World Day against cyber censorship

RUN - A purposely "gore" photo in celebration of WORLD DAY AGAINST CYBER CONSORSHIP. According to Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) there has never been more reason to keep watch: the emerging general trend is for a growing number of governments to tighten their control over what is accessible on the Internet.Meanwhile increasingly inventive and motivated netizens (net-citizens) are demonstrating mutual solidarity by mobilizing when necessary.

At the moment a record number of close to 120 bloggers, Internet users and cyberdissidents are behind bars for having expressed themselves freely online. The world's largest offender is China with 72 detainees, followed by Vietnam and Iran. A few rare countries such as North Korea, Burma and Turkmenistan are completely cut off from theWorldWideWeb, the governments there voluntarily not acting on their lack of infrastructure development because it serves their purpose. Western democracies are not immune from the Net regulation trend: in the name of the fight against child pornography or the theft of intellectual property, laws and decrees have been adopted, or are being deliberated, notably in Australia, France, Italy and Great Britain.
Some Scandinavian countries are taking a different direction: in Finland, Order no. 732/2009, states that access to the Internet is a fundamental right for all citizens. By virtue of this order, every Finnish household will have at least a 1 MB/s connection by July 31, 2010, increased to 100 MB/s by 2015.

The 2010 “ Enemies of the Internet” list drawn up this year by Reporters Without Borders presents the worst violators of freedom of expression on the Net: Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam.
Coupling technical and financial obstacles with harsh crackdowns, some of these countries are determined to prevent their citizens from having access to the Internet: Burma, North Korea, Cuba, and Turkmenistan. Internet shutdowns or major slowdowns are commonplace in periods of unrest. Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan have opted for massive filtering. For economic purposes, China, Egypt, Tunisia and Vietnam have wagered on a infrastructure development strategy while keeping a tight control over the Web’s political and social content (Chinese and Tunisian filtering systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated), and they are demonstrating a deep intolerance for critical opinions. In Iran the serious political crisis has led to a crackdown on netizens and the new media who are called enemies of the regime. Read the full article here
Participate in this campaign - download here the support for online freedom of expression logo and insert it on your blog or as a signature to your emails.
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Une photo 'sanglante' aujourd'hui pour soutenir la Journée Mondiale contre la Cyber Censure organisée aujourd'hui 12 mars par Reporters Sans Frontières
Cette journée est destinée à mobiliser chacun d’entre nous pour un Internet, libre et accessible à tous et pour rappeler qu’en créant de nouveaux espaces d’échanges d’idées et d’informations, le Net est aussi un vecteur de libertés. Cependant, de plus en plus de gouvernements l’ont compris et réagissent en tentant de contrôler la Toile. A cette occasion Reporters sans frontières publie une nouvelle liste des "Ennemis d’Internet". Ce rapport montre du doigt les principaux pays qui restreignent l’accès de leurs citoyens à Internet et harcèlent les net-citoyens, de l’Iran à la Chine en passant par l’Arabie saoudite, le Viêt-nam ou la Tunisie. Le rapport présente aussi une liste de pays "sous surveillance" dont l’attitude vis-à-vis du Net suscite une certaine inquiétude.
Hier 11 mars 2010 Reporters sans frontières a décerné avec le soutien de Google le premier "Prix du Net-citoyen". Ce prix récompense un internaute, blogueur ou cyber-dissident qui s’est illustré par ses activités de défense de la liberté d’expression sur le Net. Cette année c'est la journaliste et blogueuse iranienne Parvin Ardalan qui a reçu le prix au nom des cyber-féministes du site we-change.org.

Lisez ici l'article complet de Reporters Sans Frontières. Vous souhaitez manifester votre soutien à la Journée mondiale contre la cyber-censure ? Vous désirez défendre un Internet libre et accessible à tous ? Mobilisez-vous, téléchargez ici le logo de la lutte contre la cyber-censure et insérez-le sur votre blog ou en signature de vos e-mails.