The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) have been honoured at this years Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) 2015 Pioneer Awards which took place last night (Thursday 24 September). Peter was involved in the formation of the APC in 1986 and below you can read his note of congratulations to all the APC team.

Congratulations to Association for Progressive Communications (APC), on their Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) 2015 Pioneer Award. Executive Director Anriette Esterhuysen and the APC have been honored with this well-deserved award tonight for their decades-long work leveraging the Internet to support the causes of peace and justice, the environment, open source and access, and human and Internet rights, around the world.

I had a small part in the formation of the APC back 1986 when I suggested we should organise a concert to fund the creation of a global peace network and the University for Peace . I called up my old friend Little Stephen and we hustled a number of musicians to accompany us to a very cold stadium in Tokyo for the Hurricane Irene concert . This concert was a catalyst for the formation of the APC, which it helped to fund and was initiated by Mark Graham, Mitra Ardron and Danny Schechter.

For the past several decades, APC and its members organizations have played a leading roll establishing the first internet service in many countries, creating and promoting the first Internet Rights Charter, and helping individual activists, NGOs, and UN organizations and events harness of the power of the Internet as a force for positive change in the world.