| Blogging Freedoms and Repressions
Posted by: Dissol on Mar 04, 2010
"we are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence of conformity"
Quote from John Berry's "Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace".
But, while we presently enjoy this freedom in south Africa, many bloggers all around the world do not enjoy this freedom… And given some of the recent actions of the Zuma regime, we have to guard against any removal of our freedom of expressions.
Reporters without Borders is a French organisation which tracks Internet Censorship. The worst 12 countries in 2009 were:
Interestingly, there appears to be a direct correlation to those countries, who also have some of the worst human rights abuses…
Of course, being the internet, there are a whole variety of ways around this issue, using Proxy websites, VPN's etc. And it is an on-going battle.
Interestingly there is a side issue with some of the censorship, called the "Scunthorpe Problem" Scunthorpe, a town in Yorkshire, along with another town, Penistone experience many problems, as the various censors filters pick up the 'naughty' words Cunt or Penis. Imagine what that little village in Germany must put up with??
There are many examples of bloggers being taken offline, arrested, and even imprisoned (in solitary confinement) for exercising their rights to Freedom of Expression.
If you look at that list again, you see the usual 'suspects' on the list; China, North Korea, etc. But you also note many muslim countries too. The Arab Network for Human Rights Information asks the following questions:
- Do Arab Internet users enjoy the privacy and freedom they had hoped for in their correspondences and cyber-activities?
- Does the Internet really provide them with the space of freedom denied to them in other media by their governments?
- By what laws would they be judged if they transgressed legal boundaries regarding Internet use, boundaries that are arbitrarily, if at all, defined by their governments?
Pasted from <http://www.anhri.net/en/reports/net2004/intro.shtml>
They also noted that there is a clear trend in the growing number of Arabic websites. While they restrict freedoms at home, many are using the internet to promote a particular extremist form of sunni islam.
But many people are fighting back, using the different technological approaches as outlined above. Homosexuals exist in islamic countries (presumably in the same proportions as anywhere else in the world), and many are using the internet as a tool to declare their existence, as they are completely unable to do so in their oppressive societies. But they have to carefully protect their true identities, for fear of recriminations.
But the abuses by these countries continue, almost unchecked. Recently, a 20 year old engineering student in Egypt, Ahmed Ahmed Mustafa appeared before a military(!) court (the case has been adjourned to 7 March). His 'crime'? He posted a blog suggesting nepotism in the Egyptian military.
I believe that, as bloggers, we need to keep an eye on these abuses, and make sure that they are not allowed to creep into our own society. We have a president who has shown he really does not like any criticism of him, or anyone connected to him. He, and his regime have repeatedly shown that they are homophobic (his own claims of how he would deal with homosexuals when he was younger, and recently one of his Ministers storming out of an art gallery which she should have been opening, because some of the art inside celebrated African lesbian women. We know we have a regime which is intolerant to some issues (notably homosexuality), and is intolerant of criticism. We are repeatedly told by Zuma, Malema, and cronies what we are allowed to question, and what we are not… I can see this spreading to the digital sphere in South Africa… Look how badly Zuma is taking the observations that the British press are making of him and his lifestyle on his state visit to the UK.
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
- Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers
Pasted from <http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/>
Celebrate that right, exercise that right, protect that right...
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