Civil society organizations (CSOs) all over the world are under significant pressure. Armed with smart phones and connected like never before, civil society actors have found new ways to organize, demand greater government accountability, and inject their voices into policy debates. As citizens’ voices have grown louder and more influential, many governments have responded by cracking down on civil society. According to CIVICUS, a global civil society alliance, in 2014, there were serious threats to civic freedoms in at least 96 countries around the world.
One of the primary tactics governments are using to repress civil society is the stigmatization of activists and organizations. Governments from Egypt to Russia have conducted smear campaigns to turn public opinion against CSOs and portray them as “foreign agents” or “undesirables”, intent on destabilizing society. Perhaps of greater concern, well-established democracies have taken steps to silence and demonize organizations that dare to speak out against government policies or priorities. India, for instance, has attempted to discredit Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations that have opposed mining, nuclear and power projects, suggesting that these organizations are undermining the “national interest and security” by creating obstacles to economic development. Kenya has characterized human rights organizations that have been critical of the government as “evil society” and resorted to crude imagery that “casts rights leaders as traitors and money scavengers chasing foreign cash.”
