"Notably, effective media coverage of the general elections in Uganda was curtailed by the internet shutdown as pointed out by 80% of the respondents. On the whole, the shutdown had negative impact on both the quality and quantity of the news output. For example, Mobile money services were interrupt
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ed, so the means to facilitate journalists with fares, lunch, wages were equally curtailed which impacted greatly on the quality and timeliness of news and information. Other specific impacts included: it made it harder to effectively communicate the news in full; affected timely delivery of the news as they sought other ways that were slower than using the internet channel; made it complicated to research and reference other news items; they’re not able to share and fully document information; access to news was affected because of the delayed delivery." (Executive summary)
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"In Venezuela steht es um die Pressefreiheit so schlecht wie in kaum einem anderen Land Lateinamerikas. Journalisten, die sich nicht der Staatspropaganda unterwerfen, laufen Gefahr, verleumdet, verprügelt oder verhaftet zu werden. Daniel Lara hat vieles davon erlebt – ihm blieb nichts anderes üb
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rig als die Flucht." (Seite 6)
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"El Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos, desde su Oficina Regional para América del Sur, en conjunto con OBSERVACOM, una organización no gubernamental regional con sede en Montevideo, presentan este trabajo con un objetivo muy sencillo: recapitular los trabajos que se hicieron en relació
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n con el ejercicio de la libertad de expresión a través de los medios comunitarios en los últimos casi 20 años. Se trata de una recopilación oportuna: desde que por primera vez en 2002 la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos a través de su Relatoría Especial para la Libertad de Expresión se ocupara de esta cuestión en un informe temático hace ya casi 20 años, nos encontramos en este 2021 con la oportunidad histórica que la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos emita una sentencia en un caso concreto, que es el primero enviado por la Comisión sobre esta temática a la Corte. En este trabajo se recopilan entonces no sólo distintas piezas del sistema interamericano de protección de derechos humanos que han venido destacando la importancia que adquieren los medios de comunicación comunitarios para el ejercicio de la libertad de expresión, sino que además se agregan unos trabajo realizados en el marco de la UNESCO y otros que provienen de la sociedad civil, que, a lo largo de estos años, ha venido manteniendo el tema en la agenda de las discusiones sobre las reformas aún hoy vigentes, sobre legislación de comunicación audiovisual." (Prólogo)
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"Daily news consumption via social media (11%) and the Internet (9%) has doubled in Uganda since 2015, though these platforms still lag far behind television (27%) and radio (54%) as daily news sources. Six in 10 Ugandans (60%) say they are aware of social media. Awareness is less widespread among w
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omen, rural residents, and older and less educated citizens. Among Ugandans who have heard of social media, large majorities say it makes people more aware of current happenings (89%) and helps people impact political processes (74%). On the other hand, majorities also say it makes people more likely to believe false news (70%) and more intolerant of others with different political opinions (58%). Overall, 58% of citizens who are aware of social media rate its effects on society as positive, while only 13% see them as negative. A majority (56%) of Ugandans “agree” or “strongly agree” that access to the Internet and social media helps people to be more informed and active citizens, and should be unrestricted. A quarter (26%), however, say the government should be able to regulate access." (Key findings, page 2)
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"Since the 1 February coup d’état in Myanmar, the online space has become a parallel battlefield on which the country’s military and its opponents try to rally supporters, share information and control the narrative around events unfolding in the country. This virtual struggle has been vitally
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important to both sides. The scale of popular anger at the military, the regime’s lack of technological capacity and the policies of social media companies have made it difficult for the military, known as the Tatmadaw, to gain the upper hand. At first, the junta resorted to temporary internet cuts and filtering websites, but when these had little impact, it moved to broader shutdowns, leaving the vast majority of people in Myanmar disconnected. It appears to have no viable long-term strategy for controlling online space, and prolonged internet outages are likely while it struggles to consolidate power. Foreign governments and technology companies should endeavour to keep what is left of Myanmar’s internet as open and its users as safe as possible, while restricting sales of equipment and software that the military could use to oppress opponents." (Executive summary)
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"Wie steht es um die Meinungsfreiheit in der Welt? Wie wirkt sich Zensur auf die Medienlandschaft eines Landes aus? Was muss man beim Teilen von Nachrichten auf Social Media beachten? Und was hat es mit Desinformation und Hate Speech auf sich? Vor allem für junge Menschen gewinnen diese Fragen imme
