FREE EXPRESSION ONLINE Online platforms and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become an important way for citizens and media alike to disseminate independent news and opinions. This is particularly the case in countries, such as Swaziland, where the traditional media are under tight state control. Governments have struggled to keep up with the changes in this environment, and restrictions on internet freedom have mostly been less severe than those on traditional media. However, this is quickly changing. More and more, governments are using censorship and surveillance, misusing laws such as privacy and national security laws, imposing criminal penalties, and arresting people for content they publish online. In April 2014, for example, the Botswana Parliament passed a law allowing electronic communications to be used as evidence in court. The then Minister of defence justice and Security Dikgakgamatso Seretse said the law will compliment the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act by allowing information stored in computers, exchanged in emails and social networks to be admissible in court as evidence. This may spread fear as users worry they could end up in court for alleged defamation, over content they post online, since the law allows for their recorded conversations to be used as evidence in courts. In another example, in May 2014, high profile economist, Carlos Nuno CasteloBranco, was summoned to the Public Prosecutor’s office in Maputo, Mozambique, to answer questions about an open letter to President Armando Guebuza he wrote and posted on his Facebook page in 2013. ... governments are using censorship and surveillance, misusing laws such as privacy and national security laws, imposing criminal penalties, and arresting people for content they publish online. And in Zambia, the government made numerous calls for regulation of the online media during the course of 2014 and condemned online media as being unethical and intrusive. The government also clamped down on online media by restricting access to websites perceived to be critical, forcing them to set up social media pages as an alternative channel. African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms MISA joined other organisations working on internet governance in Africa and around the world in celebrating the launch of the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms at the global Internet Governance Forum in Istanbul, Turkey on 4 September 2014. The Declaration is a Pan-African initiative lead by African civil society and developed to define and strengthen in- So This is Democracy? 2014 15