The Swedish government is to set aside international development aid to promote internet freedom around the globe, in the hope of promoting democracy abroad.
The "Arab Spring", when democratic movements bolstered by social media on the internet shook regimes across North Africa and the Middle East have once again emphasised the power of the world wide web. Opening up discussions and contacts across boarders, despite the best efforts of national dictators. Sweden's International Development Assistance Minister, Gunilla Carlsson claims this country is doing a lot to help internet activists abroad.
"We are looking with the special rapporteur at the United Nations to see that we have freedom on the internet. It's very important as a human rights aspect", she says, "but then also when it comes to development assistance, we have really tried to see how we specifically can support democratisation and the freedom of speech. There we have allocated quite a lot of money in order to support those that are fighting for all our freedoms, and to protect those that are risking their lives, by letting us know what is happening under dictatorships and in parts of the world where we have a lot of oppression."
Carlsson adds that she sees it as a way to fight poverty, and therefore highly suitable to come from the aid budget. "We can't have sustainable poverty reduction if we don't have democratisation. Many of those countries where we are active with development assistance are countries where there is oppression, and where we would like to see that there is change. Here I see a lot of opportunities, but also responsibility for a development assistance policy that is really modern and innovative."
In concrete terms the Swedish government is helping with encryption services, giving training for citizen journalism, how to avoid risks and determining the technical solutions, as well as helping the "democratic dissidents" if they get into trouble.
(Source : Radio Sweden)
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