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r mehr an Bedeutung. Um sich in der heutigen Welt zurechtzufinden, müssen sie mit den unterschiedlichsten Medien sicher und reflektiert umgehen können – sie müssen medienkompetent sein. Die Spiele in dieser Sammlung stärken sie darin, indem sie die aktive Auseinandersetzung mit Medien in einem geschützten Raum fördern. Entstanden sind sie in der praktischen Arbeit der DW Akademie: Als Teil des Medienhauses Deutsche Welle setzen wir uns weltweit für das Recht auf freie Meinungsäußerung ein und unterstützen Menschen darin, kompetent mit Medien umzugehen. Wir laden Sie ein, die hier vorgestellten Spiele in Ihre medienpädagogische Arbeit zu integrieren und sie zu nutzen, um Fragen zu Meinungsfreiheit und Medienkompetenz zu beantworten, Wissen zu vertiefen und zum Nachdenken und Nachforschen anzuregen." (Seite 7)
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"The Global Expression Report is a global, data-informed, annual look at freedom of expression worldwide. With the benefit of data and hindsight, we take a look at 2020 – how this fundamental right fared, what the key trends were, and how global events affected its exercise. The Global Expression
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Report’s metric (the GxR Metric) tracks freedom of expression across the world. In 161 countries, 25 indicators were used to create an overall freedom of expression score for every country, on a scale of 1 to 100 which places it in an expression category. The GxR reflects not only the rights of journalists and civil society but also how much space there is for each of us – as individuals and members of organisations – to express and communicate; how free each and every person is to post online, to march, to research, and to access the information we need to participate in society and hold those with power to account. This report covers expression’s many faces: from street protest to social media posts; from the right to information to the right to express political dissent, organise, offend, or make jokes. It also looks at the right to express without fear of harassment, legal repercussions, or violence." (Page 8)
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"Access Now and the #KeepItOn Coalition documented at least 155 internet shutdown1 incidents around the world in 29 countries. When compared to 2018 and 2019, this is a lower number of shutdowns. However, the smaller number of shutdowns is not an indication of the lessened impact of a shutdown or an
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overall increase in digital rights. For a world that was and continues to be under lockdown or at least some forms of movement restriction, 155 intentional communication disruptions came at a high cost to the fundamental human rights of people around the world. Countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, Yemen, Ethiopia, and others entrenched the use of shutdowns even during the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, Ethiopia’s national internet blackout affected more than 100 million people for more than two weeks during the height of the pandemic in the country. Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh implored the government of Bangladesh to turn on the internet as COVID-19 spread through the refugee camps, but they were ignored. In 2019 and 2020, Myanmar perpetrated one of the world’s longest internet shutdowns, affecting some of the world’s most vulnerable people. The Burmese government proceeded to expand mobile internet throttling across the nine townships in Rakhine and Chin states even as the pandemic spread, restricting residents of these townships from access to critical and life-saving information." (Pages 2-3)
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"In this report, we highlight how privacy and data protection violations by state and non-state actors are compounded by the lack of legal data protection safeguards which would obligate public entities, private companies, and international organizations to respect and adhere to data protection prin
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ciples, empower users to take agency and control over their personal information, and create mechanisms for grievance and redress when such violations occur. We explore these issues and propose safeguards and policy recommendations for those involved in the collection and processing of personal data: governments, private companies, and international aid organizations. We include case studies for Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Tunisia. Our goal is not to include an exhaustive list of all cases related to data protection, but to present a few key illustrative cases for each country." (Executive summary, page 3)
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"China’s sophisticated filtering system, known as the Great Firewall (GFW), is the region’s biggest impediment to thefreedom of information. The GFW is built by the Chinese government and is continuously developed to serve theirpolitical interests. In this report, we introduce the design of GFWa
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tch, a large-scale longitudinal measurement plat-form that informs the public about how GFW censorship changes over time and its negative impact on the free flowof information." (Introduction)
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"Efforts to establish or improve national identification systems in Africa have coincided with the increasing deployment of mobile technology. This has led to the prioritisation of digital “solutions” for facilitating forms of identification and registration – often via biometric attributes [.
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..] Research ICT Africa (RIA) and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) partnered in 2020 and 2021 to investigate, map, and report on the state of digital identity ecosystems in 10 African countries. The project looked at local, digitised (in full or partially) foundational ID systems in Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The project set out to contribute to the broader question of whether digital identity ecosystems increase choices and opportunities for Africans, or whether they exacerbate the multidimensional aspects of digital inequality on the continent." (Executive summary)
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