Assessing Internet Controls in a Comparative Perspective: The development of Freedom House's pilot index of global internet and digital media freedom

Abstract

In the last few years, the influence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a means to spread information and challenge existing media controls has steadily expanded, as has their potential to serve as a crucial medium for citizens to mobilize and advocate for political, social and economic reform. Fearing the power of these new technologies, authoritarian states have devised myriad ways of their own to filter, monitor, and otherwise obstruct or manipulate the openness of the Information Superhighway. Even a number of democratic states have considered or implemented various restrictions as part of their effort to tackle the challenges raised by these new mediums. Meanwhile, even as access to the technologies has grown at an exponential rate, infrastructural and economic factors continue to limit the access of millions to these new technologies. In short, growth in access, accompanied by an expansion in the innovative uses of new media and ICTs, has led to a commensurate increase in the types and geographic spread of controls. According to a 2007 study by the OpenNet Initiative, state-imposed measures to filter internet content were in evidence in at least 40 states worldwide, and the number is growing. Recent reports indicate that the threat to digital media freedom has increased in other ways. In 2008, the Committee to Protect Journalists found that for the first time online writers outnumbered traditional journalists among the total of jailed media workers. In addition, there has been a substantial increase in the pervasiveness and sophistication of control over online content and specific applications; authorities in some countries are underwriting illiberal, pro-regime content designed to “guide” public opinion; and a growing number of countries are considering legislation to limit citizens’ access to certain online content, or to enable legal action to be taken against individuals for views expressed on the internet. As internet usage increases exponentially in regions with previously low penetration, such as Africa and Central Asia, the geographic reach of such controlling measures is poised to expand. Given these fast-paced changes in the relationship between the internet, governments, and citizens, there exists a need for wide-ranging, systematic, and comparative tools for analyzing and tracking these trends on a global level. The question, however, is what type of indicators would prove most useful in order to meaningfully measure digital media freedom, particularly with regards to political communication, over time? To fill this diagnostic gap, Freedom House embarked on a pathbreaking effort to develop the first comprehensive, comparative, and numerically based set of indicators for monitoring and analyzing ICT freedom. Our pilot index, entitled Freedom on the Net: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media, was published in April 2009 and we are actively seeking to expand the project in 2010. The pilot study included detailed narrative country reports and scores for 15 countries, as well as an overview essay that examined some of the thematic trends uncovered in the course of our research and findings. The 15 countries chosen for the pilot were chosen to provide a wide range of diversity, both geographically and with regard to their internet and ICT environments, as well as serving as examples for various aspects of the methodology.