---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 3 Oct 1996 05:59:08 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu Subject: Net-freedom roundup: Algiers, Malaysia, Burma, Hong Kong... [Update on situations in Algiers, Malaysia, Burma, Singapore, European Union, U.K., Hong Kong, China, and Germany. More at http://www.eff.org/~declan/global/ --Declan] ******** SUSPENDED ALGERIAN DAILY OFFERED INTERNET PAGE Copyright 1996 Reuter Information Service PARIS (Sep 30, 1996 1:24 p.m. EDT) - A press freedom watchdog on Monday offered the suspended Algerian daily La Tribune a page on its Internet site to give it an airing during the six-month ban. "Thanks to this initiative, these journalists, banned from writing by the Algerian authorities, will be able to practice their trade again," the Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RsF) said. An Algiers court suspended La Tribune for six months on September 3 over a cartoon mocking the Algerian flag. [...] Fifty-seven journalists have been murdered by suspected rebels. RsF said authorities had suspended or seized newspapers on 55 occasions and 23 journalists had been held for more than 48 hours since the conflict broke out over the 1992 cancellation of a general election fundamentalists were poised to win. ******** UNITED NATIONS, Sept 27 (Reuter) - Malaysia's prime minister accused the West on Friday of spreading smut and violence, particularly on the Internet. In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Mahathir bin Mohamad said that although the information age facilitated worldwide knowledge, it also demeaned moral values. ``Smut and violence gratuitously distributed by criminals in the North is no less polluting than carbon dioxide emissions nor less dangerous than drug trafficking.'' In a reference to the United States he said if one great power could apply its laws to citizens of another country for drug trafficking ``why cannot countries with different moral codes extradite the traffickers of pornography for legal action?'' ``Before the whole world sinks deeper into moral decay, the international community should act. Abuse of the ubiquitous Internet system must be stopped,'' he said. Politically, he said the monopoly of the West's electronic media should be broken on so-called world news networks. ``Not only are distorted pictures of our countries being broadcast but our own capacity to understand what is happening is being undermined,'' he said. [...] ``It is boring almost. And yet nothing much has been done which could bring about amelioration of this sad state of affairs, `` he said. ********* RANGOON, BURMA, 1996 SEP 27 (NB) -- Burma has made owning, using, importing or borrowing a modem or fax machine without government permission a crime, punishable by up to 15 years in jail, according to a report by United Press International. Burma's military government has imposed what's called "The Computer Science Development Law" which empowers the Ministry of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs to specify what exactly can be restricted, UPI reports. UPI quotes the government-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar as saying the same punishment is prescribed for anyone who sets up a link with a computer network without the prior permission of the ministry, or who uses computer network and information technology "for undermining state security, law and order, national unity, national economy and national culture, or who obtains or transmits state secrets." UPI reports that in July a diplomat, Leo Nichols, died in prison after he was sentenced to a lengthy term for illegal possession of fax machines. *********** SINGAPORE, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Internet users in Singapore are complaining that a new system to police the massive global communications network is slowing down access to websites rather than speeding it up as promised by government officials, news reports said Saturday. Earlier this month, special computers called proxy servers began censoring all requests for websites from Singapore Internet users, blocking access to those deemed ``objectionable'' by the government. The proxy servers, which began regulating cyperspace Sept. 15, delay access to the Internet because they first have to check a list of banned websites before retrieving requested homepages, the Straits Times reported. ``I've found that it can take twice as long to access the sites I commonly access,'' said Teo Mei Chin, a 22-year-old undergraduate. Users pointed out that slower access translated into longer on-line time and higher telephone bills. Although many Internet subscribers in the tightly-controlled city- state anticipated such delays under the new system, the Singapore Broadcasting Authority assured users access to certain websites would actually be quicker since the proxy servers are able to store frequently requested homepages. But Internet users say the filter computers also are dishing up outdated homepages. Walter Wu, who uses the Internet for up-to-date stock market and business data, said some financial websites he requested were at least a day old. [...] *********** LONDON, ENGLAND, 1996 SEP 27 (NB) -- By Steve Gold. The British government has added its support to plans to handle the problem of child pornography on the Internet. The proposals, which have been drawn up by the Home Office with assistance from Peter Dawe, the founder of Pipex, the UK's largest Internet service provider (ISP), are known as Safety Net. According to Dawe, recent discussions in the industry, culminating in a letter from the police to the various ISPs in the UK, has meant there is considerable pressure on the ISP industry to exercise a degree of self-regulation. "Public