'Enemies of the internet' named

[Noah]

'Enemies of the internet' named

A list of 13 "enemies of the internet" has been released by human rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6124420.stm

The list:

Belarus
Burma
China
Cuba
Egypt
Iran
North Korea
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Tunisia
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Vietnam

I can see how some of those would want to stop people from using the internet but what do people have to say about Cuba..Do you think that people are restricted? If so, doesn't that undermine the "democracy" in Cuba (i'm not insulting the system i've just put "" because some would disagree and I haven't made a conclusion on it!)?

[Red October]

what about ted stevens? i know hes concerned about the internets.

[Janus]

Some of the nations mentioned are guilty of far worse crimes not to mention that there is hardly any Internet access is several of them.

[phoenixoftime]

I agree with much of what the PCC are doing in Cuba but press freedom is perhaps one of my biggest criticisms. I don't have a problem with complete social control over the media, but the restrictions on computing equipment, internet access and data monitoring are unnecessary IMO. Does anyone know what the Cuban govt are like when it comes to artistic freedom? They certainly claim to be very fair.

What concerns me is Western efforts to control the Internet. The press seem to be using security issues (fraud, padophilia etc.) to frighten people into accepting censorship and controls.

[Dimentio]

That is clearly inclined more against governments which either everyone knows are authoritarian [a few of them], but mostly against governments who refuse to open their markets and alter their security policies after western interests.

Given the persecution of filesharers, I would advise a lot of governments and NGO;s to not throw stones into houses made of crystal.

[LSD]

Wow, so Saudi Arabia and North Korea censor the internet? There's a real shock... :rolleyes:

While I suppose that this is a part of their job description, it would be nice if human rights groups focused on slightly less obvious, not to mention relatively minor, issues.

I mean "enemies of the internet? Come on! How about enemies of the people. The internet isn't a "thing", it can't be "attacked" or "infringed upon". The rights that are being violated here are those of the people of these countries and it would be helpful if everyone could remember that.

Besides, they're avoiding the central issue of why these countries are so bad on human rights issues. I trust it didn't escape anyone's notice that all of these countries are former victims of imperialism and all, save one, are current or former victims of either Leninism or Islamicism, both of which tend to be reactions to colonialism and imperialism.

When nations are occupied and oppressed they tend to turn to extermist ideological "solutions" and ideologues try to fight economic exploitation with political repression.

Obviously it doesn't work, but that kind of "moral" government does tend to offer a comfort that, like religion itself, can often make the suffering of imperialism that much "easier" to deal with.

It's not that these countries are "bad", it's that their victims of decades, if not centuries, of exploitation, oppression, and subjugation. And the more that westerners call them names, the more victimized they feel.

I'm not saying that third world countries shouldn't be condemned for their oppressive and discriminatory policies, they should; but on an issue and event basis. Specific actions should be challenged and the needs of the local working class championed.

But compiling a list of "bad countries"? I really don't see who's interests that serves.

[chimx]

Originally posted by [email protected] 08, 2006 07:05 am
I don't have a problem with complete social control over the media
wow. thank god the revleft server isn't hosted in Cuba.

[Cheung Mo]

This list is incomplete: The U.S. is attacking filesharers, going after adult obscenity, and running companies like Cisco and IBM that are helping China and other dictatorships censor the Internet.

[Whitten]

The USA should definatly be on there. They want to give ISPs total power to censor any site they wish. Also if the bill is passed (thankfully democrats now control the house) the age old technicality that releases ISPs from liability for illegal content accessable over their connections will no longer apply, which would essentially legally force ISPs to censor just about anything they could get sued for hosting themselves.


Originally posted by [email protected] 08, 2006 07:05 am
I don't have a problem with complete social control over the media
wow. thank god the revleft server isn't hosted in Cuba.

This isnt the media.

[Jhé]

This isnt the media


According to the world bank media is

"Messages that are distributed through the technologies, principally text in books, study guides and computer networks; sound in audio-tapes and broadcast: pictures in video-tapes and broadcast; text, sound and/or pictures in a teleconference."

or according to dictionary.com

1. a pl. of medium.

2. (usually used with a plural verb) the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely: The media are covering the speech tonight.





why these countries are so bad on human rights issues


cuba for one is not,

cuba is a founding member of the united nations human rights council and has time after time been elected to that same council, recently cuba has been elected into the council by the support of 135 countries... according to the cuba truth project

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Reporters Without Borders?? Are you fucking kidding me? That's an agency of the bourgeoisie. Who do you think funds them? (Click here if you really don't know - the Reporters Without Borders Fraud (http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=7851)).

