Reporters sans frontières – WSIS
The 15 enemies of the Internet and other countries to watch
Reporters sans frontières – Reporters witout Borders – is the journalistic free-speech equivalent of Medicins sans Frontièrs.
RSF has just released a list of the countries that could be consideres the “enemies” of the Internet, as well as a list of countries “to watch”.
The list is very interesting, and it is of special interest that both the US and the EU are included on the list of countries to watch.
RSF is quite concerned with the legislation in both the US and the EU, that puts online privacy at risk. I’m not too concerned with the privacy issue, either your in the public – e.g. online – or not, so the legislation regarding online privacy should be the same as that the apply when you’re walking around in public. But it is important to note that the EU seems to have the power to BLOCK websites, this is really worries me…Since the EU doesn’t have a constitution, they should stay out of this.
Here’s a quote from the RSF website:
– European Union
The EU is responsible for regulating the Internet and rulings often apply to member-states. A European directive on 8 June 2000 about e-commerce proved a threat to freedom of expression, by making ISPs responsible for the content of websites they host and requiring them to block any page they consider illegal when informed of its existence. This creates a private system of justice, where the ISP is called on to decide what is illegal or not. Technicians thus do the job of a judge. The EU is now studying a proposal to oblige ISPs to retain records of customers’ online activity. The proposal could limit Internet users’ right to privacy.