opinion said that something had to be done. I came to the conclusion that it was going to be impossible to establish industry- wide consensus on how to tackle this issue," he said, adding that the idea of Safety Net is gathering support in the UK ISP community. According to Dawe, Safety Net has the backing of the Internet Service Provider's Association (ISPA), as well as the London Internet Exchange, two groups which claim to represent most of the ISPs currently operating in the UK. [...] Quite how the ISPs will tackle the problem, such as blocking access to those Web pages, remains to be seen, but Dawes claims that the ISPs will have no excuse in law of being unaware of offending Web pages and Usenet newsgroups. [...] ********** BRUSSELS (Reuter) - European Union telecommunications ministers, reacting to a child-sex scandal in Belgium, pledged Friday to consider ways to keep illegal material that could harm children off the Internet. Belgian Telecommunications Minister Elio Di Rupo announced that his government planned to implement new measures requiring Internet access providers to monitor and report material featuring sexual abuse or exploitation of children. He asked his colleagues to join forces with him. ``Today a big legal vacuum exists, for legislation is falling behind technological evolution,'' he said, according to a speaking note that was distributed to reporters. ``There is a big risk that it will create an enormous market of children fed on by criminals.'' The ministers agreed to expand a working party that has already been set up to look at the question of illegal material on the Internet and asked it to come up with concrete proposals before they meet again in November. The group will include representatives of the 15 EU telecoms ministries and of companies that provide access to online services or prepare the content, a statement adopted by the ministers said. The accord follows an agreement by EU justice ministers in Dublin Thursday to extend the scope of the EU police agency Europol so it can fight the sex trade in women and children. The moves come in the wake of the discovery in Belgium of a paedophile network and the murders of four young girls. But some of the telecoms ministers, including those from Britain and Sweden, warned that the EU could not wander into censorship and had to focus on fighting truly illegal material. [...] ******** CENTRAL, HONG KONG, 1996 SEP 26 (NB) -- By Eric Lai. A Hong Kong Internet enthusiast is claiming that his Web site, featuring sexually suggestive photos of himself, was forcibly removed by his Internet service provider (ISP) two days ago in a seeming act of premature censorship. Donald Tu, 32, is a former radio and TV presenter and aspiring bodybuilder and model. In May, he put up his Web site, http://members/hknet.com/~hkstud/ , which featured photos of himself topless, often wearing nothing more than wet, slightly transparent briefs, posing in a studio and outdoors at scenic locations around Hong Kong. Tu, who was interviewed on last night's premiere of the Dataphile On-Air radio show, says his site has received thousands of "hits" coupled with encouraging e-mail, especially after a local Chinese language newspaper on September 17 reviewed his Web site. But a single complaint outweighs those thousands of positive comments, at least according to his Web host, HKNet. After receiving a single complaint from a member of the public, HKNet wrote to Tu on Tuesday that "the government may take action against the site because of its content and 'exposure,' based on the letter of the law governing obscene and indecent materials, and recent experiences in its enforcement. Therefore, we have made the decision to bar access to the questionable materials for the time being." But ISPs which censor and regulate content are not currently being compelled by the government, according to a spokesperson at the Broadcasting, Culture, and Sport Branch. The Branch has been devising Internet content regulations all summer which should be announced soon. [...] ********* BEIJING, Sept 27 (Reuter) - China's Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin moved on Friday to tighten the communists' grip on the state media and to strengthen his position with a blaze of publicity before a party plenum. He used a visit to the Beijing offices of the People's Daily, the party mouthpiece, to deliver a hardline speech on the importance of maintaining communist control of all media, the newspaper reported, splashing the news and three photographs of Jiang across its front page. Diplomats said the speech by Jiang was aimed at bringing back into line Chinese writers and more daring media organisations that have tried to push the limits of propaganda [...] ``Historical experience has proved repeatedly that whether guidance of news is right or wrong has to do with the party growing strong ... the solidarity of the people and the prosperity of the nation,'' Jiang said. [...] ******** HotWired 27-29 Sept 96 The Netizen by Wendy Grossman London, 26 September Last Monday, a unified front of British police, government, and representatives of leading ISPs announced proposals for cracking down on illegal material available on the UK's portion of the Internet. The first target is child pornography, but the protagonists have already said they've set their sights on other types of illegal material such as copyright violations, obscenity, and possibly hate speech. Called R3/Safety-Net, the proposals were presented to the media by Science and Technology Minister Ian Taylor and representatives from the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA), the London Internet Exchange (LINX), and the Home Office, which is the government department charged with law