Report: Internet Censorship on the Rise

By Raju Shanbhag

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

Slowly, but steadily, the Internet is ceasing to be the open network of people that exchanged information freely. According to a Reuters report, state restrictions on use of the Internet have spread to more than 20 countries. In the fear of rising political opposition, these states have more than 20 countries in the world have been using contradictory rules to help keep people offline.

 

According to the report, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) presented case studies of Web censorship in Kazakhstan and Georgia in "Governing the Internet" and it referred to similar findings in nations from China to Iran, Sudan and Belarus. The report by the 56-nation OSCE said that the recent moves against free speech on the Internet in a number of countries have provided a bitter reminder of the ease with which some regimes, democracies and dictatorships alike, seek to suppress speech that they disapprove of, dislike, or simply fear.

 

In the 212 page report, it was said that although speaking out on the web was never easier, we are witnessing the spread of Internet censorship.

 

Many governments and politicians are not too pleased with opinions being expressed on the web. Last week, a senior Malaysian minister vowed to apply law prescribing jail terms for Web writers who made derogatory comments about the Islam or the king. Recently, Malaysian police grilled one online author about the postings which the government described as an attack on the country's state religion and a bid to stir racial tension.

 

According to the OSCE report, Kazakhstan has a vague policy governing the internet and they allow for any interpretation. This can lead to Soviet-style 'spy mania'" where any dissident individual or organization could be branded a threat to national well-being and silenced.

 

As an example, the report cited a 2005 incident when Kazakhstan seized all .kz Internet domains. It also closed a web site run by British satirist Sacha Baron Cohen, who had made the acclaimed spoof film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

 

But politicians are always for the free speech. In a speech to the OSCE parliament on Thursday, Kazakh Information Minister Yermukhamet Yertysbayev insisted Kazakhstan was determined to build democracy and create an "e-government" expanding Internet service and making "our media more free, contemporary and independent".

 

According to OSCE report, Kazakhstan has a state monopoly on Internet and it makes it very difficult for the common man by making the cost for the very slow and limited dial-up service far higher than those for West Europeans -- even though Kazakh incomes are much lower.