[eccr] Press release RSF: Freedom of information on the Internet under threat

Title: Press release RSF: Freedom of information on the Internet under threat

PRESS RELEASE/ALERT

13 February 2003

Freedom of information on the Internet under threat

SOURCE: Reporters sans fronti=E8res (RSF), Paris

(RSF/IFEX) - The following is an RSF press release:

On 17 February 2003, a preparatory conference will open in Geneva, 
under the
auspices of the United Nations, concerning the World Summit on the
Information Society, to be held in the city in December.

RSF would like to take this occasion to forewarn the United Nations, 
as well
as all member-state governments, not to make any attempt to use 
this
summit - whose aim is to narrow the technological gap between rich 
and poor
countries - as a means to further impede press freedom on the 
Internet.

It became evident, during the various regional preparatory meetings 
that
have already taken place around the world, that many governments 
were
planning to use the fight against criminal activities on the Internet as
justification to impose censorship and other coercive measures that 
may also
curtail the media's new technological activities. RSF has found, in 
these
states' contributions, the same interventionist and restrictive ideas 
that
inspired the "New World Order of Information" project in the 1970s 
and
1980s.

RSF's mistrust was heightened, at these regional meetings, by the 
manifest
desire of several states to prevent civil society and non-
governmental
organisation representatives from participating in the preliminary
proceedings of the World Summit on the Information Society. 
Neither is it
reassuring that the second phase of the Summit is scheduled to be 
held in
2005 in Tunisia, a country whose deplorable situation, in terms of 
freedom
of _expression_ and freedom of information, is common knowledge.

For further information, contact RSF, 5, rue Geoffroy Marie, Paris 
75009,
France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51, e-mail:
(communication2 /at/ rsf.org), Internet: http://www.rsf.org

The information contained in this press release/alert is the sole
responsibility of RSF. In citing this material for broadcast or 
publication,
please credit RSF.