant that only the addressee could open...

Ban books, ban people

“For the past twenty years, the main issue restricting ublic debate in terms of Turkish laws has been the prosecution and imprisonment of journalists, writers and intellectuals on the grounds that they contribute to violence and terrorism.” This quote comes from a report by English...

From manufacturing consent to manufacturing consensus

An influential book on communications in the 1980s was Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Communication, by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky. It proposed a “propaganda model” as a way of understanding how the mass media system intersected with the U.S. economy, political system, and mobilising support for the special interests dominating state and corporate activity.

It’s vital to be able to “read” social media

In an era when misinformation and “fake news” abound on social media, it is important to understand where people get their news.

Big data’s big brother: Real-time data processing

Walk around any city and your face will be caught on camera and might even be added to a facial-recognition database. That data can now be processed in real-time. Regulations about how it can be used are minimal and generally weak.

“Democracy, as we know it, is about to die…”

There was a mantra among communities and businesses when foreign goods and huge chain stores started crowding out small, local operations. “Buy local” was the cry.

Civil rights and the climate crisis

Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, writes that the impacts of global heating are likely to undermine not only basic rights to life, water, food, and housing for hundreds of millions of people, but also democracy and the rule of law.

Short-sighted policies for short-term gain

Accessibility and affordability are watchwords of the communication rights movement. Yet when it comes to digital access, governments have still not got their act together.

A voluntary way of holding social media to account

Article 19 – the international freedom of expression organization – has proposed creating Social Media Councils (SMCs) as a way of moderating content on social media based on a “multi-stakeholder accountability mechanism”.

Unfriendly-fire: Media freedom under threat

“Elected leaders in many democracies, who should be press freedom’s staunchest defenders, have made explicit attempts to silence critical media voices and strengthen outlets that serve up favorable coverage. The trend is linked to a global decline in democracy itself: The erosion of press freedom is both a symptom of and a contributor to the breakdown of other democratic institutions and principles, a fact that makes it especially alarming.”

Internet governance should work towards mechanisms to reinvigorate independent journalism

A free and independent media sector is one of the cornerstones of what it means for a country to be a liberal democracy. The emergence of the Internet was initially received with much optimism as there was an expectation that it would help democratize media systems, allowing “citizens to report news, expose wrongdoing, express opinions, mobilize protest, monitor elections, scrutinize government, deepen participation, and expand the horizons of freedom."

True public service media to the rescue

Every ten years or so the BBC comes in for criticism for being too partial or too impartial.

World Wide Web or webs of intrigue?

In its 2019 report, the Internet Society asks whether the Internet economy is consolidating and, if it is, what the implications might be.

Seeing and hearing people who matter

It is more and more evident that communication and information issues are intrinsically connected to questions of sustainable development and human dignity.

Support for local media

Subscribers to The Guardian in the UK recently received a message of appreciation from the Editor-in-Chief, Katherine Viner. She announced that after a three-year “turnaround” strategy the newspaper had hit its goal of breaking even – making a small profit that has been ploughed back into supporting their journalism.

Digital vulnerability and global justice

As with every new technological innovation, there are pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages, benefits and risks.

Stand up for press freedom worldwide!

It’s a more clandestine and dangerous world when journalists can be threatened with violence, detention, and death for doing their job.

Freedom of the press in an age of anxiety

The UK Foreign Secretary has appointed international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to act as a special envoy on media freedom. She will also chair a high-level panel of legal experts on the issue.

Instalike vs. Instahate

In the “good old days” of traditional media, there were gatekeepers whose task was to apply professional and ethical standards to content. In addition, government and public entities established print and broadcast regulations that were independently monitored to ensure compliance.

Why are Indigenous and minority languages important in today’s world?

The United Nations has declared 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages in order to raise awareness about the importance of linguistic diversity in relation to sustainable development, culture, knowledge, and collective memory. People’s ability to communicate in their own language is one of the cornerstones of communication rights. 

Can migrants make themselves heard in the age of national populism?

Rates of forced migration are the highest they have been in decades. In 2016, approximately 40 million people became internally displaced persons (IDPs) and 22.5 million became refugees, the highest figures on record. These are staggering numbers.

Media reform in the UK

Trustworthy news and opinion is the Holy Grail of journalism today.