enforcement. [...] As it turns out, Demon and the Department of Trade and Industry had been talking without publicity for months about taking action against obscenity on the Net. But the media raised the pressure, as did complaints on uk.censorship about a list of 133 newsgroups that Superintendent Mike Hoskins of the Clubs and Vice unit of the Metropolitan Police had sent ISPs as a guide to the location of illegal material. Hoskins and the ISPs all swear no threat was intended or taken, but the underlying tone was still: You do something about it, or we'll do something about it. R3/Safety-Net is that something. [...] No one is going to oppose these measures. How can they, when the 1994 revision of the Criminal Justice Bill allows the police to arrest, without warrant, people suspected of obscenity and certain child pornography offenses? Child pornography is, of course, illegal to create, distribute, or possess in Britain. For the purposes of the Obscene Publications Act and the Protection of Children Act, if something looks like a child in a sexual act, it is child pornography. [...] So it seemed like with Monday's announcement, everybody wins - almost. The government gets to look like it's doing something big. The ISPs get to stay out of jail. The police get to arrest people. Peter Dawe gets to be a hero. Britain gets to be a world leader. And we get ... well, what do we get? We get the certain knowledge that they will not stop here. They have already said so. Books like the Anarchist's Cookbook are banned here in print, and in a country where last Monday police seized a massive haul of IRA explosives intended to rearrange the landscape, the argument for letting people read alt.engr.explosives is likely to lead to the withdrawal of reference books from the public libraries. Britain has an Official Secrets Act, not a Freedom of Information Act. Government can proceed only with the consent of the governed, and on Monday what that unified panel asked for was our trust. They will not censor free speech; it's just the small percentage of illegal stuff they want cleaned up. So we're left asking before every move, "Daddy, is this illegal?" ********** Subject: Germany Bans Web Pages for Minors - and ALL To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 13:37:52 +0100 (MET) Reply-To: um@c2.net (Ulf Moeller) Organization: private site, Hamburg (Germany) From: um@c2.net (Ulf Moeller) The report is essentially correct. In Hamburg, the prosecutors decided themselves that AOL had done nothing illegal, so as far as I know there was no court decision. Also, it appears that said Federal Office is neither responsible for electronic nor for foreign publications. I think the minister is trying to spead FUD.
From: taxbomber@taxbomber.com Newsgroups: alt.censorship,alt.privacy,alt.security,news.admin.censorship Subject: Germany Bans Web Pages for Minors - and ALL Date: Sat, 28 Sep 1996 06:46:58 GMT Message-ID: <324cc9c7.7567566@news.c2.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: md19-017.compuserve.com
According to Germany's leading tabloid paper "Bild" (Saturday edition), Federal Minister for Familiy Affairs, Claudia Nolte (Christian-Democrat), in an unprecedented decision has formally had several Web pages banned for being "X"-rated by the "Federal Office for the Evaluation of Literature Hazardous to Minors". These are pages featured by Ernst Zuendel, a leading political revisionist located in Canada whose purportedly "Neo-Nazi" views have been the subject of much controversy in Germany. Ms Nolte is quoted as saying: "It is not tolerable that the Internet should be an island with special privileges, on which thoughtless or unscrupulous providers may pursue their infamous activities with impunity." This effectively forces Internet providers to restrict minors' access to said pages - a technical impossibility since most minors accessing the net are be using their parents' accounts. No "Netwatch" or other self-censorship software will suffice to conform with this provision, as it is THE PROVIDERS, not the kids' legal guardians who have to comply with this restriction. Following a recent decision by the State of Hamburg's Supreme Constitutional Court to the effect that service providers cannot be held responsible for possibly illegal contents of data transfers via their networks (here, AOL was accused of disseminating child pornography), this move must be regarded as a circumvention tactics to put the thumbscrews on ISPs nevertheless by invoking Minors Protection legislation instead. (Also note that the Hamburg decision ruled that email message were protected by privacy laws as any snail mail letter - hence, providers could not be expected to monitor their contents as this would violate constitutional rights.) This implies that German based ISPs (including AOL's and Compuserve's local services) will actually have to ban ALL GENERAL access to the Zuendel pages from their systems unless they are willing to risk running afault of the law. ******** [Posted to soc.culture.singapore through an anonymous remailer in\ Germany. No wonder the SBA wants to censor the Net! --Declan] Mon, 23 Sep 1996 01:32:06 soc.culture.singapore Thread 228 of 350 Lines 18 SBA is screwed!! No responses mix@squirrel.owl.de Squirrel Remailer __ __ __ __/o \_ __/o \_ __/o \_ \____ \ \____ \ \____ \ / \ / \ / \ __ //\ \ __ //\ \ __ //\ \ __/o \-//--\ \_/__/o \-//--\ \_/__/o \-//--\ \_/ \__SBA ___ \ | \__ISP ___ \ | \__PAP ___ \ | || \ |\ | || \ |\ | || \ |\ | _|| _||_|| _|| _||_|| _|| _||_|| #### # # #### # # ##### # # #### ### ### ## # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #### # # # ## # #### #### #### ### #### # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #### #### # # # # # #### ### ### # # ###