-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: September 25, 2007 9:35:02 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Aussies One Step Ahead of Us
Australia pushes further Web censorship
Touted as tool for targeting terrorist sites, new bill allows
police to have control of Internet "blacklist"
By Jo Best
CNET News, .September 21, 2007, 6:09 AM PDT
http://www.news.com/Australia-pushes-further-Web-censorship/
2100-1028_3-6209337.html
A bill introduced this week by Parliament would give Australian
police the power to control which sites can and cannot be viewed by
Australian Web surfers.
Introduced on Thursday, the bill--titled the Communications
Legislation Amendment (Crime or Terrorism Related Internet Content)
Bill 2007--would empower the federal police to alter the
"blacklist" of sites that are currently prohibited by the
Australian Communications and Media Authority.
The list currently includes pornography and "offensive material."
However, under the amendment, federal police would be able to add
other sites to the list, including content that the AFP
Commissioner "has reason to believe...is crime- or terrorism-
related content."
The definition of material that may be liable for censorship
includes Internet content that "encourages, incites or induces,"
"facilitate(s)" or "has, or is likely to have, the effect of
facilitating" a crime.
Once such content has been identified by the AFP, Internet service
providers may be responsible for blocking their users from
accessing it.
According to the government, the legislation is designed to target
phishing and terrorist sites, among other online criminal activity.
"The new arrangements will allow harmful sites to be more quickly
added to software filters," said Eric Abetz, a senator for
Tasmania, who introduced the bill. "Of course the best outcome is
for these sites to be taken down and their hosts prosecuted. But
this takes time, particularly as most of these sites are hosted
overseas.
"Rapid blacklisting means that the damage these sites can do can be
more quickly reduced whilst takedown and prosecution processes are
pursued, usually overseas," Abetz said.
Privacy groups have already criticized the legislation as an attack
on free speech.
"This government's extremism has reached new heights today," said
the chair of the Australian Privacy Foundation, Roger Clarke.
"How can a politician claim the right to hold office if they set
out to undermine the critical democratic right of freedom of
speech, and blatantly decline to evaluate the impact of measures
put before the Parliament?"
------------
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2006/
tc20061109_790623.htm?chan=tc&chan=technology_technology+index
+page_more+of+today%27s+top+stories
Technology November 10, 2006, 12:00AM EST
Nations that Censor the Net
Reporters Without Borders calls out China, Myanmar, Belarus, and 10
other countries for quashing online political and religious expression
by Douglas MacMillan
As effective as the Internet may be in spreading dissent, the
methods used to suppress opposition on the Web are no less
pervasive. Reporters Without Borders, a Paris group that does
advocacy work for press freedom, has compiled a list of the
countries that it says go the furthest to censor the Internet.
"We wanted to raise awareness of the history of censorship in these
countries among democratic nations, who tend to take advantage of
Internet freedoms," says Reporters Without Borders spokeswoman
Lucie Morillon. "But we also wanted to provide a means for people
in repressed countries to show solidarity."
The group recently staged a 24-hour protest in public spaces of New
York and Paris, condemning China and 12 other countries for their
steps toward repressive censorship of Internet journalists. The
group cited the wrongful jailing of at least 61 "cyber-dissident"
reporters, 52 of whom currently remain in Chinese prisons.
Myanmar Leads the List
Some 17,000 attendees of the protest voted for the nation they
believed is most in need of greater Internet freedom, and China
came in second, with 4,100 votes. Myanmar, under the militaristic
regime of the Junta party, was believed by 4,500 participants to
present its citizens with the greatest threat to freedom of press
on the Internet. The remaining nations, in descending order of
votes received, were Belarus, Iran, Tunisia, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, North Korea, Syria, and Uzbekistan.
The Burmese government has begun to monitor its growing population
of Internet users by recording screenshots for every five minutes a
computer is used in an Internet café—the most readily available
outlet for Web access to most people. The Junta also uses
California-based Fortinet's software to block access to opposition
Web sites.
This tactic is not uncommon in other parts of the world. The
Belarus government, under President Alexander Lukashenko, has been
criticized for monopolizing communication systems to block Web
sites that even hint at political opposition, particularly during
election season. Last year, Pavel Morozov, a former student of the
European Humanitarian University and member of the Third Way
opposition group, was jailed by the KGB at age 26 when he posted
homemade animations critical of the President on the Internet.
China's Heavy Ammo
China is described by Reporters Without Borders as a pioneer of
Internet censorship, dedicating more resources than any other
country to restrict online freedoms. Several of the country's
neighbors pursue a similar strategy with what meager resources they
have for the matter. In North Korea, for example, Dictator Kim Jong-
Il has absolute control of North Korea's media, and grants only a
few thousand citizens access to the Internet. When these privileged
Net surfers log on, however, they find only around 30 Web sites,
which are filled with photos of the leader and praise for the
government. The Vietnamese government threatens penalties of as
long as three years in jail for voicing democratic sentiments online.
In several Middle East countries, censorship often focuses on
religious dissent. Earlier this month, the Egyptian government
arrested a 22-year-old blogger named Abdel Karim Nabil Suleiman for
posting comments critical of "the rise of religion in daily life"
in his country. The young man was expelled from Al-Azhar
University, the institution considered to be the highest seat of
Sunni Islamic education in the country. The Iranian government
routinely blocks hundreds of thousands of independent media Web
sites. In 2004 and 2005, several Iranians were imprisoned for
blogging, including 23-year-old Mojtaba Saminejad, who was given a
two-year sentence for reportedly "opposing the Supreme Guide
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei."
Reporters Without Borders, a 21-year-old organization, calls the
protest a success and may consider a similar event in the future.
Its long-term goal is to encourage all 13 nations to change their
policies toward censorship to the point where they can be removed
from the list.
MacMillan is a reporter at BusinessWeek.com in New York.
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