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	The revolution will be mobile by Joshua Peck   More people now have access to mobile phones than clean water. Joshua Peck explains how crossing the digital divide brings empowerment to the world"s poorest people.   Over 4.4 million Americans donated to Barack Obama"s presidential campaign in 2012. A little over 2 per cent of eligible voters in America were financially invested in his victory. Compare that to the 52,565 Americans that contributed to Al Gore"s campaign in 2000, an 8,370 per cent increase, and the kind of transformation the American political system has undergone in the last decade becomes pretty clear.   No presidential candidate in America today could make a credible run for office without taking grassroots fundraising seriously.   Unfortunately, big donors and special interests continue to have disproportional influence in the American political process. Even Obama, a grassroots fundraising champion, received the majority of his donations from big donors. Nevertheless, the fact that small donors account for as much as they do is a democratic anchor in a riptide of special interests.   Digital organising is changing domestic politics in America and countries around the world. Similar to MoveOn.org in the US, organisations like GetUp in Australia and 38 Degrees in the United Kingdom have played key roles in shifting domestic debates and influencing electoral outcomes. We"re even seeing a shift in global politics. Avaaz.org, a global advocacy organisation, is introducing global narratives and opportunities for collective action across borders. With over 15 million members, Avaaz is a living manifestation of the concept of global citizenship.   Change.org is new to the global stage, but it has been growing at fast pace with over 20 million users worldwide. Change.org provides a platform for individuals to advocate for change in their own local communities through user-created petitions. It"s a twist on digital organising that"s bringing people-powered change to every part of the globe.   With these trends, there is no doubt that this is an exciting time to be a digital organiser. But they"re just the tip of the iceberg. The most exciting developments in digital organising today are mobile and they"re happening in the developing world. The data on global mobile usage is far from perfect, but what information we do have paints a pretty clear picture.   The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an agency of the UN, predicted that by 2011, 90 per cent of the world would live in the range of a mobile phone network. As of the end of September 2012, the Ericson Mobility report estimated global mobile penetration reached 91 per cent of the global population. This last number is inflated because it doesn"t take into account people with two or even three mobile phones subscriptions, but the best estimates suggest that around two-thirds of households in the world have access to a mobile phone. That"s more people with mobile phones than have access to clean water. What"s even more impressive is how quickly new mobile subscriptions are being added - a 9 per cent increase year on year. According to the ITU, 80 per cent of these 660 million new mobile subscriptions added in 2011 were in developing countries.   These numbers represent a tectonic shift for individual political empowerment around the world. Historically, there haven"t been that many advances that significantly moved the dial.   Democracy is without question the most notable - offering the greatest increase in individual political empowerment in history, but its implementation has often been deeply flawed and its spread has been glacial. Women only won the right to vote in most countries during the last century and despite the two millennia since its creation, only 11.9 per cent of the world"s population live in a full democracy according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. That number jumps to 48.4 per cent if you include flawed democracies, but it still represents less than half of the world.   Another important advance, the printing press, offered access to information that reached more people somewhat faster (invented in 1440). But it also required literacy, which still eludes 16 per cent of the global adult population. Radio and television have reached nearly two-thirds of the world in roughly 75 years, but these mediums tend to be controlled by elites and offer only top-down information.   Mobile phones not only have the fastest adoption rate in history, but will soon be, if they aren"t already, the most pervasive technology ever - beating out television, radio, and even electricity. They"ve achieved this status in roughly 25 years. And they offer individuals the ability to both broadcast and receive information.   In the past, the world"s poor, the bottom third, have either missed out entirely or been among the last to receive advances that lead to greater individual empowerment, but the data suggest that this year marks the point at which this bottom third will, en masse, start to gain access to mobile phones. Over the next decade, we have good reason to expect mobile phone-enabled political and economic empowerment to come to this group where so many past advances have stayed out of reach.   The implications for the future are tremendous, but we can already see glimpses of the change to come. In Kenya, mobile phones are starting to replace cash. As much as 33 per cent of Kenya"s GDP passes through mobile payment systems today and over 70 per cent of the adult population is signed up as a mobile payment user. In Indonesia, Facebook"s third largest population of users, mobile phones have replaced desktops as the primary means of accessing Facebook. In India, anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare called on supporters to place "missed calls" in support of his campaign. To place a missed call, the caller simply hangs up before the person they are calling answers. The call is recorded, but neither party pays anything for the transaction - a common practice in India. Over 20 million people placed missed calls getting the attention of the Indian government and moving them to action.   In Egypt, mobile phones played a vital role in organising the revolution in the weeks leading up to the 2011 Egyptian Revolution - and some speculate that the government"s decision to shut down the mobile network was the final straw.   We are in the middle of the greatest political empowerment revolution in human history. Digital organising has and will continue to transform countries like the US, but the real revolution is happening in the developing world. Mobile phones are crossing the digital divide and bringing with them economic and political empowerment for the world"s poorest people.   One can only imagine a world where every citizen is connected, but soon, we will not need to.   * Joshua Peck is a consultant in using emerging technology to facilitate mass participation in issue advocacy and elections. He worked as the Deputy Director of New Media for Organizing for America and the Democratic Party.
