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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 03 Sep 2010
The Internet Freedom Movement (IFM), a leaderless organization that aims to preserve privacy, freedom and justice on the Internet, sent out an announcement through video bulletin that urges Internet users to defend their liberty through any means.
The call comes at the heel of news that key world players are due to finalize the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) this month.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is considered by many observers as an attempt to undermine the free flow of information for the sake of the interests of corporations and governments.
Through its negotiations over the agreement, governments and power brokers are being accused of ignoring the voice of the populace. The officials are said to be attempting to expand their authority into the digital frontier.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 03 Sep 2010
MUMBAI, India — India has widened its security crackdown, asking all companies that provide encrypted communications — not just BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion — to install servers in the country to make it easier for the government to obtain users' data. That would likely affect digital giants like Google and Skype.
"People who operate communication services in India should (install a) server in India as well as make available access to law enforcement agencies," Home Secretary G.K. Pillai told reporters. "That has been made clear to RIM of BlackBerry but also to other companies."
On Monday, India withdrew a threat to ban BlackBerry service for at least two more months after RIM agreed to give security officials "lawful access" to encrypted data.
Indian officials have for some time also been concerned about Google and Skype, neither of which maintains servers in India. Google has an Indian unit, but Gmail is offered by Google Inc., a U.S. company subject to U.S. laws. Luxembourg-based Skype has no India operations.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 01 Sep 2010
Reporters Without Borders hails the withdrawal of some of the most repressive provisions in the temporary law on cyber crimes in an amendment approved by the government on 29 August but continues to call for its repeal as it still grants the authorities arbitrary restrictive powers, above all because of its vague wording.
The most welcome changes were to provisions concerning defamation and to provisions granting too much discretionary power to the attorney-general’s office.
Adopted on 3 August, the so-called Information Systems Crimes Law imposed a legal framework on news and information websites but the penalties for violations, ranging from fines to forced labour, continue to be disproportionate (articles 8, 10 and 11).
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 01 Sep 2010
Isa Saharkhiz, former Iranian official, a journalist and a political activist was arrested on June 20, 2009 in northern Iran and has been imprisoned ever since.
Mr. Saharkhiz was former head of the press department at the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Education during former President Khatami's administration. He played a great role on empowering Reformists' papers during Khatami's presidency. Reformist papers enjoyed certain level of freedom until protests over disputed presidential election in 2009. Reformists' papers and journalists have been critical of Mr. Ahmadinejad, his government and alleged that the presidential election was fraud and challengers' votes were rigged. About 52 journalists were arrested after protests and crisis over election results and Mr. Saharkhiz was one of the key organizers of reformist papers so he thought he has no choice but to go into hiding.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 01 Sep 2010
Beginning from today (September 1 2010) mobile phone users in China will have to show their identity card and register their real name when purchasing a new mobile number. It is estimated that there are over 700 million mobile phone subscribers in China, of which 70 percent are using pre-paid SIM cards and hence anonymous users. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stressed that the new policy would help the fight against criminal and abusive use of mobile.
However, according to an online survey conducted by ifeng.com, more than 80% of the opinion believes that the real name registration would not solve the existing problem, on the other hand, many netizens believe that the policy will create new problem.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 30 Aug 2010
As a place to meet, share and exchange, the Tibetan blogosphere has created opportunities for Tibetan netizens that would be unimaginable in the offline world. Keeping in mind the state of internet censorship in the People’s Republic of China today, these new spaces can be seen as new outlets but also as new areas involving personal risk. Tibetan cyberspace has opened up a new opportunity for expression, which has also brought new risks to this community.
There are several blog-hosting sites, both Tibetan and Chinese, that are favoured by Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) today. One of the of the most popular Chinese language sites is called Tibetan Culture Net or simply TibetCul. TibetCul was started by two brothers, Wangchuk Tseten and Tsewang Norbu, and their head office is in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province. According to Alexa, the web Information Company, TibetCul receives over 400,000 hits every month. TibetCul is primarily a news and blog-hosting site but there are many different sections on the site related to Tibetan music, literature, films and travel. There is a BBS forum (bulletin board) and there is even a section dedicated to “overseas Tibetans”.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 30 Aug 2010
Reports from various sources said that one of the most popular circumvention tool, Freegate, has been blocked since last Friday (August 27) in China.
When users ran the program, a warning message appeared: Error, the program has to be shut down. Please accept our apology.
According to the RFA report, users from several provinces across the country have encountered similar problem and they believe that it is due to the upgrade of Great Fire Wall. Apart from the Freegate, when running UltraSurf and FreeU the same error message appeared.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 30 Aug 2010
BANGKOK—Thai authorities have used emergency powers to restrict access to the WikiLeaks whistleblower website on security grounds, an official said Wednesday, fanning controversy over Internet censorship.
The order came from the government unit set up to oversee the response to political unrest that rocked the nation's capital earlier this year, said a spokeswoman at the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
"Access to this website has been temporarily suspended under the 2005 emergency decree," she said.
Some users, however, reported that they were still able to access WikiLeaks within the kingdom.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 30 Aug 2010
The Police Women and Children’s Bureau said that they are hoping to start submitting a list of 100 websites containing pornographic material to be banned each week from next week onward.
According to a senior official of the bureau, they will submit these lists to the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) as a move to prevent Sri Lankans from accessing porn on the Net.
He added that, while a handful of websites with pornographic material on Sri Lankan women and children had already been blocked, they would now move to ban websites with porn material on foreigners as well.
The officer said that they were also hoping to monitor these sites over a period of time to see whether they have become re-accessible.
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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 26 Aug 2010
Reporters Without Borders reiterates its appeal to the government to ensure that the human rights activists, journalists and netizens who are in prison in Vietnam just for expressing their views are included in the amnesty for detainees that has been announced for Vietnam’s National Holiday on 2 September.
Vietnam needs to respect its undertakings to guarantee freedom of expression. The release of these human rights activists, journalists and bloggers would be seen a major conciliatory gesture.
