Monday, October 02, 2006

"Internet under repression"

Check out the new highlight on the ICT4D community portal of the Development Gateway. The links are important, and worth exploring

"The Internet network is recognized as one of the most democratic and powerful media ever offered to citizens. In many countries where liberty of persons and media, as well as Human Rights are not fully respected, the Internet Network progression has become problematical. In those countries censorship of mass media was sometimes in contradiction with full access to the Internet. The network became a new dissident means of expression serving citizens voices. But today things have changed, censorship of the Internet is practiced by more and more governments and repression of 'cyber-dissidents' is rising in many parts of the world. In those countries, defined by Reporters With out Borders as the 'Internet black holes' or 'Internet enemies', the number of webmasters, bloggers, and cyber-dissidents in jail is growing every month. Thanks to organizations and citizens’ efforts, new programs and campaigns are emerging to aware the public opinion and maintain pressure on repressive concerned governments. For example, Irrepressible.info, a campaign driven by Amnesty International offers material (RRS Feeds) to publish irrepressible fragments of censored material on Web sites. Reporters Without Borders publishes permanent information and regular reports about Internet Freedom around the world as well as a handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents. We encourage community members to take action to help these programs advocating freedom of expression."

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