'West steps up suppressing activists, media'
Western governments are increasingly cracking down on campaign groups and social media activism, a leading civil society group says.
According to the World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS), Western governments are fearful of the growing influence and ability of activists to mobilize through social media.
“Restrictions on free speech are no longer just something that happens in banana republics around the world; this is a universal challenge of the 21st century,” Danny Sriskandarajah said on the sidelines of a conference in London Monday.
He said that so-called democracies all over the world were undermining “the work of civil society, particularly those organizations that dare to speak to truth to power.”
Countries described as mature democracies, while espousing freedom of speech, are taking their own steps to rein in non-profit groups, Sriskandarajah added.
NGOs from Latin America and Africa to the Middle East and Asia say their offices have been raided, bank accounts frozen and activists arrested by governments edgy about their activities.
Earlier this month, a number of charity groups called on British Prime Minister David Cameron to reconsider proposed changes to legislation that would bar charities from spending government grants on lobbying activists.
In a 2014 report, the CIVICUS said Britain was one of the 96 countries with a record of serious violations against freedom of expression, association and assembly of non-profit groups.
The United States, Canada, Spain, Russia, and a number of African countries and most of Asia are also listed as violating such rights.
Last week the Thomson Reuters Foundation revealed that Western anti-terror laws were making it harder to deliver vital supplies to communities controlled by extremist groups in Syria.
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