An independent report reviewing challenges facing high quality journalism in the UK has been published. The Cairncross Review: a sustainable future for journalism (12 February 2019) recommends a new regulator to oversee the relationship between news outlets and technology giants and urges a public investigation into the dominance of Facebook and Google in the advertising marketplace.

What next for the web?

The 30th birthday of the World Wide Web saw its founder publish an open letter reflecting on how the web has changed our world. He  identifies what must be done to build a better web that serves all of humanity.

Fake news and the hijacking of public opinion

British Members of Parliament are agitating for tougher regulations to combat fake news.

To share or not to share

A friend forwarded a YouTube video reporting on an apparent practice in a Central Asian country of abducting women for marriage.

Digital surveillance: Who watches the watchers?

Last year Australia passed a bill weakening security on the iPhones and software people rely on in today’s digital world. This sweeping law could force tech companies to access encrypted data.

I Got Algorithm

How to prevent social networks from damaging the well-being of young people?

Mind your language!

Masculine, feminine, or gender-neutral?

Data protection and googol fines

Data privacy, also called information privacy, is about what data in a computer system can be shared with third parties.

Building trust in a fragmented world

Genuine communication is all about creating relationships and building trust.

What makes great journalism? On foreign correspondents and terror

Yet another terrorist act played out in Nairobi just two weeks into 2019.

Hunger for truth games

Media wars can easily get personal. Today the name of the game is Showtime! Ratings trump sober facts and inconvenient truths. Fox News offers foxy entertainment; The New York Post offers sensationalism; the gutter press epitomised by the likes of the UK’s The Daily Mail and the German tabloid Bild Zeitung have been known to peddle downright lies.

Shrinking civic space demands alternative strategies

At the end of 2018, an astonishing statistic was published by CIVICUS Monitor, a research collaborative effort that rates and tracks respect for fundamental freedoms in 196 countries.

What price freedom of information?

Freedom of information, including the right to access information held by public bodies, is crucial to democracy, good governance, and good citizenship.

Time for a communication revolution from below!

Sobering words for those who still believe that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are the panacea for the world’s ills. In “Developing Countries Losing Out To Digital Giants” (IPS News, 17 October 2018), Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury write:

New Mexican government should prioritize the protection of journalists

Mexico is among the most dangerous countries in the world to be a journalist. Over 70 journalists were killed during the past decade; 8 have been killed in 2018 alone. Many more have been threatened or assaulted in different forms. Worst of all, impunity is rampant.

WhatsApp calls time on WhatsApp

Social media are accused of bringing about the demise of traditional journalism. They are used to tar news stories with the brush of “fake news” as loud-mouthed politicians eagerly point the finger at what they deem to be critical or unfavourable coverage.

Integrity in news coverage

The world’s leading newspapers are struggling to maintain their place as voices of conscience in society when via social media everyone is free to express alternative views and opinions.

When media, politics and sexual violence collide

How media report on sexual violence when political interests are at play is a litmus test for how serious they are about professional ethics.

‘Fake news’ is undermining Brazilian rights

During Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-85), the people’s ability to exercise some of their most fundamental human rights was severely curtailed. In addition to engaging in torture, extrajudicial killings, and repression against opposition groups, the successive military governments that governed Brazil during this period relentlessly restricted freedom of expression, access to public information, and controlled the majority of media outlets.

Beware propaganda from the wireless industry

There has always been a suspicion that radio waves do more harm than good. With the arrival of the Internet of Things – wireless computing devices embedded in such everyday objects as fridges, washing machines and coffee makers – the scenario easily slips into one of doomsday. 

Media bread and circuses

On 7 September 2018, former President Obama delivered a pointed critique of the Trump presidency. Speaking to students at the University of Illinois, he urged political awareness and action, saying:

Genocide in the news: On media elitism and racism

Why do some genocides make the news and others hardly? Let me rephrase: Why do international news media give grossly disproportionate attention to different yet similarly grave ‘deliberate and systematic destructions of a racial, political, or cultural group’ (Miriam-Webster definition)? 

When did you last take a break from social media?

According to a 2018 research report from the Pew Research Centre on trends in social media use in the United States, 74% of Facebook users in that country visited the platform at least once a day, and 51% did so several times a day. 

Protecting privacy in a world of digital communications

“New technologies will enable high levels of social control at a reasonable cost. Governments will be able to selectively censor topics and behaviors to allow information for economically productive activities to flow freely, while curbing political discussions that might damage the regime.China’s so-called Great Firewall provides an early demonstration of this kind of selective censorship.”