Archive for 2003

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

Tue Feb 18 14:18:35 GMT 2003


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.

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