The seventh South-East Europe Media Conference entitled ‘The New Frontline: Working together to Foster Media Freedom’ took place online. It was organized by the office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (FRoM) and the OSCE Mission to Serbia, in cooperation with other OSCE field operations in South-East Europe (SEE). Journalists, media experts, [...]
The Nigeria Identity Management Commission (NIMC) estimates that it will take three to five years to register all Nigerians in its national digital ID programme. Among activities to be undertaken during this time are registration of citizens and residents, harmonisation of state and federal databases, and verification and cleaning up of data. Digital identity stakeholders [...]
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has joined a coalition of 100 global civil society groups to submit comments on Nigeria’s draft data protection bill, which is undergoing a public consultation process. The submission said that the bill should “protect those fulfilling their duty as journalists” from censorship under the law, and “define ‘data’ in [...]
According to the European civil society group noyb, the Irish High Court has allowed Facebook to file a judicial review against the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) and a new ‘ex officio’ procedure by the DPC into EU-USA data flows. In doing so, Facebook has succeeded in stopping the DPC's investigation into EU-USA data flows [...]
In a joint statement, Transparency International and Transparency International Zimbabwe (TI Z) have expressed deep concerns over attempts by theZimbabwean government to fast-track the Cyber Cecurity and Data Protection Bill. According to the civil society groups, although the bill appears to be progressive in strengthening data protection, it contains provisions that undermine the freedom of [...]
Speaking at the international conference ‘Seizing Digital Opportunities for Cooperation and Development’, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced the Global Initiative on Data Security. In the context of a 'new development of international division of labor', the initiative emphasises the importance of maintaining the supply-chain security of ICT products and services as [...]
The Thirty-fifth Session of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC 35) was convened virtually between 1-4 September 2020 where governments, civil society organisations, and the private sector underscored the importance of innovation, solidarity, coherence, and partnerships among and within countries. During the event, participants acknowledged how agricultural [...]
Human rights groups are concerned about the shrinking civic space as Tanzania heads to elections on 28 October 2020. The Human Rights Watch notes that authorities have been cracking down on opposition leaders and civil society groups both online and offline. The government prohibited speech related to the economy or national security issues in August. [...]
Liberty, a UK-based civil society group, has announced having won a ground-breaking legal challenge against police use of facial recognition technology (FRT). The Court of Appeal agreed with Liberty’s submissions, on behalf of a Cardiff resident, and found the South Wales Police’s use of FTR breaches privacy rights, data protection laws, and equality laws. According [...]
The UN has kicked off an online platform called ‘2030 Connect’ to promote science, technology, and innovation (STI) for sustainable development. The platform, which targets policymakers, practitioners, students, civil society among other stakeholders; seeks to provide a one-stop-shop for identifying expertise and networks of the UN system and its partners. Additionally, the platform has a [...]
Civil Society Alliances for Digital Empowerment (CADE) is a project co-funded by the European Union.
