The Russian government has also stepped up its surveillance capabilities amid the new rationale of enforcing a quarantine. This has included advancements in facial recognition software tied to a network of cameras to catch individuals breaking quarantine. There are , of these cameras in Moscow alone, and an additional 9, cameras are to be set up this year. There are also ongoing operations that monitor social media for spreading false information about the outbreak.
Autocratic governments could easily use these new tools outside of the pandemic response in the future to further entrench themselves in power and crack down on dissent. Modern authoritarian regimes have made the argument to their people that their model of government is stronger and better suited to tackle large-scale challenges than so-called messy democracies. It is a gamble that people are willing to forgo some of their freedoms for the protections that a powerful state structure can offer.
Regimes not only target their constituencies with this propaganda but also an international audience in an effort to help build support for the country and its system of governing. Amid a massive global threat such as COVID, where a strong central government is necessary, authoritarian governments are trying to advance this narrative.
China has been working hard to transform its image on the world stage from being the source of the global outbreak to being the capable and benevolent world power that is able to tackle the spread within its borders and provide aid to affected countries around the world. Now, as the virus continues its devastating path in Italy and spreads throughout Europe and the United States, China is exploiting the crisis in an attempt to build long-lasting political currency.
The global response to Chinese aid in a time of need has been notable. And some Chinese equipment has been returned because of defections, making the potential for a backlash against China a real possibility.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has been on a public-relations push as well. Moscow is also supporting its strategic allies abroad. This gesture will likely not be forgotten the next time the EU needs to reauthorize those sanctions. More recently, in a shocking move, Moscow sent a planeload of medical aid to the United States, which has its own sanctions on Russia. In fact, the company that made the Russian ventilators has been under U. As has been the trend for several years, authoritarian regimes are increasingly deploying disinformation across borders by using both state media and social media platforms.
Typically, the goal of such disinformation campaigns is to exploit the open information environment in democracies in order to weaken their perceived adversaries from within by sowing discord and strife among the population.
The General Commission for Audiovisual Media announced in April that it will monitor online and YouTube content to ensure that Saudi contributors, among the largest audience for the online video-sharing site, adhere to government guidelines. YouTube is used by many Saudis to address controversial issues, such as women driving , and to document events not covered in the media, such as the stabbing of a Canadian in a Dhahran city mall in November Saudi Arabia also used its regional influence in the Gulf Cooperation Council to pass restrictions that prevent media in member states from criticizing the leadership of other member states.
Lowlight : A string of arrests and prosecutions of those expressing independent views took place in Many of those arrested were accused of press-related charges after covering protests. In October the government used a anti-cybercrime law to charge at least seven Saudis in connection with their use of Twitter to allegedly criticize the authorities and to call for women to be allowed to drive. Protesters calling for greater democracy and justice gather in Addis Ababa in May after security forces shot at students.
Ethiopian authorities are cracking down on the press ahead of elections in Filing lawsuits against editors and forcing publishers to cease production have left only a handful of independent publications in a country of more than 90 million people. There are no independent broadcasters, though broadcasts from the U. The state-controlled telecommunications company Ethio Telecom is the sole Internet provider and routinely suspends critical news websites.
International journalists work in Ethiopia, but many are under surveillance and face harassment. Although journalists have not had difficulties acquiring accreditation in the past, newer arrivals say that they face challenges.
Lowlight : Authorities in unleashed the largest onslaught against the press since a crackdown in after disputed parliamentary elections. Ten independent journalists and bloggers were arrested on anti-state charges, and at least eight independent publications were shut down.
Award-winning investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova is one of at least 10 independent journalists and bloggers arrested during a crackdown by Azerbaijani authorities in Azerbaijan Leadership : President Ilham Aliyev has been in power since October , after being named successor by his father.
How censorship works : The main sources of information in Azerbaijan are broadcasters, which are owned and controlled by the state or its proxies. International broadcasters are barred or their satellite signals are jammed.
