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.

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:

• Viet Nam: A Tightening Net: Web-based Repression and Censorship
  http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/document.do?id=ENGASA410082006
  
• Undermining Freedom of Expression in China: The role of Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google
  http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/document.do?id=ENGPOL300262006

Amnesty International USA

Amnesty International USA

Founded in London in 1961, Amnesty International is a Nobel Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with over 1.8 million members worldwide. Amnesty International undertakes research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights. Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) is the U.S. Section of Amnesty International.

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