As a sort of New Year gift to the online media community,
Nigerian security agents arrested Tim and Daniel Elombah, the publisher and
editor of elombah.com, for allegedly
publishing a content the police hierarchy considered offensive. That would not
be the first time a journalist or publisher would be arrested for publishing
content online in Nigeria. In the last few years, several citizens have been
illegally detained for online content some powerful individual or institutions
found “offensive.”
For instance, a popular blogger Abusidiqu was arrested in
2016 by operatives of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC), a law enforcement agency in Nigeria. A source was
quoted as saying, Abusidiqu’s arrest was connected to his posts on EFCC boss,
Ibrahim Magu and according to the spokesperson of the agency, Abusidiqu was
arrested for offences bordering on cyberstalking.
The attack on free speech online is unfortunately not
limited to Nigeria, too many other African countries are in the same boat of
repression as Nigeria. From Egypt to The Gambia, from Cameroon to Kenya, citizens
and journalists alike are not safe from the wrath of those in power when
critical content is published online. Last February, Gambian police arrested a
university lecturer and kept him in overnight detention for questioning the
president's ability to maintain national security in an interview. In April
2017, a Ugandan university teacher and social media critic of the Ugandan
government, Stella Nyanzi was arrested and detained for allegedly insulting the
President Yoweri Museveni.
The list of victims of flagrant abuse of the right to free
speech online is simply endless. While the digital space has democratised
access to information and information dissemination means, governments and
powerful individuals in Africa have continued to put unnecessary hurdles in the
way of progress.
In Nigeria and Egypt, the national governments have asserted
its power to restrict access to websites they consider subversive without
judicial oversight. This power that is unknown to the law, at least in Nigeria,
was behind the restriction of access to some 20 websites in Nigeria, including
the popular news site, naij.com, last year. Egypt is the clear leader in this
department as it has permanently restricted access to over four hundred
websites. Across the continent, we find obnoxious laws or policies that not
only impact negatively on citizens’ rights, but threaten the health of
democracy and exchange of ideas. Tanzania, for example, recently introduced a
regulation that would require bloggers to pay $900 every year as some sort of
license fee. This regulation, if allowed to be implemented, will effectively
shut down the country’s burgeoning online media space.
A couple of days ago, Burundi Media Regulator suspended the
online commentary column of Iwacu newspaper, for three months. According to the
Director of the Newspaper, “the column is known to be a platform for criticism
over government’s action, the country’s situation by Burundians irrespective of
where they live.” Also, the online weekly newspaper Iwacu is said to be one of
Burundi’s few remaining independent media outlets since 2015, when the
country’s radio stations were shut down on President Pierre Nkurunziza’s
orders.
Free speech online is not the only digital right that has
been under attack in Africa. Access to internet service has been under severe
attack. Cameroon has repeatedly shut down internet services in the Anglophone
regions of the country in a futile bid to scuttle protests against the
government. In fact, in 2017, the internet was off in parts of Cameroon for
almost as many days as it was on.
For many people on the continent, activities such as
elections, public examinations and protest could mean comprehensive internet
blackout. Ethiopia, Togo, Somaliland and Cameroon are just some of the
countries that have shut down the internet in the last two years. Social media
and messaging platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Viber have
been and are currently blocked in Chad amid political tension. This is not the
first time this year. Chad ordered an Internet shutdown in response to national
protest action backed by trade unions and civil society organisations using
social media.
According to a report released by the Collaboration on
International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) last year,
Internet Shutdown has cost Sub-Saharan African up to US$237 million since 2015.
This is to highlight the economic implications of the trend of digital rights
violation in Africa.
The persistent attacks on digital rights and the poor policy
framework for rights protection have led to civil society efforts geared
towards resisting and ultimately correcting the sad situation. One of such
efforts is the Internet Freedom Forum. For the last six years, Nigeria has
hosted the pan-African forum, dedicated to conversations on internet freedom on
the continent.
The forum is convened by Paradigm Initiative and supported
by organisations including Microsoft, Google, Ford Foundation, Premium Times
and The Guardian. The forum brings together experts from various African
countries to discuss the state of digital rights and internet freedom on the
continent, and evolve effective solutions to problems confronting rights
online. For instance, the 2014 edition of the Forum gave birth to a Digital
Rights and Freedom Bill that was recently passed by the Nigerian legislature
and is currently being studied in other countries for possible replication. The
Internet Freedom Forum provides a veritable platform for Internet stakeholders
in Africa and those whose work focuses on Africa to discuss and proffer
solutions to the challenges. It is a meeting point for government, civil
society, journalists, open web advocates and other Internet stakeholders.
The 2018 edition of the forum is scheduled to hold from
April 24 to April 26 in Abuja. The Forum could not have come at a better time
in 2018 as many African countries including Cameroon, Zimbabwe and Mali are
preparing for elections. Election periods constitute a vulnerable period for
digital rights as governments leverage the periods to curtail citizens’ rights
online. The forum also comes at a time when the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica
scandal is at the centre of conversations globally and most importantly the
revelations of the data analytics company’s attempt at shaping previous
elections in Kenya and Nigeria.
Clearly, delegates will have their hands full
discussing better methods of protecting digital rights not only from the antics
of government but also from businesses with less-than-ideal data privacy
culture. All lovers of human rights must turn their attention to the Forum in
Abuja as it is where African experts and advocates would have their say on
issues confronting digital rights in Africa and evolving and strengthening
Africa-led initiatives towards entrenching digital rights on the continent.
*Contributed by Sodiq Alabi and Boye Adegoke are digital
rights advocates with Paradigm Initiative.
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