The Freedom of Expression Project

by Leni Wild

This paper sets out to analyse the implications of modern communications technologies for democratic ideas and practices around the world. It is intended as an outline of current thinking and initiatives: it does not set out comprehensively to review all possible aspects but to highlight some of the most promising, as well as some of the more worrying, developments.

As Section 1 of this paper sets out, modern communications technologies can impact on liberal, representative models of democracy in a multiplicity of ways. First, they can facilitate the provision of information and in the process improve the transparency of political processes, contributing to a more informed citizenry. Second, modern communications technologies have shaped the form of communication between people and their representatives or governments. Some argue that the intersection of these two changes – increased access to information and changes in forms of communication – may contribute to a shift from passive citizens, receiving information from those in authority, to active citizens, engaged in shaping the information and communications they access (Coleman 2005).

Modern communications technology may also have some rather more practical implications. Democratic opposition groups have increasingly turned to the mobile phone or the internet as organisation tools. Thus women’s groups in Africa have used mobile phone text messaging linked to technologies that create online petitions, protestors have organised demonstrations by text in South Korea and national movements for democracy, often known as ‘coloured revolutions’, have occurred in parts of Central and Eastern Europe assisted by the use of the internet. The processes of democracy themselves are beginning to be affected by these new technologies too, with proposals for e-voting and shifts towards ‘e-government’ – online public services that, in theory, should be more accountable to the public. At the same time, in the climate of the ‘war on terror’, democratic governments have increasingly adopted methods of surveillance using these technologies that, for some, infringe on some of the basic tenets of a democratic society.

Furthermore, as addressed in Section 2, modern communications technologies and the new networked environment may contribute to the development of new forms of democratic engagement. For example, initiatives that allow pre-legislative scrutiny and deliberation online are increasingly heralded for their potential to reshape relations between people and governments (Coleman 2005).

Kofi Annan (2003) once stated: “While technology shapes the future, it is people who shape technology, and decide to what uses it can and should be put”. Undemocratic governments have historically used communications technology, including mass media such as television and radio, to consolidate their control over their societies. In this vein, Section 3 looks at how new communications technologies are being adopted by authoritarian governments or non-state actors to suppress democratic ideas or opposition. The paper concludes by suggesting some areas for further investigation and areas for potential intervention.