E stands for environment

A working group of APC members aims to bring environment higher on the ICT policy priorities of global civil society. Information and communication technologies are a powerful tool for civil society protecting environment. But more is needed to streamline ICT work of different groups and communities, and offer them access to the ICTs they need to secure environmental sustainability, a BlueLink/APC survey shows. On the morning of March 10, 2005 I received a stunning photo among my incoming e-mail. The picture showed the inside of a police vehicle guarded by uniformed police. There, I saw the face of Dimitur Vassilev - a committed environmental activist, co-founder of Bulgaria’s civil society electronic network BlueLink, and a good friend of mine. The police had detained him in front of the gates of Bulgaria’s inistry of environment, in a desperate attempt to silence his environmental criticism against two gold mining projects funded by Canadian interests, in Bulgaria. Needless to say, within a minute I had forwarded the image with an accompanying message that explained the reasons for Vassilev’s detention to tens of journalist colleagues through Bulgaria, all over Europe and the world. And I was not the only one to do so. The arrest of an environmental activist became a turning point in one of the most recent non-governmental organisation (NGO) quests in Bulgaria - the Cyanide-Free campaign. By various means on offer on the internet, the concerns and arguments of Vassilev & co. reached the general public, mass media, and even the institutions of the European Union -to which Bulgaria aspires membership. Putting the man behind bars could not shut his voice down. It was all online – an example of the power of the internet and electronic communication for environmental protection. The Cyanide-Free Bulgaria campaign is just one of thousands of occasions in the past decade where civil society has used information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a powerful tool for keeping the public alert and informed on the pressing issues of environment and nature protection. Read the full story here.

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