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10.27.2006 ET
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Amnesty International to Stress Urgency of Protecting Free Expression and Privacy at Internet Governance Forum
Conference Comes as China Mulls Further Crackdown on Web Dissidents
(CSRwire) Washington, DC - The Internet has become a crucial battleground for
the fundamental rights of freedom of expression and privacy, Amnesty
International said today in a statement ahead of next week's
U.N.-sponsored Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Athens. An Amnesty
International delegation will ensure that human rights remain central to
the conference proceedings.
The IGF is being held as China ponders requiring bloggers to use their
real names to register blogs.
"A real name system for China's blogs would be another link in the chain
of Internet repression," said Erica Razook, Legal Fellow in the Business
and Human Rights Program of Amnesty International USA. "The Chinese
government, with the collusion of U.S. companies, is already stifling
dissent online. This development would make the situation far worse.
"Ongoing Internet censorship in China is one very clear example of the
extent to which human rights are being attacked online around the world.
The Web should be a tool for expression, not repression."
Razook will be part of the Amnesty International delegation to the IGF.
In its work combating Internet censorship, Amnesty International has
documented the failures of governments to respect and protect the rights
to freedom of information, expression, association and privacy, and has
detailed the collaboration of businesses in some of these violations.
As highlighted in Amnesty International's statement today: Yahoo! has
provided Chinese authorities with confidential information leading to the
arrest of journalists. Microsoft has shut down a blog at Chinese
government request. Google has launched a censored version of its
international search engine in China.
Amnesty International noted the plight of three persons detained for
defending human rights online. Chinese journalist Shi Tao e-mailed a
U.S.-based Web site an internal government directive on media coverage of
the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. He remains imprisoned in
China. Tunisian lawyer Mohammed Abbou is serving a three and a half year
term largely for articles critical of the Tunisian authorities on the
Internet. Vietnamese dissident Truong Quoc Huy has been arrested twice for
participation in democracy and human rights chat rooms. His current
whereabouts are unknown, and no charges have been made public.
Amnesty International considers these three human rights defenders, and
many others, to be prisoners of conscience.
The irrepressible.info campaign, launched in May and centered on
the Web site http://irrepressible.info, combats
global Internet repression. Activists can undermine Internet censorship by
copying a snippet of code to create a badge that cycles through pieces of
censored information on their own Web pages. From http://irrepressible.info, users can
now directly access a database of censored information, and an application
programming interface allows programmers to create custom applications
utilizing that database.
An irrepressible.info pledge affirming the right to freedom of information
online has so far attracted almost 50,000 supporters. Amnesty International
will formally present these signatures at the IGF.
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Amnesty International delegation member Erica Razook, Legal Fellow in
Amnesty International USA's Business and Human Rights program, will be
available to the media throughout the IGF. To contact her, please be in
touch with Jason Opeña Disterhoft at jdisterhoft@aiusa.org or
202-544-0200 x232.
Available reports include:For more information on Amnesty International's work combating
Internet censorship, please see: http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/censorship.html.
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