Glutter

23.10.2007

House committee approval for Global Online Freedom Act hailed

Reporters Without Borders welcomes today’s decision by the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee to approve the proposed Global Online Freedom Act (GOFA). Drafted in February 2006 by Republican Representative of New Jersey, Christopher Smith, this bipartisan bill would prevent US Internet sector companies from collaborating with repressive governments. It will now go before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

“This is a wonderful advance for online free expression,” the press freedom organisation said. “At least four cyber-dissidents, including Wang Xianing and Shi Tao, have been convicted and jailed because of information supplied by the US company Yahoo! to the Chinese authorities. Cooperation with repressive government by American Internet companies runs counter to the very nature of the Internet and facilitates the work of the censors.”

Reporters Without Borders added: “We hope the House committee on energy and commerce will now in turn quickly recognise this bill’s importance so that it can it can be submitted to a floor vote as soon as possible.”

The Global Online Freedom Act would prevent repressive governments - those that punish dissidents and human rights activists who use their right to online free expression - from having access to personal data by banning US companies from locating the servers containing this data in the territories controlled by such governments.

The bill would also ban US companies from providing information enabling users to be identified, except in cases in which the law is being legitimately applied. This, however, would be decided by the US justice department and not the companies.

The US companies concerned would also have to act transparently and transmit information about the type of censorship they apply to an interagency-staffed Office of Global Internet Freedom, which would have the job of defining US government policy for the promotion of the free flow of information online and monitoring violations. The office would also have the job of encouraging US companies, NGOs and academics to draft a voluntary code of conduct.

Companies that do not respect the GOFA’s provisions would be sanctioned. The GOFA would also establish a feasibility study for controlling the export of equipment, software and applications sold by US Internet sector companies to countries designated as repressive by the White House.

US companies Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft have been repeatedly criticised for agreeing to censor themselves in China. Cisco Systems is accused of providing China with online censorship technology. A Yahoo! representative will appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on 6 November in connection with his apparently untruthful claims to Congress on February 2006. He claimed that the company knew nothing about the content of the investigation into Shi Tao as a document published by the Dui Hua Foundation seems to prove the contrary.

Reporters Without Borders / Internet Freedom desk

CHINA / UNITED STATES

CONCERN ABOUT MICROSOFT RESEARCH IN CHINA INTO "PROFILING" INTERNET USERS

Reporters Without Borders is worried about a report in the British magazine The New Scientist that a Microsoft laboratory based in China is carrying out research on software that can analyse the behaviour of Internet users with precision and draw up a profile of them (their age, sex, geographic origin and so on). The US software corporation's aim is get to know its users better in order to deliver targeted advertising.

"The technologies Microsoft is working on would allow it to gather information about Internet users without their knowledge," the press freedom organisation said. "These technologies could eventually lead to the creation of programmes that could identify 'subversive' citizens. This is obviously not Microsoft's intention. But we believe it is unacceptable to carry out this kind of sensitive research in a country such as China where 50 people are currently in prison because of what they posted online."

Reporters Without Borders added: "US Internet giants such as Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft gather fantastic amounts of information about their users. This is already a thorny issue in democratic countries. This kind of data accumulation obviously poses even more ethical problems in a country such as China which has absolutely no respect for the private lives of Internet users. We must be sure that the technologies developed by these companies do not enable repressive regimes to keep their population under more effective surveillance."

The New Scientist reports in its 16 May issue that Microsoft is working on software capable of guessing the Internet user's age, sex and even geographic origin by analysing their surfing habits. It would enable verification and clarification of the information voluntarily provided by Internet users when registering for online services. The magazine bases its report on a study entitled "Demographic prediction based on users's browsing behaviour" (download the .pdf at www.rsf.org) published by researchers working for a Microsoft laboratory in Beijing. The study says the information would be acquired by analysing the browser cache (stored browsing history) and cookies (small spy applications) on the Internet user's computer.

In China, it is conceivable that this type of technology would be used to spot Internet users who regularly access such "subversive" content as news and information websites critical of the regime. The authorities would then be able to identify the "sensitive" Internet population and locate them individually by means of their computer IP addresses (the identifying number that every computer gives when connected to the Internet).

This Microsoft study comes amid efforts by the Chinese authorities to combat online anonymity. The Internet Society of China, an offshoot of the ministry for the information industry, posted a draft law on 22 May asking blog services to encourage users to register under their own names and exercise "self-discipline." When President Hu Jintao and the Communist Party political bureau met on 23 April to discuss how to improve control over the Internet, they said they wanted to "purify" it.
The data stored by Internet companies is a source of concern in many countries. A European consultative body, for example, wrote to Google in mid-May criticising its confidential data protection policies. The US company had nonetheless announced that data would be rendered anonymous - meaning the IP addresses would be erased - after being held for 24 months. Its rivals, Yahoo! and Microsoft, have not even established this limitation.

