Source:
Yahoo News(snip)
"Governing the Internet," issued Thursday by the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, called the online policing "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."
"Speaking out has never been easier than on the Web. Yet at the same time we are witnessing the spread of Internet censorship," the report said.
Miklos Haraszti, who heads the OSCE's media freedom office, said about two dozen countries practice censorship, and others have adopted needlessly restrictive legislation and government policy.
(snip)
(snip)
Haraszti cited separate research by the OpenNet Initiative, a trans-Atlantic group that tracks Internet filtering and surveillance, which pointed to questionable online restrictions in Belarus, China, Hong Kong, Sudan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan and elsewhere.
The OSCE report says Kazakhstan's efforts to rein in Internet journalism
in the name of national security is reminiscent of Soviet-era "spy mania," and it says Georgian law contains numerous provisions curbing freedom of expression online.
Read more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070727/ap_on_hi_te/internet_restrictions
My bolding.
And instead of setting a contrary example we, the US, are setting the examples encouraging or at least enabling this sort of behavior around the world. These repressive regimes can point to the US and say "Even in the US they suspend habeas corpus in the name of national security." "Even in the US the President can do whatever he pleases in the name of security."
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