Last August 2024, I attended the Asia-Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum in person for the second time. The first time was in 2017, merely a year after I started working on digital rights. The biggest difference is that this year, I went to APrIGF not just as a participant but Read more…
As we celebrate World Press Freedom Day on May 3, the Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA) is one with the community in promoting press freedom as a basic human right, one that needs to be protected more than ever amid threats facing journalism and journalists. In the Philippines, media organizations, Read more…
The Foundation for Media Alternatives has successfully conducted its first Privacy and Data Protection Workshop for Civil Society and the Academe in Cebu City. The workshop ran from October 26 to 27, 2017 and was attended by around 20 participants from various civil society organizations and universities in the Visayas. Read more…
On July 25-27, I had the honor of attending the Cybersecurity workshop: spotlight on GCCS (Global Conference on CyberSpace) 2017 organized by Global Partners Digital for civil society organizations in India and the greater Asia Pacific region. It was held at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand in collaboration and co-locating Read more…
More than 500 policymakers, civil society representatives, activists, business representatives, and technical community representatives from all over the world attended the Stockholm Internet Forum (SIF) last 15-18 May 2017. Some of the attendees had participated in the first three SIFs, but many were also first-time participants, myself included. The Forum Read more…
Last week was a busy one for the newly established Department of Information and Communications Technology, as two of its attached agencies organized the first National Data Privacy Summit and the Cybersecurity Summit separately. The National Privacy Commission convened the first ever national data privacy summit on December 5-6, 2016 at Read more…
Foundation for Media Alternatives, in partnership with the Commission on Human Rights and with the cooperation of the National Privacy Commission and the Department of Information and Communications Technology, conducted its third national workshop on surveillance on 18 November 2016 at the DICT AVR. Entitled TIKTIK 3.0: Rise of a Philippine Read more…
The National Privacy Commission has issued two Memorandum Circulars (MCs) this week, the first since the body was formed earlier in 2016. The first circular, MC No. 16-001, is on the Security of Personal Data in Government. The Circular applies to all government agencies engaged in the processing of personal Read more…
The Right to Know, Right Now (R2KRN) Coalition, a group of around 160 individuals and organizations advocating for the fulfillment of the people’s freedom of information, held a public forum on “FOI in the First 100 Days: Developments and Balance of Work” on Friday, 7 October 2016. Members of the Coalition delivered presentations on Read more…
Last March 2016, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) fell victim to what is now known as one of the biggest government-related breaches in history. This hack on the COMELEC database leaked the personal information of approximately 55 million registered Filipino voters. The incident soon caused widespread concern and public outrage, prompting FMA Read more…