	Victims accuse David Cameron of "ripping heart and soul" out of Leveson inquiry by Guardian News United Kingdom   Top British judge Brian Leveson has handed down his long-awaited report into British press standards, saying the media had "wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people" for decades.   The Leveson report calls for tougher self-regulation of the industry via a new independent watchdog set up to regulate the press and prevent a repeat of the phone-hacking scandal that engulfed Rupert Murdoch"s News International.   The year-long inquiry grilled politicians, celebrities, and even Mr Murdoch over claims journalists hacked the phone messages of thousands of people, including murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and dead British soldiers.   Prime minister David Cameron came under fire from a lawyer for the Dowler family in the wake of the report"s publication after he said he feared that bringing in new laws risked curbing the freedom of the British press.   Handing down his report, Lord Justice Leveson was highly critical of sections of the press, describing its behaviour as "outrageous".   He said misbehaviour by the press had undermined its own arguments that it worked in the public interest.   "There have been too many times when, chasing the story, parts of the press have acted as if its own code, which it wrote, simply did not exist," he said.   He said that not only famous people but also ordinary members of the public had often tragic events "made much, much worse by press behaviour that, at times, can only be described as outrageous."   He criticised the relationship between the press and politicians in Britain, saying it had been too close.   But while recommending new laws to underpin a new media watchdog, Lord Justice Leveson said it would in no way allow parliament to regulate the newspapers.   "It would enshrine, for the first time, a legal duty on the government to protect the freedom of the press," he said.   "The ball moves back into the politicians court: they must now decide who guards the guardians."   Justice Leveson said in his report that the new watchdog would have independent members, except for one editor.   It would have the power to fine offenders up to ($1.6 million) and to order the publication of apologies and corrections.   Those powers would be backed by new laws, he said. He summed up his plans as "independent regulation of the press organised by the press, with a statutory verification process".   Victims accuse David Cameron of "ripping heart and soul" out of Leveson inquiry.   David Cameron has been accused of "ripping the heart and soul" out of Lord Justice Leveson"s inquiry and betraying victims of press abuse by rejecting the judge"s recommendation for a statutory body to oversee the new independent press regulator.   Media reform campaigners and some of those who had their phones hacked or computers compromised said they were "profoundly depressed" by the prime minister"s refusal to follow the recommendation.   Speaking at a press conference organised by the Hacked Off campaign, the filmmaker Ed Blum – himself a victim of hacking – accused Cameron of abandoning those he had pledged to help.   "I think with Cameron"s statement today, he"s let down the victims of press abuse," he said. "He"s also ripped out the heart and soul of the Leveson report and at the same time, some papers tomorrow will call him courageous, although the British public will know that the slippery slope towards self-regulation has also let them down terribly as well."   Mark Lewis, the solicitor who represents a number of phone-hacking victims, including the family of the murdered teenager Milly Dowler, said some of his clients were struggling to understand the prime minister"s behaviour.   "I have spoken to some people who feel that they"ve been let down because they were looking for an independent inquiry which was looking at the politicians themselves as well as the press," he said. "The politicians were in on this and somebody independent was coming along and made recommendations and cautious optimism lasted for about 45 minutes and then the prime minister spoke and said well he"s not actually going to implement a report that he instigated."   He added: "[Cameron] called for a judicial inquiry. There wasn"t really much point in this judicial inquiry unless it was going to be implemented."   Lewis also pointed out that in his evidence to the inquiry, the prime minister had spoken of the importance of what he termed the "victim test".   