SHAREHOLDERS ASK CISCO SYSTEMS TO ACCOUNT FOR ITS ACTIVITIES IN REPRESSIVE COUNTRIES

Reporters Without Borders today praised all the individual and institutional shareholders who chose to express their concern about Cisco Systems' ethical failings by voting at an annual shareholders meeting on 15 November in favour of a resolution that would have forced it to produce a report on its activities in repressive countries.

Twenty-nine percent voted in favour, which is unprecedented for a resolution of this kind. Fifty per cent plus one would have been needed for the resolution to have been adopted. The press freedom organisation urges US investors to present similar resolutions at the annual shareholders meetings of other Internet companies such as Yahoo!.

"Just three years ago, few investors in new technologies felt concerned about the ethics of these companies," Reporters Without Borders said. "But today we see more and more shareholders ready to do something to get companies such as Cisco Systems to respect free expression, whatever the country they are operating in."

"Now US legislators as well as the shareholders and clients of these companies are becoming worried about their ethical lapses," the organisation added. "It is time that Internet giants such as Cisco Systems and Yahoo! realise the scale of these concerns and overhaul their policies as regards social responsibility."

Entitled "Internet fragmentation report," the resolution was filed by the investment company Boston Common Asset Management (see the text of the resolution below). The Cisco Systems board of directors asked shareholders to vote against the resolution.

Boston Common filed a similar resolution last year that got 11 per cent of the votes. The investment company was inspired by the example of human rights activist Ann Lau, who - as an individual shareholder - submitted resolutions in 2002 and 2003 condemning Cisco Systems' lapses in China, each time getting less than 3 per cent of the vote.

Reporters Without Borders has for several years been urging investment funds to take action in support of online free expression. At the organisation's initiative, 30 investors signed a statement in 2005 about the moral responsibilities of Internet sector companies (see:
http://www.rsf.org/fonds-investissement.php3).

Cisco Systems helped build the Chinese Internet in 1998. It is accused of helping the authorities to programme its equipment to allow filtering and online surveillance. Research by journalist Ethan Gutman also revealed the company's involvement in the sale of very sophisticated communications equipment to the Chinese police.

For more information
- Yahoo! In China: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19545

- The text of Boston Common's resolution

Boston Common Asset Management, LLC, 84 State Street, Suite 1000, Boston, Massachusetts 02109, a beneficial owner of 108,266 shares of Cisco common stock, joined by other filers (whose names, addresses and shareholdings will be provided by Cisco promptly upon receipt by Cisco Investor Relations of any oral or written request), have notified us that they intend to present the following proposal at the meeting:

Internet fragmentation report

WHEREAS:

On February 15, 2006, Cisco Systems, Yahoo, Google and Microsoft testified before the Committee on International Relations of the U.S. House of Representatives about alleged complicity in human rights violations in China;

Mark Chandler, General Counsel of Cisco Systems, testified that:

"Some countries have chosen to restrict or limit access to information on the Internet based on political considerationsŠ. While many have commented on the activities of the Chinese government in this regard, the issue is, in fact, global. Some Middle Eastern countries block sites critical of their leadership."

"Efforts are underwayŠto balkanize the Internet. Policies which promote that-even inadvertently-will undermine rather than support the many projects which help users evade censorship and will exacerbate rather than solve the problems we are discussing today."

"The liberating power of the Internet depends on its existence as one global Internet. Š Any policies in this area should, we believe, proceed from the realization that its very global nature provides a unique tool for the dissemination of ideas and cultivation of freedoms. We should do nothing to disturb its promise."

Cisco sells its products, including Internet and surveillance technology, primarily through resellers, to government agencies and state-owned entities throughout the world. The U.S. State Department and others have documented how various governments, including several governments with which our Company does business, monitor, censor and jail Internet users, through manipulation of Internet technology.

Mr. Chandler testified that the key to the growth of the Internet "has been the standardization of one global network. This has been and remains the core of Cisco's mission."

In October 1998, Cisco announced it was selected as a key supplier for building China's nation-wide IP backbone. China's network has been called "the Great Firewall of China", and has become synonymous with the censored, closed network which, according to Mr. Chandler, threatens the realization of Cisco's core mission.

The US State Department has also documented concerted efforts to thwart the development of one global Internet in Saudi Arabia, where Cisco recently announced a five year investment of over $265 Million and has over 150 Cisco Partners.

