developing world

Development groups have called upon the United Nations to make media freedom and access to information central to the global body's sustainable development agenda, according to The Guardian. Some advocates prefer a "distinct global development plan on good governance, with access to information at its heart." The argument, Thomas Hughes opines in The Guardian, is that "quality, current and accessible information is crucial to establishing the scope and nature of development challenges. It empowers people to hold their leaders to account and participate in the decisions that affect their lives. It also forms the basis of a free and independent media, which, as media development NGOs such as Internews have emphasised, plays a vital role in safeguarding development. A free media informs, facilitates public participation through open debate and helps to hold those in power to account."

The digital divide isn't just about access to the Internet.

The Guardian reports that most Internet traffic on the cloud comes from the developed world: "an estimated 60% of such cloud traffic came from Europe and North America, followed by the Asia-Pacific region (33%). Latin America, the Middle East and Africa together accounted for only 5%." Similarly, the rule of law to protect privacy is more advanced in the developed world than in the developing world (albeit with the caveat that the National Security Agency is engaged in massive surveillance that undermines that rule of law): as of this year, 101 countries had data privacy laws or bills in place, but only 40 developing economies have such laws or bills, according to The Guardian.

The Guardian also reports: "The Information Economy Report 2013, released on Tuesday by Unctad, the UN trade and development body, warns that the global shift towards cloud computing, which allows users to store and access data remotely, brings a range of legal as well as technological and infrastructure challenges for poor countries."