huridocs-tech New report on Internet restrictions by governments

Source: W I R E D   N E W S
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The Net: Enemy of the State?
  by Heather McCabe
http://www.wired.com/news/news/email/explode-infobeat/politics/story/21240.html


PARIS -- Twenty nations all but bar the Internet from their borders out of 
fear that the medium is a threat to either national security or the social 
order, a French media organization said in a report released earlier this 
week.

The report (http://www.rsf.fr/uk/alaune/ennemisweb.html), released by 
Reporters Sans Frontires, also found that 45 countries "severely restrict" 
the Internet by forcing users to either filter content, subscribe to a 
state-run ISP, or register with authorities.

Robert Menard, director of Reporters Sans Frontires, said that while the 
current outlook is grim, the situation regarding Internet freedom is 
improving in some of these countries.

"Two years ago, the list would have been much longer," Menard said. "Taken 
as a whole, things are getting better both in terms of freedom of the press 
and for the Internet."

The list focuses on the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus, 
including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and 
Uzbekistan. Also on the list: Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, 
Libya, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and 
Vietnam.

People in Iraq, North Korea, and Libya don't have the right to use the 
Internet at all, while Burma's government is slightly more lenient. The 
Burmese government has a monopoly on Net access, and a 1996 law in that 
nation requires anyone with a computer to register it with the government. 
Those who do not risk 15 years in prison.

Menard said that the situation is gradually improving in some countries, as 
governments and citizens realize the economic potential of the Internet. In 
Malaysia and Singapore, for example, authorities are finding it 
increasingly difficult to block illicit sites.

Of course, there are always ways to get around censorship: encoding, going 
through anonymity servers such as Freedom 
(http://www.zeroknowledge.com/products/), and connecting via GSM cellular 
phones with built-in encryption.

In Cuba, where the government keeps tight reigns on all media, 10 
independent and illegal news agencies regularly dispatch their reports to 
Miami, where they are posted to the Web.

But circumventing the law can have serious consequences, as Mario Viera of 
the news agency Cuba Verdad discovered in October 1998. After one of 
Viera's articles went up on a US-based Cubanet site, a foreign ministry 
official filed a complaint against the journalist. Viera is now awaiting 
trial and could face an 18-month prison sentence.

Fourteen of the list's 20 countries have already signed the United Nations' 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 19 of the 
covenant protects freedom of information, stipulating that "everyone shall 
have the right ... to receive and impart information and ideas of all 
kinds, regardless of frontiers."

Reporters Sans Frontires calls on the remaining six countries (Burma, 
China, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, and Tajikistan) to sign the 
covenant, and for all of the countries to respect its spirit.



  See also: Report: Mideast Misses the 
Net    http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/20616.html


Copyright 1999 Wired Digital, Inc.




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