Legislation was introduced in the House prohibiting, "business from cooperating with officials of Internet-restricting countries in effecting the political censorship of on-line content." The proposed legislation currently provides for both fines and jail time (The Global Online Freedom Act of 2006 (H.R. 4780)).

RESOLVED:

Shareholders request the Board to publish a report to shareholders within six months, at reasonable expense and omitting proprietary information, providing a summarized listing and assessment of concrete steps the company could reasonably take to reduce the likelihood that its business practices might enable or encourage the violation of human rights, including freedom of expression and privacy, or otherwise encourage or enable fragmentation of the Internet.

Supporting Statement:

The requested study should include a company-wide review of company policies, practices and indicators related to the impact of the company's activities on fundamental human rights and the development of a fragmented Internet.

17,000 people vote against Internet enemies during 24-hour protest against online censorship

Internet users flocked to the Reporters Without Borders website to take part in a 24-hour protest against online censorship that has just ended, while symbolic demonstrations were held yesterday on the streets of Paris and New York. After receiving more than 100,000 visits in 24 hours, the protest webpage - http://www.rsf.org/24h - will remain open for a few more days so that Internet users can continue posting messages there.

"We wanted to demonstrate that bloggers and Internet users the world over feel concerned about the problem of online censorship," the press freedom organisation said. "The scale of the participation shows that people are not indifferent about the fate of Chinese, Egyptian or Cuban dissidents."

Reporters Without Borders added: "We have also once again seen that the way Yahoo! compromises its principles in China provokes a reaction of deeply-felt disapproval. It is high time this corporation took concrete steps to respect press freedom."

Massive online participation
- By 11 a.m. today, more than 17,000 people had voted on the Internet enemies map. Breakdown of the votes: Belarus (2,500), Burma (4,500), China (4,100), Cuba (1,000), Egypt (650), Iran (1,500), North Korea (200), Saudi Arabia (650), Syria (200), Tunisia (1300), Turkmenistan (250), Uzbekistan (150), Vietnam (250).
- 3,300 Internet users posted a message of support
- 340 messages audio messages were recorded online pour Jerry Yang, Yahoo!'s founder. These recordings will be handed in next week to Yahoo! France executives.
- 55 blogs were created on the Reporters Without Borders blog platform: www.rsfblog.org.

Reporters Without Borders urges Internet users to continue recording messages for Yahoo!'s founder on the http://www.rsf.org/24h webpage, which will remain open for a few more days. The most original messages will be posted prominently on our website.

Events on the streets of Paris and New York (see photos below)
- In New York, mobile billboards drove around the streets of the city displaying large posters of a map of the world highlighting the Internet black holes. "Ad bikes" also crisscrossed Manhattan and parked in various spots, including outside Yahoo!'s New York headquarters.

In Paris, Reporters Without Borders projected a gigantic world map of online censorship onto the city's monuments as night fell yesterday. The press and passers-by saw the map displayed on the facade of Saint-Lazare station, the Bastille Opera and the building that houses the French headquarters of Yahoo!. Reporters Without Borders activists requested a meeting with Yahoo! executives in order to hand in the audio messages that were recorded during the cyber-demo. A meeting has been set for next week.

A gigantic world map of Internet black holes projected on Parisian monuments

CLICK HERE FOR ACTION

Thirteen countries censor what should be a space for free expression. They are Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Throughout the world, more than 60 Internet users are currently in prison for posting news or information on the Internet.
Click here to combat online censorship now.

- In response to an appeal by Reporters Without Borders, more than 10,000 people have already participated in an online demonstration that was launched at 11 a.m. today on the organisation’s website with the aim of condemning the 13 Internet enemies and combatting online censorship.

- 200 people have already recorded a message for the founder of Yahoo!, deploring the fact that his company helps the Chinese authorities track down cyber-dissidents.

Internet users have until 11 a.m. tomorrow (Wednesday) to join this international campaign.

In New York, mobile billboards drove around the streets of the city displaying large posters of a map of the world highlighting the Internet’s black holes.

In Paris, Reporters Without Borders projected a gigantic world map of online censorship onto the city’s monuments. The press and passers-by saw the map projected onto the facade of Saint-Lazare station, onto the building that houses the French headquarters of Yahoo!, and onto the Bastille Opera. The aim was to encourage the public to get involved in the fight to defend the right to online free expression. Reporters Without Borders activists distributed leaflets explaining the 24-hour online protest against censorship.

. Reporters Without Borders today also launched a blog platform on its website. By creating your blog on rsfblog, you will help our organisation to support people who have been put in prison for expressing their views on the Internet.

