Ethiopia has blocked social media sites across the country after university entrance exams were posted online.
The government said the ban was to prevent students being distracted from studying during the exam period and to prevent the spread of false rumours.
The blocked sites include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Viber.
They will be unavailable for several days while university entrance exams are taken,…
Two journalists were arrested and one private radio station was closed on 9 July in Somalia.
The International Federation of Journalists and its affiliate the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has called on the authorities to immediately free the journalists and lift the ban on City FM, a radio station in the Middle Shabelle region.
The regional administration ordered the arrest…
By Juliet Nanfuka |
Less than a week after the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council declared that online rights must be protected and condemned disruptions to internet access, citizens in Zimbabwe became the latest victims of online communications shut down. Authorities in Zimbabwe shut down communications in the wake of protests against rampant corruption and misuse of state funds by…
Abdoul Moumouni Ousmane, a social media and civil society activist in Niger, has been given a six month suspended sentence by a High Court in Niamey for criticising the government’s response to the Boko Haram insurgency in the country via Facebook.
The court also imposed a fine of fifty thousand Francs (about 100 dollars) on Abdoul Moumouni, who is also the…
The Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa is scheduled to take place on September 27–29, 2016 in Kampala, Uganda.
The Forum provides a unique opportunity to deliberate and build a network of supporters of internet freedom in Africa. It brings together a wide range of civic actors such as journalists, bloggers, human rights defenders, and activists, private sector actors such as…
By Marylin Vernon |
Advancing human rights for the 3.2 billion users of the internet, of which two billion are from developing countries, needs a robust and systematic approach to ensure that the rights individuals enjoy offline are also applicable online. Indeed, debate on protecting online freedoms has taken centre stage as incidents of blockage of access of the internet and…
By Felix Horne!
The Ethiopian government is cracking down on journalists and NGOs. Where’s the outrage from the international community?
Since November, state security forces have killed hundreds of protesters and arrested thousands in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region. It’s the biggest political crisis to hit the country since the 2005 election but has barely registered internationally. And with the protests now in…
By AFP |
Congo holds elections on Sunday under a media blackout in a tense vote expected to see President Denis Sassou Nguesso prolong his 32-year rule over the oil-rich but poor nation.
Interior Minister Raymond Mboulou wrote to telecommunication companies urging them to shut off telephone, Internet and SMS services for 48 hours for “reasons of security and national safety”.
A government…
By Marilyn Vernon,
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are a key player in the multi-stakeholder model of internet governance. However, civil society has been absent from discussions on the technical coordination of the internet domain name system (DNS) mechanisms.
…