As humans, individual artists enjoy rights enshrined in national laws and international instruments on freedom of expression, assembly and association. However, there are variations between countries on what the laws provide for and the level of freedoms of creative, artistic and cultural expression that citizens enjoy.
In Africa, various factors impact upon these freedoms – including political, religious, social-economic and cultural…
By Stanley Azuakola,
An activist Aminata Manneh (also known as Minah Manneh), who champions women and children’s rights is reportedly out of the country after she went missing for 48 hours.
Manneh’s disappearance occurred after she posted a video on her Facebook page, of a policeman beating a young girl with a stick which went viral last week.
The activist took wrote a Facebook post saying she…
By Joe Brock,
(Reuters) – Google and Facebook are at the forefront of a scramble to win over new African Internet users, offering freebies they say give a leg-up to the poor but which critics argue is a plan to lock in customers on a continent of 1 billion people.
Africa’s Internet penetration will reach 50 percent by 2025 and there are expected to be 360…
In summary
Mr Tobiko made the request to a Nairobi court on Tuesday after the National Cohesion and Reconciliation Commission accused Mr Kuria of breaching an agreement for an out-of-court settlement.
Mr Kuria was accused of spewing fresh hate messages targeting the Luo community on his Facebook page barely a week after committing not to do so.
Mr Kuria is accused of linking…
A Kenyan student has been sentenced to a year in jail for insulting President Uhuru Kenyatta on social media.
Alan Wadi Okengo, 25, alias lieutenant Wadi, must also pay a fine of $2,200 (£1,400), or serve a second year.
He was also convicted of hate speech, after saying members of the president’s Kikuyu ethnic group should be confined to certain parts of…
In Summary
The blogger was charged with undermining the authority of a public officer contrary to Section 132 of the Penal Code.
The State Counsel had in an affidavit alleged that Mr Alai is likely to repeat the same offence if released on bond as has similar pending cases.
Blogger Robert Alai was on Wednesday charged in a Kiambu court with undermining President…
Today, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) launches The State of Internet Freedoms in East Africa research report which is an Investigation into the policies and practices defining internet freedom in East Africa.
Thought leaders in the East African ICT industry have gathered in Kampala, Uganda for the launch of this pivotal report.
The report presents…
Security forces arrest six bloggers and a journalist in latest crackdown on opposition voices.
The Ethiopian government has arrested six independent bloggers and a journalist in what human rights group Amnesty International has called a “suffocating grip on freedom of expression”.
Six members of independent blogger and activist group ‘Zone 9’ and a prominent Ethiopian journalist were arrested on Friday in the…
Key findings
Internet censorship products made by Canada-based Netsweeper have been identified on the networks of three Somalia-based Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Testing has demonstrated that the Netsweeper installation on the network of the ISP Hormuud is being used to filter content.
The history of contested political authority and influence of a radical insurgency within Somalia raises questions about whether Netsweeper undertook due…
American Sues Ethiopian Government for Spyware Infection
Months of Electronic Espionage Put American Citizen and Family at Risk
Washington, D.C. – An American citizen living in Maryland sued the Ethiopian government today for infecting his computer with secret spyware, wiretapping his private Skype calls, and monitoring his entire family’s every use of the computer for a period of months. The Electronic Frontier…