Press Releases 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 Internet: Our Human Right. Released on 07 Feb 2011 While 80% of the world has access to electricity and 83% of the world can read, only 28.7 % of the world’s population has access to the internet and only 4.6% of the world’s population has access to broadband internet. The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished. On July 28, 2010 a cross section of Nigerians - delegates to the BB4NG (Broadband for Nigeria) Forum - proclaimed in Abuja that access to broadband internet should be a fundamental right of all Nigerians. But that was as far as the desire of concerned citizens goes and work to realise the desire is known to be on hand. However for those who live in the developed world, internet access has become pretty much a given. It has become so ubiquitous that we almost expect to have it at all times and in all places, but even in this ‘Information Age’, the majority of the world’s population lacks access to the internet - either because service is not available where they are, or they cannot afford it. But one man has a plan and he is Kosta Grammatis. Through his charity group, Grammatis aims to set up a network of satellites that will provide free internet access to everyone in the world. He is starting by attempting to buy a single used satellite that is already in orbit and moving it to a location above a developing country. Freedom of expression is nearly always considered a basic human right; in other words free and unfettered authorship is clearly privileged. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to ‘hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.’ For the developed world, the internet has become the de facto standard to seek, receive, and impart information. In 2008 over 1 trillion unique URL’s existed. In 2009 approximately 90 trillion e-mails were sent per day (81% being spam leaving 17.1 trillion legitimate e-mails).  In 2010 it is thought that 21,380.09 petabytes of IP data was transferred over the internet and in 2011 so far, it has been deployed to organise mass protests and to activate revolutions. The Internet has made freedom of expression a practical fact and global phenomenon for anyone with a computer and a telephone. Thus to be excluded from this information technology is, effectively, to be excluded from information, full stop. Given that to receive and impart information is a universal human right, and that the Internet is more than just an incrementally useful information technology, we are led directly to the conclusion: the Internet should be a human right in and of itself. Unfortunately, this hypothesis applies solely to the developed world as developing countries do not use telecommunications to seek, receive, and impart information. However, this does not invalidate the argument, rather it strengthens it: If the developing world is to be, in effect, excluded from the global dialog that takes place online it is, in effect, an assurance they will remain developing. If the internet is information and if information can be equated to power, then all those without access to information are in effect powerless. Benjamin Disraeli put it quite well; ‘As a general rule the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.’ In a 27,000 person poll conducted across 26 countries by BBC/GlobeScan: four out of five people agreed internet access is a human right. Internet access has been declared a human right in Estonia, France, Finland, Greece, and Spain.  In some countries the right is enforced by mandating a minimum connection capability to all remaining and desiring home users in a country. It is the right of every Nigerian to have access to the internet and this right should be recognised and appropriately enforced. The growth rate of a developing country such as ours can only be enhanced when people are empowered and the internet is one very powerful empowerment tool.   Adapted from text culled from http://www.blog.ahumanright.org/ Back