By Johnstone Baguma
The Forum on Internet Freedom in
Africa (FIFA17) was an eye opener for me on different fronts. I was one of the
beneficiaries of CIPESA’s support to attend the forum in Johannesburg, South
Africa in late September 2017. I would like to extend profound appreciation to
organizers CIPESA and APC, who have been our partners in ICT for Development at
ToroDev for many years. Their support to participate in the forum greatly
exposed me to new dimensions of ICT4D that I had not paid attention to in over
10 years of my practice in this field.
I was particularly impressed by
two sessions; Strategic Digital Rights Litigation and Digital Security Clinic,
which I would like to spend a few minutes reflecting on here. During the former
session, the issue of collaboration in digital litigation was specifically
emphasized by session facilitators. When we collaborate, we are likely to be
more effective, more creative and more resilient to address abuses of digital
use, especial by government authorities.
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| ToroDev's Executive Director, Johnstone K Baguma during the workshop in South Africa |
In collaborative litigation, the
facilitator asserted that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and
collaborators who work together on a given digital litigation matter can help
further the bigger cause of protecting and promoting free flow of information
online. On my part, I felt this was so important as a front line user of
internet and its digital platforms in my professional work and daily social
interactions. Digital freedom is a lifeline to the well-being of many citizens
in Uganda, socially and economically. In the face of increasing threats to
freedom of expression in Uganda and tendencies of gagging free flow of information
through broadcast and online media, knowledge networks and collaborations to
challenge such digital injustices is imperative. The recent declaration and
notice by the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) banning live broadcasts of
parliamentary proceedings of the Age Limit Debate in Uganda, for example,
needed formal collaborative litigation by media houses, digital advocates and
civil society organizations. This is because, this notice was issued with full
force of government apparatus that has considerable control over almost all
public institutions and resources and, therefore, needed a counter
collaborative effort to litigate.
On the other hand, during the
digital security session, I was able to receive knowledge and participate in a
digital security risk assessment for my personal digital use and that of my
organization. Again in Uganda, for example, digital surveillance is increasing
day by day. Besides a few isolated cases of digital security offenses committed
by individuals like theft and abuse of personal privacy, most cases of
surveillance target those who question and advocate for good governance
processes and is aided by sections of recent laws like the Computer Misuse Act
(2011), Public Order Management Act (2013) and the Regulation of Interception of
Communications Act (2010). Majority of those affected belong to civil society
movements and lawful political party organizations.
During this session, I acquired
knowledge on conducting digital security assessment with specific
identification and analysis of nature of threats, risks, levels of
vulnerability, the capacity that myself or organization have to address such
digital threats and the type of adversaries that I and my organization should
always look out for to curtail their negative impact on our work. In fact as a
result of my participation at FIFafrica17, am planning to lead a process of
organizing a staff training and conducting a Digital Security Risk Assessment activity
at ToroDev by end of December 2017.
We thank SIDA and CIPESA for the opportunity.
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