{"id":8476,"date":"2022-08-13T14:58:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-13T14:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/digital-right-advocacy-group-condemns-internet-shut-down-in-sierra-leone"},"modified":"2022-08-13T15:03:53","modified_gmt":"2022-08-13T15:03:53","slug":"digital-right-advocacy-group-condemns-internet-shut-down-in-sierra-leone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/digital-right-advocacy-group-condemns-internet-shut-down-in-sierra-leone","title":{"rendered":"Digital Right Advocacy Group Condemns Internet Shut-down in Sierra Leone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. <\/strong><\/span>Paradigm Initiative (PIN), a digital rights advocacy group, has strongly condemned the internet shutdown that occurred in Sierra Leone following a political protests in the West African country.<\/p>\n

<\/a>PIN in a statement on Thursday, said the shutdowns go against Chapter Three of Sierra Leone\u2019s Constitution, which assures its citizens of their rights to freedom of conscience, expression, assembly and association.According to it, \u201cArticle 9 (1) of the African Charter on Human and People\u2019s Rights also provides access to information as the right to receive information and is echoed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights under Article 19(2).\u201dPIN recalled that this will not be the first time Sierra Leone is shutting down the internet for its people, as is now characteristic of African governments during protests or when elections draw near.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore, shutdowns create significant obstacles that damage the free flow of information, which may, in turn, erode trust in electoral processes and increase the likelihood of hostilities and violence,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShutdowns may also lead to the disruption of financial transactions, commerce, industry, labour markets and the availability of platforms for the delivery of services.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs spelt out by Principle 37 of the Declaration of Principles On Freedom Of Expression And Access To Information In Africa, states must facilitate the rights to freedom of expression and access to information online and the means necessary to exercise these rights. They must also recognize that universal, equitable, affordable and meaningful access to the internet is necessary to realise freedom of expression, access to information and exercise other human rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government also failed to acknowledge or provide an explanation for the measures, including their legal basis and underlying grounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore, PIN calls on the government of Sierra Leone to adhere to the objective of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections, and Governance under Article 2(10) to promote the establishment of necessary conditions to foster citizen participation, transparency, access to information, freedom of the press and accountability in the management of public affairs. An open internet will ensure this compliance and the promotion of human rights under Article four of the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge the government authorities to respect their citizens\u2019 rights and desist from further attempts at future shutdowns.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Sierra-Leone<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. Paradigm Initiative (PIN), a digital rights advocacy group, has strongly condemned the internet shutdown that occurred in Sierra Leone following a political protests in the West African country. PIN in a statement on Thursday, said the shutdowns go against Chapter Three of Sierra Leone\u2019s Constitution, which assures its citizens of their rights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":8475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[291,293,292],"class_list":["post-8476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-sierra-leone","tag-sierra-leone"],"yoast_head":"\nDigital Right Advocacy Group Condemns Internet Shut-down in Sierra Leone - Sierra Leone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Paradigm Initiative (PIN), a digital rights advocacy group, has strongly condemned the internet shutdown that occurred i ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/digital-right-advocacy-group-condemns-internet-shut-down-in-sierra-leone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Digital Right Advocacy Group Condemns Internet Shut-down in Sierra Leone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Paradigm Initiative (PIN), a digital rights advocacy group, has strongly condemned the internet shutdown that occurred i ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/digital-right-advocacy-group-condemns-internet-shut-down-in-sierra-leone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sierra Leone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-13T14:58:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-13T15:03:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2022\/08\/postQueueImg_1-62f7bd20d7a94.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"599\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/digital-right-advocacy-group-condemns-internet-shut-down-in-sierra-leone#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/digital-right-advocacy-group-condemns-internet-shut-down-in-sierra-leone\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Digital Right Advocacy Group Condemns Internet Shut-down in Sierra Leone\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-08-13T14:58:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-13T15:03:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/digital-right-advocacy-group-condemns-internet-shut-down-in-sierra-leone\"},\"wordCount\":391,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/digital-right-advocacy-group-condemns-internet-shut-down-in-sierra-leone#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2022\/08\/postQueueImg_1-62f7bd20d7a94.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Sierra-Leone\",\"Sierra-Leone\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/digital-right-advocacy-group-condemns-internet-shut-down-in-sierra-leone#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/digital-right-advocacy-group-condemns-internet-shut-down-in-sierra-leone\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/digital-right-advocacy-group-condemns-internet-shut-down-in-sierra-leone\",\"name\":\"Digital Right Advocacy Group Condemns Internet Shut-down in Sierra Leone - 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