Facebook billionaire Zuckerberg’s “Internet as a human right” faces policy barriers

The most-restrictive countries are China, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Iran, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Burma and Pakistan.

Aug 23, 2013 (National Constitution Center) — Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg is leading a drive to give almost everyone in the world access to the Internet. But such a lofty goal comes with questions abroad and in the United States that could impair the initiative.

Mark Zuckerberg. Creative Commons: Silverisdead

Zuckerberg spoke with CNN this week about his project, which represents a $1 billion effort on his part to bring the Internet to countries and people who don’t have it.

“They’re going to use it to decide what kind of government they want, get access to healthcare for the first time ever, connect with family hundreds of miles away that they haven’t seen in decades.”

Ethiopia: The Justice System Becoming a Political Tool in Ethiopia

HRLHA

HRLHA – Calls for Reversal of Racially and Politically Motivated Sentences

August 15, 2013

Press Release

The Federal High Court of Ethiopia sentenced 21 Oromo Nationals (most of whom are university students) to as much as 2-8 years in prison on 7^th August, 2013. The report HRLHA received indicates that all of them have spent about three years pending trials on alleged charges of collaborating with the opposition organization of Oromo Liberation Front with the intention of committing terrorist crimes. According to information obtained by HRLHA through its correspondents, most of the defendants were very young Oromo students picked up at different times from different universities and colleges in the regional state of Oromia and other parts of the country.