Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to increase the level of internet freedom in countries in Africa categorised as Not Free by the Freedom House index for 2020.

Promoting and protecting media freedom is an important part of the UK's work to protect and defend human rights in Africa. The UK is committed to a free, open, peaceful and secure internet. It enables freedom of expression and provides a wide arena for human rights defenders and civil society to engage in democratic processes and to hold governments to account. The FCDO is supporting the NGO Access Now's #KeepItOn campaign, which brings together a coalition of over 100 countries to counter internet shutdowns. The UK also works to defend internet freedom though our membership of the Freedom Online Coalition, a coalition of 32 countries. Defending Media Freedom forms a key part of our commitment to supporting Open Societies and Human Rights, which was set out recently in the Integrated Review and which forms one of the seven key priority areas set out by the Foreign Secretary for the aid budget this year.