International websites in general, but the ones focusing on human rights in particular, have a key role to play in speaking on behalf of human rights defenders at risk, says Niels Jacob Harbitz, right, HRH´s Project Manager for Africa. We have known this for a long time, but now, we see it clearly, both in Uganda, Ethiopia, Tunisia and elsewhere. (19-DEC-05)

-In Uganda, President Museveni recently issued a general ban on any coverage of the case against his main opponent, Lt. Kizza Besigye, Harbitz goes on to exemplify. -Other cases of outright censorship or preventive measures against the opposition´s opportunity to enjoy free media, suggest that the role and importance of international media will continue to grow in the months leading up to the elections early next year.

-Even international websites are blocked
In Ethiopia, in the wake of the November protests against Prime Minister Meles Zenawi´s undoing of the country´s democratisation process, the entire opposition press has been silenced and the editors, unless they managed to leave the country in time, have been imprisoned. News from outside Addis Abeba, like the stories published on this website from the Ogaden province, are very hard to come by, and even harder to produce and release within Ethiopia. In Tunisia, the authorities are putting enormous resources into silencing and censoring the media, including the electronic outlets. Even international websites uttering critical opinions of the regime are blocked. This, though, is bound to be a lost battle, Harbitz believes. -New ones keep popping up, others, who haven´t previously said anything about for instance Tunisia, start doing so, for one reason or another. This very website is just one example of this. 

-International sites play direct roles in national human rights struggles
-Under such conditions, international human rights websites may come to play direct roles in the national human rights struggle. Information received through other channels, be it via email or telephone, are frequently turned into articles that are channeled straight back into the countries in question, either quite simply through the universal accessibility of this still very new medium or more actively, via email to subscribers of newsletters. HRH have seen articles produced this way, initially for our own website, end up being published in national media, and thus reaching far wider audiences were it really matters. This way, human rights defenders based elsewhere and international organisations like HRH can speak instead and on behalf of local human rights defenders.

-Websites turn into something more than just sources of information
Due both to strict censorship on the national level and to the risks it may cause, both to themselves and their families, local human rights defenders, in Uganda, Ethiopia, Tunisia, and elsewhere, may find it impossible to speak out. -In these situations, websites like www.humanrightshouse.org becomes more than a source of news and information. In places where freedom of expression is delimited, it turns also into a security measure for human rights defenders and their organisations.