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06Aug

The Reforms Ethiopia Needs to Advance Internet Freedom

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Policy Brief |
Since April 2018, the new Ethiopian government has been undertaking unprecedented political and economic reforms. This follows countrywide protests that forced the former Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn to resign in February 2018, leading to the appointment of a young and charismatic new premier, Abiye Ahmed two months later. Since then, the government has freed thousands of prisoners; announced measures to liberalise the telecom, aviation, and transportation sectors; and dropped charges against many opposition leaders, bloggers, and activists. Further, the new administration has lifted the state of emergency that had been reinstated in February 2018, reconnected mobile and broadband internet services that were cut off since 2016, and unblocked 246 websites, blogs, and news sites that have been inaccessible for over a decade.
These changes in Ethiopia did not come at a whim. The protests that started in November 2015 in the Oromia region spread to other parts of the country. In response to these protests, the previous government continuously blocked social media sites and implemented national and regional internet blackouts, often claiming it aimed to safeguard national security or to stem cheating during national exams. Consequently, the Oromia region lost internet connectivity for two weeks in March 2018, three weeks before the new prime minister was sworn in. Moreover, as access to the internet deteriorated in the country, the government criminalised freedom of expression online and offline. The arbitrary arrests, detention, and torture of members of the Zone Nine bloggers collective showed how far the government was willing to go to suppress dissenting voices.
The new Prime Minister and his cabinet have promised to open the democratic space in the country and expand freedom of expression online and offline. However, these reforms should go beyond the unblocking of a few hundred websites; they should bring in real changes that will make it impossible to regress to old habits. Therefore, reforms to be implemented must expand internet penetration from the current 15%, to the larger offline majority. Laws that prosecute freedom of expression online and offline like the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation and Computer Crime Proclamation must undergo substantial revisions to meet international standards. Further, the changes within the law enforcement and intelligence agencies should go beyond replacing old officials with new ones, but must tame the undue power given to these bodies to conduct unwarranted surveillance and censorship of netizens. Lastly, the new government should desist from internet shutdowns and censorship.
See this brief titled The Reforms Ethiopia Needs to Advance Internet Freedom which gives a detailed description of prevailing challenges to internet freedom in Ethiopia and proposed reforms the Ethiopian government needs to undertake to improve internet freedom in the country.

05Jul

MFWA to Co-Host Africa’s Biggest Internet Freedom Event

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Announcement |

From September 26 to 28, 2018, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) will co-host Africa’s biggest Internet freedom forum in Accra, Ghana.  The annual convening, which is dubbed Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) brings together key stakeholders in the Internet governance and online/digital rights environment from the continent and beyond.

The MFWA will be hosting the forum jointly with the Uganda-based organization, Collaboration for International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA). The forum is convened annually by CIPESA to deliberate on developments, challenges, opportunities and ways of improving the Internet ecosystem in Africa.  Participants also adopt strategies aimed at enhancing citizens’ digital or internet rights on the continent.

This is the first time the FIFAfrica event is being held in West Africa. Last year’s event was held in South Africa while the maiden event in 2014 and subsequent editions were held in Uganda.

The internet has become a vital tool for enhancing freedom of expression, access to information and citizens’ participation in national discourse and governance. At the same time, it is the target of hostile policies and practices by some governments. It is thus important for all stakeholders to dialogue on how to preserve the internet for development.

“The MFWA is delighted to co-host this important continental forum on Internet freedom. There couldn’t have been a better time to host this event in West Africa as the region is currently witnessing significant developments and challenges in the internet environment,” said Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of the MFWA.

Online freedom of expression has come under attack in recent years in Africa. Over the past one year, countries such as Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have passed laws to restrict internet freedom.  There have also been network disruptions and shutdowns in about seven African countries over the same period. Besides, there have been increasing incidents of arrest and detentions of citizens, bloggers and journalists for their social media activities.

The FIFAfrica event will also coincide with the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI), which is observed on September 28 each year. The day has been set aside by the UNESCO to mark the importance of universal public access to information and protection of fundamental freedoms.

The FIFAfrica event is scheduled to take place at the La-Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra, and is expected to host about 300 participants from dozens of countries in Africa and around the world.

