(Mizzima)
– Burma is again on the countries listed
as “Enemies of the Internet,” remaining in the ranks of countries that restrict
Internet freedom the most: Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia,
Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
A
report released on Monday by Reporters Without Borders said the worse countries
combine often drastic content filtering with access restrictions, tracking of
cyber-dissidents and online propaganda. Iran and China, in particular,
reinforced their technical capacity in 2011 and China stepped up pressure on
privately-owned Internet companies in order to secure their collaboration.
The
report said that if Thailand continues down the slope of content filtering and
jailing netizens on lèse-majesté charges, it could soon join the club of the
world’s most repressive countries as regards the Internet.
Burma
could soon leave the enemies list if the country takes the necessary measures,
the report said.
“It has
clearly embarked on a promising period of reforms, which has included the
release of journalists and bloggers and the restoration of access to blocked
websites,” it said. “It must now go further by abandoning censorship
altogether, releasing the journalists and bloggers still held, dismantling the
surveillance apparatus that was built on the national Internet platform, and
repealing the Electronic Act.”
The
last report, released in March 2011 at the climax of the Arab Spring,
highlighted the fact that the Internet and social networks have been
conclusively established as tools for protest, campaigning and circulating
information, and as vehicles for freedom.
In the
months that followed, repressive regimes responded with tougher measures to
what they regarded as unacceptable attempts to “destabilize” their authority.
In 2011, netizens were at the heart of the political changes in the Arab world
and elsewhere. They tried to resist the imposition of a news and information
blackout but paid a high price.
The
report said, “At the same time, supposedly democratic countries continued to
set a bad example by yielding to the temptation to prioritize security over
other concerns and by adopting disproportionate measures to protect copyright.”
Internet
users in “free” countries have learned to react in order to protect what they
have won, the report noted. “Some governments stepped up pressure on technical
service providers to act as Internet cops,” it said. “Companies specializing in
online surveillance are becoming the new mercenaries in an online arms race.
Hacktivists are providing technical expertise to netizens trapped by a
repressive regime’s apparatus. Diplomats are getting involved. More than ever
before, online freedom of expression is now a major foreign and domestic policy
issue.”
Online
social networks have complicated matters for authoritarian regimes that are
trying to suppress unwanted news and information, the report noted.
“The
revolution of microblogs and opinion aggregators and the faster dissemination
of news and information that results, combined with the growing use of mobile
phones to livestream video, are all increasing the possibilities of freeing
information from its straightjacket,” it said. “The mixing of journalism and
activism has been accentuated in extreme situations such as Syria, where
ordinary citizens, appalled by the bloodshed, are systematically gathering
information for dissemination abroad, especially by the international news
media, so the outside world knows about the scale of the brutal crackdown
taking place.”
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