Starting up for human rights – How digital innovations advance freedom of expression

Monday, June 13 / Room Bangkok III / 2.00 p.m.

Innovative media outlets are changing our media ecologies by challenging and transforming the way we create and use media. Through designing new platforms and creative forms of mobile communication, they are advancing freedom of expression.

In this session, entrepreneurs from the Global South share their know-how and discuss their digital visions as well as the challenges they face. Operating with agility, media startups are finding original ways to gather and disseminate information.

"Follow the Money (Nigeria)" for example, uses data journalism to track aid money. While it also publishes its research online and in social media, part of the project's focus is on visiting communities promised specific funding and informing them about these commitments.

Another innovative startup is "Mera Swasthya Meri Aawaz" in India. It allows women to anonymously report illegal fees charged at maternal health clinics using their mobile phones. The results are then displayed on an online map for users to see.

How can the participation and involvement of users in the creation of new media be furthered? To what extent do they speak truth to power? And what can be done to make these new media ideas more viable?

Experts from Columbia University and DW Akademie will also discuss the potential of DW Akademie's "Digital Innovation Library," an online service that enables entrepreneurs, journalists, activists, media development experts and donors to browse and search different startup projects, understand their work and learn from them.