The Internet under surveillance

IN Media Freedom | 25/08/2003

The report online

The number of Internet users in China doubles nearly every six months and the number of Chinese websites every year. But this dizzying expansion of cyberspace is matched by government efforts to control, censor and repress it with harsh laws, jailing cyber-dissidents, blocking access to websites,  spying on discussion forums and shutting down cybercafés.

In Vietnam, the Internet is not very widespread but is nevertheless firmly under the control of the ruling Communist Party, which seems to be faithfully copying neighbouring China by arresting cyber-dissidents, barring access to sites deemed  politically or culturally "incorrect" and monitoring private e-mail.

Going online in Cuba is very restricted and closely watched by  the government. Official permission is required and the  necessary equipment, including the most modern, is rationed

and can only be bought in special state-run shops, again only   with special permission. The government passed laws as soon as the Internet came to Cuba. Decree 209 ("Access to the

World Computer Network from Cuba") of June 1996 says it cannot be used "in violation of the moral principles of Cuban society and its laws" and that e-mail messages must not

"endanger national security."

In Tunisia, the government says it favours rapid and democratic growth of the Internet. But in practice, state security police keep it under very tight control. Sites are censored, e-mail

intercepted, cybercafés monitored and users arrested and arbitrarily imprisoned. One cyber-dissident, Zouhair Yahyaoui, was arrested in 2002 and sent to jail for two years.

In mid-June this year, more than 50 Internet users were in prison around the world, three quarters of them in China.

The Internet is the bane of all dictatorial regimes, but even in democracies such as the United States, Britain and France, new anti-terrorism laws have tightened government control of it

and undermined the principle of protecting journalistic sources.

 This report is about attitudes to the Internet by the powerful in  60 countries, between spring 2001 and spring 2003. The preface is by Vinton G. Cerf, who is often called the "father" of

the Internet.

The entire report is available in English and French on the Reporters Without Borders website, downloadable in pdf  format  at  http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=7280