[huridocs-tech] OSCE media freedom representative asks Kazakhstan to withdraw Internet regulation

VIENNA, 31 October 2005 - The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media,
Miklos Haraszti, has asked the Government of Kazakhstan to withdraw a
newly established regulation on the registration of domain names for
websites.

"Implementing this provision would put the allocation of domain names on
the World Wide Web in Kazakhstan entirely under government control, which
contradicts freedom of expression and free flow principles," Haraszti
said.

"Since these provisions have not been used so far, and not even discussed
in Parliament, it would make it easy for the Kazakh Government to pull
back the regulation without any consequences, and thus comply with media
freedom commitments."

A legal review of the new 'Regulations for the Allocation of Domain Space
in the Kazakhstan Segment of the Internet,' commissioned by the
Representative, found that governmental control over registration and the
obligation for websites to be hosted only inside a country's borders
opened the way to central filtering, blocking, and fragmentation of this
global medium.

On this basis, the Representative came up with the following
recommendations:

1. Kazakhstan's web space should be administered by a body that is
independent of the Government.

2. Registration of a .kz domain should be a purely technical process and
impose no substantive restrictions. Applicants should merely be required
to submit their name, contact details and the limited technical data
required to register the domain.

3. There should be no requirement that the servers for a .kz domain be
located inside Kazakhstan, because on a worldwide structure like the
Internet every publisher should be able to choose freely where he wants
his content to be hosted.

The domain name system is a distributed database that - similar to a phone
book - enables Internet users to find websites easily by just entering a
domain name instead of a complicated IP number.

OSCE Press release

 

 
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