"Lucie Morillon, RWB's Washington representative, confirmed in an interview on 29 April 2005 that the organization receives money from the Washington-based Center for a Free Cuba ($50,000 in 2004), and that a contract with the US State Department's Special Envoy to the Western Hemisphere, Otto Reich, requires them to inform Europeans about repression against journalists in Cuba." - (source (http://www.counterpunch.org/barahona05172005.html))

* * *

Facts About Cuba´s Access to Internet
Prensa Latina

Havana - Digital disparity between First and Third Worlds is made worse by the US economic blockade on Cuba to prevent the island from having free access to the Internet.

A commentary posted today by the Cuban News Agency (AIN) says that in addition to financial restraints increasingly being placed on Cuba by Washington, the island is not allowed to connect to underwater optic fibre cables through which the overwhelming bulk of worldwide information flows.

Internet reception and transmission on the island is therefore reduced to satellite communication. This substantially limits the country’s connectivity capacity, causes the transmission of information to slow down and makes the process much more expensive.

For these reasons, the country set out to a development strategy to forge ahead in the ‘informatization’ of society. This is seen as the only way to have technology reach the broadest sectors of the nation and a larger number of people worldwide.

The informatization of society is defined in Havana as “the process of orderly and massive use of information and communication technology to satisfy the information and knowledge needs of all people and spheres of society.”

The issue has been touched upon on various occasions in speeches by Cuban President Fidel Castro, who recently expressed the official objective: “Millions of Cubans could communicate with millions of people in the world through the Internet”.

The first step in that direction took place in 1996 when the Ministry of Communications—which until then had been devoted to traditional postal work, telephone links and radio and television transmissions— was transformed into the Informatics and Communications Ministry.

A decade later, the island is showing notable advances in this important sector, as demonstrated by the growing number of citizens and institutions with Internet access and by in massive training of highly specialized engineers and technicians.

The scope of this effort would seem inconceivable in not only Third World nations, but in many First World countries.

So as not to offer an image that might seem overly optimistic, AIN refers to concrete aspects which are easily verifiable by any interested visitor to the country.

In Cuba, computer courses are included in the national education programs starting at the first grade level.

There are 26 Informatics Polytechnic Institutions in the provinces; these are equipped with modern digital technology and have an enrollment of 40,000 students of whom the first class will graduate in 2008.

In addition to the existing programs in the universities, in mid-2002 the Computer Sciences University (UCI) was created. It has 8,000 students selected from among the most talented and hard working in this specialty.

Complementing this effort there are over 600 Computer Clubs established and operating throughout the country’s 169 municipalities.

This project is important due to its egalitarian character: everyone can have access regardless of their age or occupation.

Some 800,000 people have graduated from universities, mainly young people. Up until today, over 200 of these facilities have Internet access and there are plans of extending this service to all of them.

There is also the INFOMED network, which belongs to the Health Ministry. Academics and professionals can also navigate with a personalized Internet access through special connections. This also includes doctors, journalists, artists and scientists.

Interviewed by the Cuban press, Engineer Roberto Santiesteban, director of the Data Business Unit which belongs to the island’s telecommunication company, offered a panorama of the future.

“The more we develop our Internet and more possibilities for connections, the service will spread nationally. This is conditioned by the cost and technological availability to Cuba, which is advancing on a yearly basis through the import of computers and making agreements with other nations,” said Santiesteban.

“Without a doubt these are the guidelines that will make it possible for any Cuban to have Internet access,” he concluded.

These are the facts on what is happening in Cuba´s present and future on Internet access.

* * *

Severian pointed out in this thread (http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=35695&st=40) that "The access by the Cubans to US sites on the Internet was blocked (by the U.S. - S) until May 1994....Each time Cuba tries to add a new channel to the Internet, the US counterpart must procure the appropriate license from the US Treasury Department.
Likewise, if an American company wants to open a new channel for Cuba or decides to upgrade the connection speed, a license must be issued. Cuba's current connection to the so-called Infobahn does not offer the appropriate bandwidth to meet the country's requirements. The blockade compels Cuba to use an expensive and slow satellite-related bandwidth and connection. The problem could be solved with the connection of a fiber-optic cable between Cuba and the Florida Straits, but the US has not allowed so."

* * *

CNN (http://archives.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/04/11/cuba.online.idg/) says "once it's [internet access] granted, the government does not censor, filter or -- it appears -- survey traffic."

* * *

Likewise, This paper from the Carnegie Endowment (http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_8/kalathil/#k2) says "Although the government itself appears to block few (if any) Web sites at the central level, institutions often limit Internet access to sites they consider relevant to the task at hand."

