Edited/Distributed by HURINet - The Human Rights Information Network --------------------------------------------------------------------- ## author : sdenney@OCF.Berkeley.EDU ## date : 09.04.99 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Vietnam Weighs Internet Control HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Police in Ho Chi Minh city have asked the central government to give full control over Internet activities to the local People's Committee, local press reported Wednesday. Briefing former Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet on social order in the city Tuesday, the police leadership said hostile forces abroad have abused the Internet to bring in documents with bad and reactionary content, the newspaper Youth reported. The People's Committee is composed of the police, the Department of Culture and the Department of Science and Technology. The paper quoted police as saying many state secrets have been leaked through the Internet. Many writings of Vietnamese dissidents have also been posted, the police said. Police said some people stole subscribers' passwords to illegally log on, causing losses to the state and individuals. They proposed fines be meted out for those kinds of violations. The government fears its inability to control the inflow of information through the Internet may threaten its one-party rule. The government allowed the use of the Internet in December 1997 and so far the number of subscribers has reached nearly 30,000. ---------------------------------- Send mail for the 'huridocs-tech' list to 'huridocs-tech@hrea.org'. Mail administrative request to 'majordomo@hrea.org'. For additional assistance, send mail to: 'owner-huridocs-tech@hrea.org'. Archives of previous messages posted to the list can be found at: http://www.human-rights.net/huridocs-tech.
[Reply to this message] [Start a new topic] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index] [Subject Index] [List Home Page] [HREA Home Page]