You can learn more about the event by visiting the event website at:  https://cipesa.org/fifafrica/ or follow the #FIFAfrica18.

For further information or inquiries, kindly contact Felicia Anthonio on [email protected] or +233 206 972 867.

This statement was originally published on mfwa.org on July 4, 2018 and Africafex.org.

13Jun

2018 Edition of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) Set To Take Place In Ghana

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Announcement |
The Collaboration for International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) is pleased to announce the fifth edition of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica). This year, the Forum will be hosted in partnership with the Media Foundation West Africa (MFWA) and will take place on September 26–28, 2018 in Accra, Ghana.
The Forum is a landmark event that convenes various stakeholders from the internet governance and online rights arenas in Africa and beyond to deliberate on gaps, concerns and opportunities for advancing privacy, access to information, free expression, non-discrimination and the free flow of information online on the continent.
Since inception, FIFAfrica has also served as a platform to mark the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI). Engagements at the Forum aim to reflect current trends and concerns in access and usage of the internet and related technologies on the continent. As such, each year has seen us launch themed research on the State of Internet Freedom in Africa. Last year, we also launched a key report on Calculating the Economic Cost of Internet Disruptions in Sub-Saharan Africa.
While the 2014, 2015 and 2016 editions of FIFAfrica were hosted in Uganda, in 2017, the Forum was hosted in Johannesburg, South Africa in partnership with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), an international network and non-profit organisation that works towards a free and open internet.
Indeed, spreading the physical footprint of FIFAfrica across different regions of the continent ensures that the Forum lives up to its goal of unpacking internet freedom challenges and opportunities in sub-regions of Africa and developing responses that are collaborative, and informed by insights from the experience of other sub-regions of the continent. Hosting the Forum in in west Africa for the first time will not only open up the space to more west African civil society, private sector and public sector actors to contribute their experiences to the regional discussion, but will  also give life to the Forum’s commitment of ensuring broader regional representation and deepening conversations across the continent.
At a practical level, skills development among participants is prioritized. Previous Forums have seen our partners AccessNow and DefendDefenders host digital security clinics. In 2017, The Localisation Lab hosted a localization sprint aimed at advancing the adoption of internet freedom tools in East and Southern Africa through translation of technologies and creation of key resources to support the education, training, and adaptation of digital security and circumvention tools in the region. This included the translation of tools into languages like Shona, Luganda, and Ndebele.
Other skills development events at the Forum have in the past included a workshop on Strategic Digital Rights Litigation hosted in partnership with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and the Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI) and a workshop on human rights review mechanisms, which took participants through African and United Nations (UN) Universal Periodic Reviews processes which was hosted by APC, CIPESA and Small Media.
With strategic linkages to other internet freedom forums and support for the development of substantive inputs to inform the conversations on human rights online happening at national level, at the African Union and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), the African Internet Governance Forum (IGF), subregional IGFs, the global IGF, Stockholm Internet Forum (SIF), the Internet Freedom Festival (IFF), the Internet Freedom Forum (Nigeria) and RightsCon, among others, FIFAfrica provides a pan-African space where discussion from these other events can be consolidated at continent-wide level, drawing a large multi-stakeholder audience of actors.

See the evolution of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica)

Share your thoughts on your vision for Internet Freedom in Africa using #InternetFreedomAfrica  This year, the event hashtag is #FIFAfrica18
Propose A Session For #FIFAfrica18
Do you have suggestions of session topics, panels, skills clinics, presentations or any additional activities that you’d like to see happen prior or alongside the Forum. Use this form to submit your ideas.
Be A Part of #FIFAfrica18
Do you want to exhibit your work at #FIFAfrica18? Would you like to support #FIFAfrica18?  Please send us an email: [email protected]
 

