freedom of expression

The recent passage of the Philippine Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 (or the Republic Act 10175) has elicited strong negative reactions from various stakeholders. Civil society organizations (CSOs), academe, journalists, bloggers, and Filipino netizens have expressed great concern over certain provisions of the law that impinged their constitutional right to freedom of expression. To date,…

A Feminist talk entry published in GenderIT.org (in Portuguese) started an interesting exchange related to the complex fields of freedom of expression, censorship, hate speech, legal remedies, and ICT related violence against women. You must be asking yourself what it was about, in order to start such a complex debate. Well, it all starts with a map.

Uganda’s Government websites were hacked and defaced earlier this month. The hacksters asserted that their actions were to protest the Ugandan Government persecution of the LGBTI community of Uganda where being gay is considered criminal and where legislation is pending Uganda’s parliament that would impose harsh prison penalties on gay people, including the death sentence for so called “…

The Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD IC) has expressed deep concern regarding the safety of five staff from the Uganda sex worker organization, Women’s Organization Network for Human Rights Advocacy (WONETHA). On May 7, police authorities raided WONETHA's small office and arrested two staff and three members. The staff members face ongoing harassment and criminal…

For those of you that don't know the appalling vitriol that Anita Sarkeesian has been subject to, you can read a summary of it here. It's worrying that there are people out there who are capable of perpetrating this campaign of hatred. But what's more worrying is that we don't seem to know what to do…

The Spear is a painting that depicts the African National Congress leader and South African president Jacob Zuma in a rallying pose, with genitals exposed. It has caused controversy and been defaced. Images of the painting have gone viral on internet. In late May 2012, the South African Film and Publications Board classified the painting, as "16N" - not suitable for people under the age of 16…

Who said we should write things in our own names? It makes it personal. Today there was a debate at AWID Forum about a letter that was distributed criticising the exclusion of a certain discourse in the MENA region, and a point that was used to attack the letter was that it was not signed, you can't identify the authors of the letter, and no one "to take responsibility" for its content.

I am an AWID participant, and it is my first time to attend the forum.I attended the first session of in-depth session on “Women’s Rights and Transitions to Democracy in the MENA region”and I stayed only for the introduction of the panelists, I was disappointed and I left. I found no young feminists on board, no one who is actually taking part on the ground in the region, the panelists came from…

In the interview with Flavia Fascendini of GenderIT.org, Valeria Betancourt, manager of APC’s Communications and Information Policy Programme, argues that the incorporation of knowledge transfer through technology, connectivity for the information and knowledge society, and finally, inclusion and the guarantee of human rights within the broad strategies of Ecuador’s National Plan for Good Living…

Magaly Pazello, activist and specialist researcher in gender and information and communication technologies, recently joined the team that developed the Brazil report for the UN's Universal Periodic Review. In discussion with Flavia Fascendini, the editor of GenderIT.org, Pazello confirmed that there is still a great deal to do with regards to the connection between women's rights and a broad…