A group of Asian journalists assailed Internet companies Yahoo
and Google for siding with governments that curtail freedom of
expression and information in cyberspace.
Members of the South East Press Alliance (SEAPA) revealed that
Yahoo, Google, and even software manufacturer Microsoft have agreed
to compromises regarding people's access to information in exchange
for the opportunity to do business in 15 Asian countries, one of
which is China -- the biggest market in the world with a population
of over 1.3 billion.
In a conference entitled "Free Expression in Asian Cyberspace: A
Conference of Asian Bloggers, Podcasters, and Online Media," SEAPA
members highlighted the threats and actual attacks against free
expression in the Internet, particularly in countries such as
Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, Libya, Nepal, North Korea, Saudi
Arabia, Syria, Maldives, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and
Vietnam
The event, the first conference of online news and commentary
providers in Asia, was held last April 18 to 21 at the Asian
Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati City.
Filipino journalist Manuel L. Quezon III, who participated in
the event, said SEAPA online journalists and bloggers consider
themselves already in danger, thus the need to organize conferences
to exchange information and even tactics. Manila was chosen as the
site of the first conference as it has a more liberal government
regime.
SEAPA executive director Roby Alampay, who is also a Filipino,
said the countries and societies that really enjoy a high level of
freedom are actually in the minority. He said the Philippines,
Thailand, and Indonesia are very fortunate to enjoy a very high
level of access and freedom when it comes to the Internet.
Alampay explained that Internet companies have different ways of
curtailing freedom of expression, either through technology or
otherwise, such as through the "application of laws, defamation
laws, censorship, filtering searches, and blocking of IP addresses
and monitoring of activities on the Internet."
Jeff Ooi, of the Paris-based press freedom body Reporters Sans
Frontieres (RSF, also known by its English name Reporters without
Borders), reported in the conference that Cisco, Microsoft, Yahoo,
and Google have given in to pressure from the Chinese government to
limit its citizens' access to information via the Internet.
For instance, he said, Yahoo releases user identities to Chinese
authorities; Google blocks specific cache pages; Microsoft shuts
down MSN Space; and Internet routers are installed to filter
content.
As a result of Internet companies giving away user information
to governments, many journalists, media assistants, and activists
are killed, harassed, or imprisoned, RSF claims. According to the
RSF's Press Freedom Barometer 2006, 56 cyber-dissidents in Asia
have been imprisoned -- 48 of whom are from China.
Great firewall
Isaac Mao, one of the early bloggers in China, revealed that the
"Great Firewall of China" is an Internet backbone that aims to
control and filter people's access to the Internet. It also blocks
thousands of overseas Web sites to prevent people from accessing
them. One of the banned Web sites is Wikipedia, said to be the
biggest encyclopedia in human history.
"I think the system is very effective but very bad to knowledge
sharing and to the civilization of people," Mao said.
Mao said Internet companies are very eager to enter the Chinese
market, but reason -- as their excuse for curtailing the users'
access to the Net -- that they have to follow the laws and
regulations imposed by the Beijing government.
"I think it is not an understandable excuse. Actually, they can
provide services without limiting people's access to information,"
he said.
Mao said Google, for instance, would deploy many servers in
China but take out many search indexes from their servers. He
describes such moves as contributing to the "brain-shrinking" of
Chinese citizens.
Similarly, Rebecca MacKinnon, a research fellow at Harvard Law
School, believes that Internet companies are compromising users'
well-being for financial reasons
"I think they're doing it for business reasons. They want to
make money and they feel they need to do this in order to be in
those markets," she said.
MacKinnon believes Internet companies should be on the users'
side. "Because the users are their customers and, if they are
abusing the trust of the users, then they would ultimately have
very little business because nobody will trust them," she noted.
"So if users cannot trust these companies, they will definitely
choose not to use their services as soon as there are other
alternatives."
Protection
To protect journalists against abuse, SEAPA offers training on
everything from basic to more advanced investigative journalism
courses, and teaches the importance of ethical standards and
self-regulation.
Quezon said the types of protection taught basically take the
form of recognizing the legal rights of individuals, both as
journalists and bloggers. Specific lessons are also taught to
enhance the security of communications and expressions. "By these,
it extends to everything from making sure people don't read your
e-mail, that they don't use your computers or messages to land you
in jail," he said.
Aside from technological, personal, and lawful means, Alampay
said the most effective way to protect journalists and their rights
is to report abuses against them.
"Basically, our mode of protection is to make a lot of noise
about it," he pointed out. "So every time we issue an alert, it
goes around the world. We make statements and so on, but not only
that, we also work with lawyers and journalists' groups of
different countries."
Alampay said SEAPA in the past has raised funds for the defense
of journalists in court and, once, the organization was able to get
a journalist out of a dangerous situation.
He added that the call for free expression in cyberspace is very
significant, describing the Internet as an important medium that
must be kept accessible and free for everyone -- even in countries
living in closed societies or under a dictatorship.
The Internet, according to SEAPA members, stands today as the
only viable medium for offering independent news, information, and
commentary. It is seen as an alternative to state-controlled news
and information regimes.
icon.