. The Reporters Without Borders website is now also in Arabic, as well as French, English and Spanish. From today, all of the press releases produced by the organisation will be systematically translated into Arabic and posted on the website, so that it is accessible to a broader public.

Freedom of expression is not a luxury. It is everyone’s right!

Sigh... my country is putting more and more people in jail for subversion just in time for the 2008 Olympics

CHINA

CYBER-DISSIDENT GETS THREE-YEAR SENTENCE ON DAY FRENCH PRESIDENT ARRIVES
The three-year prison sentence imposed on cyber-dissident Li Jianping today as French President Jacques Chirac arrived on a three-day state visit to China was "slap in the face" for French diplomacy, Reporters Without Borders said, reiterating its call to Chirac to intercede on behalf of the 63 journalists and cyber-dissidents imprisoned in China.

Li received the sentence from a court in Zibo in the eastern province of Shandong, which found him guilty of "inciting subversion of the state" by posting articles about human rights and politics on websites based abroad.

"We had hoped Chirac's coming would be greeted by the release of prisoners of conscience," Reporters Without Borders said. "Instead we find that the first day of his visit has been marked by a heavy prison sentence. This is a slap in the face for French diplomacy, which claims to be engaged in a 'constructive' dialogue on human rights, despite the lack of concrete results."

Li was officially charged on 9 March, nine months after he was arrested. The trial took place on 12 April although the verdict and sentence were not announced until today.

A businessman who used to run a medical equipment supply business, Li is also a freelance journalist who regularly wrote for foreign websites such as Boxun News, ChinaEWeekly, China Democracy and Epoch Times, which Chinese Internet users cannot access. He criticised the government and the lack of freedom of expression in the Chinese media.

Now aged 40, he took part in the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in Beijing in 1989 as a founder of the Independent Federation of Shanghai Universities.

He is the eighth journalist or cyber-dissident to receive a prison sentence this year.

TWO CYBER-DISSIDENTS FORMALLY CHARGED WITH SUBVERSION

Reporters Without Borders today reiterated its call for the release of two members of the independent writers organisation PEN, Zhang Jianhong and Chen Shuqing, who have both been formally charged in the past week with "inciting subversion of state authority."

This sort of charge, condemned on more than one occasion in the past by Reporters Without Borders as a "legal absurdity," is often brought against independent journalists and cyber-dissidents as a way to sentence them to up to ten years in prison.

Zhang, who is better known by the pseudonym of Li Hong, was arrested on 6 September in Ningbo, in the eastern province du Zhejiang, and was charged on 12 October. Chen was arrested on 14 September in Hangzhou, which is also in Zhejiang province, and was charged yesterday.

Both are pro-democracy activists and both have previously been imprisoned for posting articles on the Internet advocating political reforms. For more information on their cases, go to: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18898

Another cyber-dissident, Yang Maodong, was recently arrested. Better known by the pseudonym of Guo Feixiong, he was arrested on 14 September and was charged with "illegal business activities" on 28 September. For more information on his case, go to: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=15231

FOUR-YEAR JAIL SENTENCE AGAINST CYBER-DISSIDENT GUO QIZHEN

Reporters Without Borders has condemned a four-year jail sentence handed down to cyber-dissident Guo Qizhen, a human rights activist, after he was found guilty of "incitement to subversion", the eighth such conviction against a journalist or cyber-dissident this year.

Guo, 49, was sentenced on 16 October 2006 for having posted articles on foreign-based websites denouncing the government's crackdown on fundamental freedoms.

"President Hu Jintao is following as repressive a policy against the Internet as his predecessor Jiang Zemin," the worldwide press freedom organisation said.

"China is today fully integrated into the consultations of nations but this country does not respect the international promises it makes relating to respecting human rights and freedom of expression," said the organisation.

Guo's lawyer, Li Jianqiang, said that the court in Cangzhou in Hebei province, central China had also deprived his client of his political rights for three years. He added that Guo had been allowed to speak at length during the hearing and he even voiced his confidence in the court which was trying him.

His wife, Zhao Changqing, told Reuters that her husband's conviction was illegal and that she would appeal.

Among a large number of articles critical of the government which Guo posted on foreign-based sites, was one in which he said it was time for the Chinese people to "sound the knell of this dire regime". His arrest, on 12 May 2006, appeared to be linked to his joining a "rotating" hunger strike started by lawyer Gao Zhisheng to protest at human rights violations in China.

China is by far the world's largest prison for journalists and cyber-dissidents, with 72 such people in its jails. Eight of them have been sentenced during 2006 to up to ten years in prison for "espionage" or "subversion".

