Recent headlines I read run from the latest attempts by Donald Trump to own Greenland to Taylor Swift becoming the second–youngest ever inductee to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. There doesn’t seem to be a connection, but there is – digital technology. Whether it’s the semi-conductors and...
Germany’s far-right political party Alternative für Deutschland recently relaunched a youth wing called Generation Deutschland. One of its posters portrays a young blond Aryan woman instantly recalling – for those who have not forgotten 20th century European history – Hitler’s League of German Girls and...
In 1960s Britain it was common for travelling salesmen (hardly ever women) to go from door to door selling subscriptions to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Twenty-four volumes whose cost could be spread over monthly repayments. Parents who could afford it, and even those who couldn’t, coveted Britannica...
[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column][vc_column_text css=""] Media Development 2025-4 Integrity and Trust Underpin the Digital Sphere Civic space enables civil society to play a role in political, economic and social life. To advance the cause of communication justice worldwide, we must listen to the voices...
Civic space enables civil society to play a role in political, economic and social life. When civic freedoms shrink, people are deterred from expressing themselves freely, from protesting publicly, and begin to self-censor. Together these factors erode democratic accountability. Earlier in 2025, the Civicus Monitor Watchlist,...
Theresa Swinehart When we think about the Internet, it’s easy to focus on what it delivers: instant communication, access to knowledge, or new ways to connect to each other, conduct business, build community, and drive innovation. Despite its wide-ranging impact on our day-to-day lives, we rarely...
Ralf Peter Reimann Who owns the Internet? The answer is actually clear. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which manages the global internet’s domain system, operates as a nonprofit public benefit corporation. No single country or company owns the internet. Instead, ICANN itself...
Aniruddha Jena and Sriyanka Sahoo The 20-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+20) and the Global Digital Compact set out a simple test: the digital world should expand rights, dignity and opportunity, not narrow them. [1][2] In an eastern India state, Odisha,...
Kamal Sedra In the early days of the Arab Spring, digital platforms lit up with the voices of citizens reclaiming their space in history. Mobile phones turned into tools of truth, livestreams outpaced official narratives, and hashtags transcended borders. It was the dawn of what many...
José Luis Aguirre Alvis De la realidad del Sur a los debates globales del WSIS: el caso del Proyecto “Escuchar las Voces de la Amazonia: Comunicación Integral para Comunicadores Amazónicos” en Bolivia. La WACC en su Convocatoria a Proyectos (2024-2025) incluyó en sus líneas de apoyo el...