Critical print outlets have been subjected to harassment from officials, including debilitating lawsuits, evictions, a ban on foreign funding, and advisories to businesses against advertising. Online speech is subject to self-censorship because of a criminal defamation law that carries a six-month prison sentence. News and social media websites are blocked arbitrarily. At least 10 journalists and bloggers, including the award-winning reporter Khadija Ismayilova , are in Azerbaijani jails.
Several critical journalists fled the country in , and those remaining faced attacks and harassment, were banned from traveling, or were prosecuted on fabricated charges. For our purposes, countries which fall under a certain threshold are considered to have an Oppressive Regime. If a company simply operates in these countries, either directly or indirectly, this is not sufficient to trigger the negative screen.
Our negative screen therefore only captures a very specific set of corporate activities, where that activity overlaps with government policies and practices, and can lead to human rights violations. On a case-by-case basis, we will apply these criteria to stock screenings and reviews.
We do of course remain mindful that human rights abuses can take place in any jurisdiction and within any sector. The first is finance. Due to the exposure of numerous financial institutions to chiefly Saudi government debt, we would be uncomfortable with an outright ban on banks which hold Oppressive Regime debt.
Serbian activists who mobilised successfully against President Milosevic in share their experiences of building the movement through creating space through public demonstrations and street occupations. In such actions, young women were deliberately at the front of the demonstrations, directly confronting the security force members — who were usually young men. In South Africa, similarly, there were instances where race and gender were used by activists to put the security forces in a dilemma.
Women from the townships, organised by the Port Elizabeth Womens Organisations, took control of this funeral in order to break the cycle of violence, where militant male youth confronted brutal security forces every weekend.
Security force use of excessive force to disperse the demonstrations would result in deaths of more protestors, which in turn resulted in anger, attacks on the police and yet another funeral.
They did disperse the funeral procession which was a demonstration using teargas — but nobody was killed. The campaign was strategised and led by the UDF, but involved a wide range of tactics devised and implemented at local level. These included a national election boycott; local boycotts of councillors' businesses, ostracism of councillors, and disruption of councillors' campaign meetings through switching off lights and making noise — after which many of the councillors publicly resigned.
After the councillors were elected or appointed when the elections were not contested or disrupted , there were campaigns involving the withholding of cooperation from these illegitimate municipal authorities — including non payment of rents and service charges, and refusal of access to municipal electricity repair vehicles unless they negotiated access through the UDF committees and civic leadership. This deprived the BLAs of revenue and rendered them unable to fulfil their function of providing services to the township residents, thus further denying them any legitimacy in the eyes of the majority of residents.
Where regimes are capable of carefully targeted oppression, utilising control of the media and sophisticated propaganda to discredit the movement, activists need to use equally sophisticated means of creating space to build their legitimacy and discredit the regime. The leader of the consumer boycott, Mkhuseli Jack, was released from detention under pressure from the PECC leaders, who need someone to negotiate with.
In the small town of Port Alfred, at the height of the township uprising, the Port Alfred Residents and Womens Associations had in fact taken control of the township. However, there was a dangerous rapist at large, against whom the police were not taking action. The township women, who were mainly employed as domestic workers for the white residents of the town, then withdrew their labour, creating huge inconvenience for the white women. The township women then appealed to the white employers; these women then intervened with the local police, insisting that the man accused of rape be arrested.
The result of the combined campaigns against the BLAs was the resignation of most of the councils in the Eastern Cape and in other well-organised townships across the country. Without local authorites in the black townships, the municipalities struggled to govern effectively.
In some cases, they turned to the movement — engaging the leaders of the civic organisations as the acknowledged representatives of the black residents of the city.
In Port Elizabeth, this led first to the civic leaders negotiating the implementation of electricity connections to township houses; later it led to the first non-racial local Council in South Africa. Towards the end of this struggle, the movement in Port Elizabeth decided to reclaim the city centre, marching from the townships to the centre of the city, occupying the Market Square outside the City Hall, and renaming it after a local martyr.
The Apartheid regime had used legislation to ban organisations from , when the Communist Party of South Africa was banned.
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