12Oct

Using FIFAfrica17 Conversations To Drive Change

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By Martha Chilongoshi |
The Africa I want is one that embraces diversity, promotes freedom of expression, values the right to information and prioritizes the elimination of all forms of discrimination on the basis of gender.
For my ideal Africa to be realized, actions, initiatives and conversations that challenge the status quo and disrupt structural systems which hinder development are very vital and this is what the Forum on Internet Freedom represents for me, an opportunity to meet like-minded people and share ideas as well as experiences on how to advance our societies for the better.
A communication for development professional like me finds great value in the Forum on Internet Freedom gatherings because it presents diverse opportunities for me to learn about the social, economic and political factors affecting internet access and usage in other countries in Africa and how I can apply lessons from there to address and solve prevailing issues in my own country – Zambia.
More importantly, the forum has deepened my knowledge on the role of the internet in the development agenda in that, I have been afforded the opportunity to meet my online community in an offline setting and build a support structure that offers solutions and coping strategies to challenges of internet shutdowns, restrictions on freedom of expression, women’s safety online, privacy and security among other things.
As a gender equality & human rights activist, I particularly enjoyed the session on “Finding equality in an age of discrimination online” with panelists, Emilar Gandhi (Facebook), Daniel Kigonya, (iFreedom Uganda), Caroline Tagny (CAL) and Fungai Machirori (APC). This was an important conversation for me because personally, I have committed to use my skills as a Journalist to create awareness and give prominence to issues that affect women and girls using social media and blogging platforms and in my experience, online spaces have not been spared from the patriarchal structures and attitudes that exist offline
Patriarchy has been defined in the Merriam Webster dictionary as;
– a social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan of the family
– the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line
– control by men of a disproportionately large share of power
With this in mind, it is not surprising that online spaces are being used to perpetuate the very inequalities that exist offline and policing how women and girls express themselves online, how they report violations and how they narrate their experiences. This is why the conversation on “Women’s safety online” by panellists, Francoise Mukuku (Si Jeunesse Savait DR Congo), Irene Kiwia (Tanzania Women of Achievement), Emilar Ghandi (Facebook) and Twasiima Patricia (Chapter Four Uganda) was also very key because it addressed the need to ensure women and girls are protected online and users of the Internet adhere to the set community standards and ideals that deter them from perpetuating abuse and discrimination.
I must add that apart from the panel discussions, I really enjoyed the personal conversations I had during tea and lunch breaks, one of my favourite discussions on the sidelines of the Forum was a conversation about feminism and gender equality with Tricia from Uganda and Tracey from Kenya. As the image below will show, we were so invested in the conversation and it was a brilliant, rich and empowering exchange of young women daring to stand up against structures and environments that perpetuate discrimination using online spaces.

Another key take away from these two sessions was the need to empower women and girls with information about their rights through access to the internet so they can recognise when those rights are being threatened or violated by another person. Often, women and girls are socialised and conditioned to think that they cannot make decisions without the approval of their male relations because from time in memorial, the power lies with men and women are constantly subjected to finding ways of not upsetting this hold on power and in effect remaining silent in the face of violence.
There are many progressive developments that online spaces have provided to ordinary people in terms of dealing with equality, freedom of expression and access to information. More people are now able to voice out on issues that affect them in real time and create a critical mass through social movements that have proved to be a force in challenging the powers that be. This has easily been evidenced by internet shutdowns by governments in Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Togo and Gambia among other countries.
This brings me to another conversation I found most intriguing at the forum themed “Privacy & Freedom of Expression” which was wonderfully moderated by Gbenga Sesan of Paradigm Initiative and featured panellists from state institutions namely James Mutandwa Madya (Ministry of ICT Postal and Courier Services Zimbabwe), Micheal Ilishebo (Zambia Police Service), Marian Shinn (MP, Parliament of South Africa) and Fortune Mgwili-Sibanda (Google).
For the last two years, my line of work has involved working on projects that are centred on democracy, good governance and civic participation especially during electoral processes and this particular conversation was key in understanding how state institutions view the internet and its power to connect people for social change. The conversation between the panellists and audience brought one thing to light, many African governments are threatened by the power that the internet gives to ordinary citizens and as a result, opt to shut it down in order to repress social movements that mobilise people towards an issue.
This can be proved by revisiting how the Zimbabwean government dealt with Evan Mawarire, a pastor whose social media movement dubbed #ThisFlag inspired thousands of Zimbabweans online and offline to demand for better conditions of living from their government. He had to flee his country because his family was no longer safe and when he eventually returned, he was immediately arrested and charged with “attempting to overthrow a constitutionally elected government”.
Another prominent case was that of Cameroon where the Internet was shut down for 3 months in the English speaking region of the country by the government. The shutdown caused hundreds of citizens to mobilise and find alternative means of accessing the internet and creating the hashtag #BringBackOurInternet to let the world know of the discrimination and suppression that was happening in Cameroon. Among the prominent Cameroonian voices that demanded for the restoration of the internet was the Forum’s keynote speaker, Rebecca Enonchong, Founder and CEO of Apps Tech who shared her experience on the impact of the internet shutdown on the rights and freedoms of Cameroonians and to a great extent, its impact on the economy.
If I have to sum up my experience at the forum on internet freedom 2017, I will say that it has given me a fresh and dynamic perspective of the internet, it has broadened my knowledge on the many ways I can use the internet as a tool and an enabler for my human rights activism and encourage civic participation in my community. It has also allowed me to see the economic impact that an internet shutdown can have on a country and for me, this is a great angle from which to advocate for an open, neutral and free internet.  I can’t wait for next year’s conversation!