Cameron had told Leveson that the inquiry should not be about placating the press or politicians but about "really protecting the people who"ve been caught up and absolutely thrown to the wolves by this process".   By any measure, said Lewis, Cameron had failed that test.   "He called it the victim test; he called it the Dowler test," said the solicitor. "It looks like he failed his own test. He appointed the lord justice to make recommendations and now he says he"s not going to follow them. That"s a failure of that test and he needs to resit." Other victims of press abuse told Hacked Off of their disappointment with the prime minister.   The former policewoman and Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames said she found his remarks in the Commons "profoundly depressing", while a group representing families who lost relatives in the Hillsborough football disaster were said to be "very upset". Christopher Jefferies, the man vilified in some sections of the press and falsely arrested over the murder of Joanna Yates, told Hacked Off he felt betrayed.   Midway through Thursday afternoon, the actor Hugh Grant tweeted: "With a group of (non celeb) victims including Hillsborough families listening to PM. Buzzword is betrayal."   Brain Cathcart, a journalism professor and founder of Hacked Off, praised Lord Justice Leveson for producing "a thorough, balanced and powerful report" containing measures to protect press freedom and recognise the rights of victims of press abuse.   He said the report had offered "a workable, proportionate, reasonable solution" to the problems facing the public, the media and the politicians.   The prime minister, however, had "not done his job" and his failure to accept the report"s full recommendations was both regrettable and unfortunate.   "The Leveson proposals were carefully thought out," said Cathcart. "They would have made a difference. They should be implemented as quickly as possible and must not be put aside."   He added that despite "their years of abuses and outrageous conduct, it seems that the prime minister still trusts the editors and proprietors to behave themselves."   Cathcart described the report as a very important moment and urged Cameron to seize it.   "We do not want to let it slip and surely the prime minister does not want to be seen to be the person who has let slip this opportunity which is coming once in a generation," he said. "A long time we"ve been having these choices and ducking them. Does he really want to be the latest prime minister to duck these choices?"   To that end, Hacked Off announced that they had launched a petition urging Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband to work together to implement all the report"s recommendations as soon as possible.   Jane Winter, the director of a human rights charity who discovered that emails and documents she had sent had been illegally accessed after the recipient"s computer was hacked, was disheartened by the Leveson report in general and the prime minister"s refusal to accept its key recommendation in particular.   Winter, head of the British Irish Rights Watch, was one of 60 victims who signed a letter to the PM last October asking him to implement Leveson"s suggestions.   She said: "His response was, "As long as it"s not bonkers, I"ll implement that". Well I saw the report this morning and it doesn"t look bonkers to me and I think he"s gone back on his word and I feel betrayed."   Winter added: "I"m afraid he knows who his friends are – his friends in the media – and he"s not really concerned about the victims although he said he was. He made a lot of nice noises about the victims who"ve been to hell and back, like the Dowlers, but he doesn"t mean a word of it. If he did, he would implement these recommendations."   Despite her deep disappointment, however, she was refusing to relinquish hope entirely: "I still have a spark of optimism because it looks to me like both Labour and the Liberal Democrats are in favour of Lord Leveson"s recommendations and we also know that there are a number of Tory backbenchers who support proper regulation for the media."   British Police have arrested dozens of people under three linked probes into the alleged crimes by newspapers.   http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/leveson-inquiry   http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/nov/30/protecting-powerful-men/   * Carl Bernstein asks why the US media ignored Rupert Murdoch''s brazen bid to hijack the US presidency.   http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/20/bernstein-murdoch-ailes-petreaus-presidency Visit the related web page
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