Free speech online 'under threat'

Bloggers are being asked to show their support for freedom of expression by Amnesty International.

The human rights group also wants web log writers to highlight the plight of fellow bloggers jailed for what they wrote in their online journals.

The organisation said fundamental rights such as free speech faced graver threats than ever before.

The campaign coincides with the start of a week-long UN-organised conference that will debate the future of the net.

Watching words

"Freedom of expression online is a right, not a privilege - but it's a right that needs defending," said Steve Ballinger of Amnesty International. "We're asking bloggers worldwide to show their solidarity with web users in countries where they can face jail just for criticising the government."

Mr Ballinger said the case of Iranian blogger Kianoosh Sanjari was just one example of the dangers that some online writers can face. Mr Sanjari was arrested in early October following his blogging about conflicts between the Iranian police and the supporters of Shia cleric Ayatollah Boroujerdi.

Amnesty wanted bloggers to publicise cases such as this, said Mr Ballinger, and to declare their backing for the right to free speech online.


The human rights group is also taking its campaign to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) - a group set up by the UN to act as a debating body for national net policies. The first big meeting of the IGF takes place in Athens from 30 October to 2 November.

"The Internet Governance Forum needs to know that the online community is concerned about free expression online and willing to stand up for it," said Mr Ballinger.

Many governments were using technology to suppress the free flow of information among their citizens, said Mr Ballinger.

"People have been locked up just for expressing their views in an email or a website," he said. "Sites and blogs have been shut down and firewalls built to prevent access to information."

Hi-tech firms such as Yahoo and Google have been criticised for the help they have given to nations such as China which works hard to monitor online discussion.

In May 2006, Amnesty International started a campaign that aimed to expose the ways that governments use the net to quash dissent. Co-ordinated via the Irrepressible.info website, the campaign asks websites to use an icon displaying text from censored sites.

Pledges gathered from those backing this campaign will be presented at the IGF.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Gotta bump this, since it appears to have been missed. Just watched the report on Newsnight, what the above article doesn't make clear is that Yahoo actually supplied the chinese government with full email logs for a journalist who had emailed reports from within China, and has just been sentenced to 10 years on the strength of the evidence supplied by Yahoo that's simply not fucking on, wankers.

Come on, people, this is WAY more important than something as trivial as the right to take drugs - this is about the right to have and express a fucking opinion, FFS.

You can visit http://irrepressible.info/ to sign an Amnesty International sponsored petition for this sort of thing.

Bloggers and other webmasters can get their own natty little information box like this

[attachmentid=103695]

By visiting http://irrepressible.info/addcontent

Nice one ShadyDave

Signed, and had a look at the other bit. Is that OK to use on UK420 blogs (don't wanna do it unless it's cool with admin etc).

Errr...... ya might be better to wait til J has gone to bed..............

Shouldn't be a problem, I think admins only object when it links to one of those porn/warez/haxors websites which change your homepage and pop up about a dozen pop ups on yer desktop.

My opinion on all issues: People have to group together, start subscribing to others view points and get along before its too late, its not just freedom of speech its FREEDOM.



Freedom to use light aircraft flight on private land (paragliders ect) is also under scrutiny, keeping reptiles responsibly and the ganja thing. The list of things wrong is endless.

When are people gonna coagulate to accumulate? We need to be a lot more tolerant but that doesn’t mean do nothing, inaction and mass destruction and that.

Mmmmmmmmm small world.

Thanks SD, signed as this makes my blood boil.

Signed.

cheers shady


YAHOO eh? sters

Amnesty have already written out some letters you can send which may help out the following;

Tunisian lawyer and human rights defender Mohammed Abbou is serving a three and a half year prison sentence largely for publishing articles critical of the Tunisian authorities on the internet. Since his detention in March 2005 he has undertaken several hunger strikes in protest at the conditions of his detention. According to reports he continues to face harassment and ill-treatment by the prison administration. Amnesty considers Mohammed Abbou to be a prisoner of conscience, detained for exercising his fundamental right to freedom of expression.


http://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?ActionID=144

In 2004 Shi Tao sent details of an internal government directive instructing journalists how to handle media coverage of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown to a US-based website. He was charged with "illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities” and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions_details.asp?ActionID=113

It will only take a minute or two of your time.

SIGNED

Signed already but I feel this is a bit like Canute willing the sea back. Its pointless.