Originally published on the Revolt For Her website
 

12Oct

Internet shutdowns take centre stage at #InternetFreedomAfrica forum

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By Shitemi Khamadi |

When figures are put forth, bringing the arguments of something to the table, the conversation changes. One starts to look at the loss accrued from their actions or inactions and make an informed decision. In the same vein, when people come together to fight for a course, a just course, the likelihood of succeeding is higher.

This was the case at the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa 2017 where the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) launched a report affirming that over a period of 236 days, internet disruptions in 10 African countries led to loss of US$237 million. That is a colossal amount, equivalent to some budgets of key infrastructure projects on the continent.

Meanwhile, the 2017 State of the Internet Freedom in Africa Report themed; Intermediaries’ Role in Advancing Freedom: Challenges and Prospect also highlighted the critical role of telecommunications companies in government-initiated shutdowns and censorship.

In a panel on privacy and freedom of expression, a representative from Zimbabwe’s Ministry of ICT, Postal and Courier Services asserted that the country will not shutdown the internet. Neither will they disrupt social media. The official stated that the negative effects of shutdowns initiated in other countries were clear and limiting access to the internet stifles expression, causes more harm than good. For an otherwise autocratic regime, this is telling of its appreciation of the impact technology has on the lives of citizens; social-economic and political.

Equally important to the debate about quantifying the cost and impact of shutdowns was the session titled ‘Unmasking the real impact of internet shutdowns in Africa’. The panellists included Fiona Asonga from Tespok, a Kenyan organization that brings together telecom operators but also software & hardware developers & ICT hubs.

Asonga shared on policy advocacy efforts to push back against the Cameroonian government’s shut down of the internet in the English speaking regions for 93 days.  She emphasised that continuous engagement was key to ensuring progressive actions from such governments.

The #KeepItOn session was great for advocacy enthusiasts. Here, coalition experiences of how to fight back against shutdowns were shared including joint condemnation letters to authorities and social media campaigns. Perhaps the most piercing is the collecting and dissemination of individual impact stories on the negative effects of shutdowns to lives. Such, go beyond abstract thoughts and conversations to real life scenarios.

Privacy was another recurring theme at the Forum with discussions highlighting the lack of data protection policies in many African countries, which had led to a growing trend of data breaches. For instance in Kenya where data protection is not well regulated, concerns arise as to whether intermediaries care an inch about the tons of private data they have on people. Kenyans receive unsolicited SMSs from politicians and businesses about their products. They can easily blame telcos for sharing their data but between the telco and themselves, lay tens of places like buildings and mobile money outlets where details are disclosed and any unscrupulous individual can mine for personal gain.

What was lacking from these conversations were insights on how African countries can fast track implementation of effective data protection laws. Going by the example of the Access to Information Act in Kenya that took the Private Members’ Bill approach after government stalled, could such an approach be explored towards citizens’ realisation of the right to privacy?

Overall, sessions at the Forums were quite timely, and so were the practical digital security clinics run by Access Now and DefendDefenders to ensure activists are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to work safely and securely.

Here is to a toss The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) and the Association for Progressive Communications for a good job done.

The article was originally published on the iFreeKe website

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