20 Apr 2020 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.
13 Apr 2020 Zoom zooms to rectify digital rights breach
[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]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 and hired hundreds of people to monitor content on these platforms, forcing netizens to be vigilant and to self-censor. The Chinese government claims that monitoring cyberspace betters society, but many believe that the authorities have an ulterior motive: suppressing alternative views and dissent in public and in private.
06 Apr 2020 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).
30 Mar 2020 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 civil liberties.” The EFF statement says:
23 Mar 2020 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.
16 Mar 2020 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.
09 Mar 2020 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 community in Lebanon and the region with the skills and knowledge necessary to bring about change.
02 Mar 2020 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.28 Feb 2020 Feminist digital organizing to transform a world in crisis
Anna Turley Twenty five years ago at the parallel NGO Forum of the 1995 4th World Conference on Women, 30,000 feminists and women’s rights activists from hundreds of countries placed on the global stage our shared vision for women’s rights and gender equality. The collective action of...