The internet has acted as a leveller. The problem for those of us in the 'West' is that it has led to hugely increased surveillance but in the 'East' it has led to increased communication and despite all the efforts of the govts there it has led to more 'freedoms' in as much as the ability to read/discuss what others/yourselves think of your country/other countries does.

For the 'West', well Amnesty International should be concentrating on us. We are the most monitored country on the planet. You go on a motorway and it is recorded. You are filmed on CCTV on average 20 times a day. Lets not go into ID cards and all that or the US/UK station in Yorkshire that has had the highest priority link into the telecoms network for 20+ years or.... Well you get the idea.

The 'wild west' days of the internet are long gone. You are being monitored and if you are in the USA then every connection you make is logged and stored for 90 days. Sounds bad? Try the EU where logging of 2-3 years will be the norm soon. By law.

I was one of the people who tried to fight these ill-thought out laws in the late 1990s. Usual story : 'If you're doing nothing wrong then you have nothing to hide......"

Welcome to 1984. 20+ years late. Orwell had it right though he thought it'd happen a bit quicker.

Edit : Oooh brain cells just kicked in. He wrote 1984 in 1948 didn't he?

Looks like Microsoft might make a stand against the persecution of bloggers.

Microsoft considers China policy

A senior executive for Microsoft has said the firm could pull out of non-democratic countries such as China.

Fred Tipson, senior policy counsel for the computer giant, said concerns over the repressive regime might force it to reconsider its business in China.

"Things are getting bad... and perhaps we have to look again at our presence there," he told a conference in Athens.

"We have to decide if the persecuting of bloggers reaches a point that it's unacceptable to do business there."

"We try to define those levels and the trends are not good there at the moment. It's a moving target."

Selling to China

Earlier in the day, speaking at the Internet Governance Forum, Mr Tipson had defended the work Microsoft was doing in China.

At a session about openness he denied that some big businesses were "colluding" with certain governments.

He was joined in the debate by Art Reilly, senior director at Cisco Systems.

I don't think we should make corporations responsible for securing our freedoms.

Anriette Esterhuysen, Executive director APC

As the only two representatives of major business sat on the panel, they were the focus of accusations from some delegates that the companies were not doing all they could to enable freedom of expression.

Cisco was attacked at the forum for selling equipment to police in China, while Microsoft has been criticised for allegedly censoring blogs in the country.

Mr Tipson said: "We are maximising access to information to users in governments that Amnesty is targeting for its criticism.

"It's those users we have to keep our focus on."

Mr Reilly, senior director of strategic technology policy at Cisco was asked if the firm had any ethical problems with an alleged sale of router equipment to the Chinese police.

Human rights activists are concerned that the technology is being misused by some governments to track the online activities of people and to filter dissident comment.

He said: "We do not sell a different product in one country to another.

"It is essential that there are security and network management capabilities in a network that enable the free flow of information - it is the same technology used by parents and libraries to prevent children from accessing pornography for example."

He added: "We are not colluding with any country to do any specific filtering."

He said that he was not familiar with the sale of "any product to any particular entity in China".

Mr Tipson said it was a condition of companies to abide by the local laws in countries with whom they do business.

Mr Reilly said that here had been a "substantial increase in use and ability for information to flow in China" since Cisco entered the Chinese market in 1994.

There are now 120 million people online in China, up from 80,000 in 1994.

Advancing human rights

"The economic value in the internet is driving growth and development in educational opportunities [in China]," said Mr Tipson.

"Openness is often too segmented too narrowly into a discussion around freedom of speech," he added.

Mr Tipson said it was "critical not to portray the internet as a threat to governments".

"The internet is transforming the political culture of China. There is no question about it."

Fellow panellist, Anriette Esterhuysen, executive director of professional body APC, said: "I don't think we should make corporations responsible for securing our freedoms."

She said governments should be enforcing ethical policies on companies that are doing business with foreign governments.

There was also a feeling expressed by some that the internet was making progress as a tool for advancing human rights.

Andrew Puddephatt, who has worked for various human rights organisations, said: "Where access exists you can definitely get information and ideas on the net that you cannot get on conventional media. That is progress."

Source

I think that, if anything, the reason that Micro$oft's pulling a hissy-fit about China is just because China seems to have embraced using Linux instead of Winblow$. They've even developed their own versions of Linux that are better at dealing with the Chinese character-set etc., as well. Oh, and it's free.