News

By Juliet Nanfuka | The Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) has joined the #KeepItOn coalition in urging the Nigerian Authorities to ensure that access to digital communications remains open before, during and after the elections which take place on February 16, 2019. The call implores the state to reaffirm […] Read more

By Juliet Nanfuka | Zimbabwe has experienced a shutdown of social media platforms and major websites as of January 15, 2019 following public protests against a 150% increase in fuel prices. The protests have resulted in the death of at least eight people and arrest of up to 200 others. The disruptions to online communications […] Read more

By Simone Toussi | The first African edition of Europe’s largest internet and digital society festival – re:publica – was held in Accra, Ghana, December 14-15, 2018 and drew in hundreds of participants to showcase and discuss how politics, the arts, innovation, and digital rights have been affected by an increasingly digitised society. Co-organised by […] Read more

By Daniel Mwesigwa | At its founding, in the late 80s, the internet promised to democratize information, level uneven grounds, and the destroy barriers associated with distance, space, and time. Through promoting communication, coordination, integration at a pace and scale beyond the ability of any government to halt, the connectivity set a foundation for dichotomies […] Read more

News Update | A new tool to support internet freedom is being launched by NetBlocks and The Internet Society, a global non-profit organisation dedicated to the open development, use and evolution of the Internet. Launch COSTRun the Cost of Shutdown Tool The organisations have partnered up to build COST, a tool that seeks to measure the […] Read more

By Ashnah Kalemera | The challenges faced by persons with disabilities (PWDs) in accessing information online and financial services since Uganda introduced taxes on social media access and mobile money transactions came to light last August. These taxes added to the catalogue of barriers to promoting access to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for disabled […] Read more

By Tomiwa Ilori | Transparency and accountability in governance are key tenets of participatory democracy. To this end, Sweden was the first country in the world to introduce a right to information (RTI) law back in 1766. Finland followed in 1919, and to-date, over 100 countries across the world have enacted laws that give citizens the […] Read more

Statement | Civil society representatives, lawyers, and journalists from East and Central Africa have called upon their governments to develop policies that protect citizens’ digital rights and promote the use of the internet for free expression and for pursuing economic and education opportunities. The call was made amidst growing concerns that an increasing number of […] Read more