DIPLOMATS ASKED TO INTERCEDE ON BEHALF OF DETAINED CYBER-DISSIDENT WHO IS BEING MISTREATED

Reporters Without Borders today urged foreign diplomats based in Beijing to raise the case of cyber-dissident Yang Maodong with the Chinese authorities as he has been the victim of mistreatment since his arrest on 14 September. Yang is better known by his pseudonym, Guo Feixiong.

"Yang's arrest brings the number of cyber-dissidents detained in China to 50," the press freedom organisation said. "We are dismayed by the attempts of the Chinese police to break the will of government opponents by all means possible. This inhumane treatment carried out in a completely illegal manner is a disgrace of the Chinese judicial system."

According to his lawyers, Yang has been interrogated for up to 11 hours a day and constantly threatened and insulted. The police also reportedly prevented him for sleeping for seven days and nights in a row. He went on hunger strike as soon as he was arrested. After two weeks, the authorities began feeding him intravenously by force. Despite the mistreatment, he is still refusing to cooperate with the police.

A lawyer, writer and human rights activist who lives in Guangzhou in the southern province of Guangdong, Yang has been charged with "illegal business activities." According to his lawyers, he faces up to five years in prison or even more if his case is deemed to be "serious." No date has yet been set for his trial.

Yang was previously imprisoned from October to December last year for "disturbing the peace" after encouraging the population of the village of Taishi (in Guangdong province) to demand the resignation of the village chief for alleged corruption. He was briefly arrested again early this year after going on hunger strike in protest against the beating he had received from thugs in Guangzhou.

NTERNATIONAL
REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS ORGANISES 24-HOUR ONLINE DEMO AGAINST INTERNET CENSORSHIP

HELP TO COMBAT ONLINE CENSORSHIP BY TAKING PART

Everyone is invited to connect to the Reporters Without Borders website (www.rsf.org) between 11 a.m. on 7 November and 11 a.m. on 8 November.

More than 60 cyber-dissidents around the world are currently in prison for expressing themselves online. Something that is fairly simple for anyone to do in most countries is nonetheless banned in 13 of them. You can go to prison for posting your views on a blog or website in China, Tunisia or Egypt, for example. In order to combat this kind of censorship and to make as many people as possible aware of the situation, Reporters Without Borders is for the first time launching a major protest: 24 hours against online censorship.
The general public, Internet users, bloggers, journalists, students - everyone is invited to register their opposition to censorship with a simple click.

How to take part in the 24-hour online demo against censorship:

The Reporters Without Borders website will be given over to this protest from 11 a.m. on 7 November until 11 a.m. on 8 November.

l CYBER-DEMO against "Internet black holes"
Go to www.rsf.org during this 24-hour period, find the list of 13 countries that are Internet enemies and click on an inter-active map of the world to help make the Internet black holes disappear. Each click will help to change the map's appearance. The aim is to re-establish the Internet in the countries where it is censored, to rebuild it before the 24 hours are over. Every vote will be counted. Every click will help Reporters Without Borders to speak with more force when it condemns the behaviour of those regimes that censor what should an arena for free expression.

l Record a message for the founder of Yahoo!
By going to the special webpages, Internet users from all over the world will have the chance to record a message for Yahoo!'s founder from their personal computers. Reporters Without Borders will make sure the messages get to him.
Why Yahoo? Because this was the first company to censor its own search engine to curry favour with the Chinese authorities. And because it has been collaborating for years with the Chinese police, which arrests and convicts dissident and freelance journalists. Shi Tao, for example, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on the basis of information supplied by Yahoo!, which hosted his e-mail account. Other international corporations have acted in a similarly culpable manner and have been criticised by Reporters Without Borders (see the www.internet.rsf.org).

l Create your blog on rsfblog
Reporters Without Borders is launching its own blog platform. By choosing to create your blog on www.rsfblog.org, you will help our organisation to support the Internet users who defy the bans on free expression. Each week, the "The Blog View of the World" publishes the opinions of bloggers all over the world on an important development.

l www.rsf.org in Arabic
The Reporters Without Borders website, which is visited by 200,000 people a month, already has French, English and Spanish-language versions. On 7 November, the organisation will launch an Arabic-language version of the site. Every day, the site will have the latest press freedom news in Arabic.

The agency Saatchi & Saatchi has created an Internet ad calling on the entire Internet community to take part in the 24-hour campaign. All media, websites and blogs that want to support this large-scale protest are invited to get in touch with Cédric Gervet at +33 1 4483-8474.

Download our online adds at : http://www.rsf.org/self_en.php3