News

By Rocio Campos | Signed by African journalists during a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seminar in May 1991, the Declaration of Windhoek is a statement of free press principles that led to the proclamation of World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) on 3 May by the UN General Assembly in 1993.  This year, the Global […] Read more

By Ashnah Kalemera | Senegal’s diverse media landscape helps it to attain relatively high scores in international press freedom rankings. It is ranked 50 out of 180 countries in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, up from 79 in 2015. The country’s Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression thus: “Everyone shall have the […] Read more

By Ashnah Kalemera | Despite the promises and efforts made by Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed Ali, to transform the country after years of political repression and state control of major forms of media, the country is yet to experience substantive change in the state of digital rights. Restrictions to freedom of expression, privacy, […] Read more

By Ashnah Kalemera | In November 2019, The Gambia will be coming up for its third cycle review under the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism. Former President Yahya Jammeh, before his ouster in 2017, was renowned for his utter disregard for constitutional rights, once stating publicly that he would “not compromise or sacrifice the […] Read more

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