And that makes sense, computers in hospitals are for medical research, etc.

Both of these sources are highly hostile to Cuba and still admit there's no censorship.

* * *

And I've pointed out numerous times that I talk to folks in Cuba online almost every day.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

But compiling a list of "bad countries"? I really don't see who's interests that serves.

That says more about you than anything else. Clearly it serves the interests of the imperialists, on many levels.

[Karl Marx's Camel]

Reporters Without Borders is a big lie. Never believe anything they say about Cuba.

Funny thing is, a "reporter" claimed that in Cuba , if you type any famous "dissident", "militant" or terrorist, you will get a pop-up warning and the computer will shut down (see the article "Cuba's grip on Web is sophisticated"). I am soon going to Cuba, so I will surf a bit on the internet, and see if it is a big lie, or not.

The same article claims:

But even Reporters Without Borders was surprised to learn that the Cuban government does not block websites it considers hostile, such as The Miami Herald's. Only once during her monthlong stay did Voeux find a site -- a Mexican page about a post-Castro Cuba -- blocked.

How easy would it not be to just add the internet address of that site?

Why didn't they add the address?

Even if it is true, I would describe this as unfair reporting.

What is true though is that sometimes Cubans can be prohibited from certain hotels that have internet connection, often in clever ways (IIRC demanding papers that take quite a lot of dollars to get, which very few Cubans can afford). But then again I've heard of other hotels where Cubans can go online, also for free, or at least close to free. It's part of what I find interesting about Cuba. One day, this may be illegal, and that may be legal. Rules vary.


Criticisms

The impartiality of Reporters Without Borders is not universally accepted. A significant amount of funding (19% of total) comes from certain western governments and organisations.[2][3][4] However, RWB has openly criticized Western countries for their treatment of reporters (e.g. the United States' occupation of Iraq).

Some people sympathetic with Cuba are highly critical of an apparent RWB anti-Castro bias. Lucie Morillon, RWB's Washington representative, confirmed in an interview on 29 April 2005 that the organization receives money from the Washington-based Center for a Free Cuba ($50,000 in 2004), and that a contract with the US State Department's Special Envoy to the Western Hemisphere, Otto Reich, requires them to inform Europeans about repression against journalists in Cuba. However, the organisation has denied that its campaigning on the issue of Cuba - in declarations on radio and television, full-page ads in Parisian dailies, posters, leafletting at airports, and an April 2003 occupation of the Cuban tourism office in Paris - were related to the payments.[5] 1.3% of total funding come from this source.[2] In addition, RWB receives free publicity from Saatchi and Saatchi, a member of the world's fourth-largest marketing and public relations conglomerate, Publicis Groupe. It has been noted that a major Publicis client is Bacardi, which has been at the forefront of financing anti-Castro groups.[6] A judge stopped the organization from using a copyrighted image of Ernesto Che Guevara.[7] RWB has been described as an 'ultrareactionary' organization by the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, Granma.

Some critics find RWB's reporting of press freedom in Haiti during and after Jean-Bertrand Aristide presidency suspect, arguing that it is biased due to funding from the United States.[8]

Reporters Without Borders have called on the US government to free two journalists it said were being unjustly held at a US prison in Iraq, and at the US military base in Guantanamo, Cuba.[9] However, some critics find it questionable that this was only mentioned in 2006. They also claim that RSF supported the invasion of Iraq, even celebrating the illegal bombing of the ministry of information, a civilian target, whitewashed the U.S. killing of Telecinco Cameraman Jose couso and Reuters Cameraman Taras Protsyuk, and have remained silent about about AP Journalist Bilal Hussein who has been imprisoned by occupation troops.[10] However, this is contradicted by statements made by the RSF.[11][12]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reporters_Wit...ders#Criticisms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reporters_Without_Borders#Criticisms)


Does anyone know what the Cuban govt are like when it comes to artistic freedom? They certainly claim to be very fair.

I know of many stand up comedians in Cuba who have gone pretty far with their jokes; for example saying that Cubans are great swimmers, a reference to the migration to Florida.

Movies often tend to bring up societal problems, and they are also the most popular movies. The cultural section in Cuba tends to be quite powerful and IIRC is more open for criticism and is generally more "open" than newspapers or television.

[Keyser]

Yes, the US should be on that list too, even if the list has been made up in a crap way, as LSD highlighted.

Remember Sherman Austin, did one year in jail for running a website.

Maybe add Britain to the list too, recently the British government talked about some law to ban websites with acts of consensual S&M and other adult themed websites.

[chimx]

i thought he did a year in jail for putting weapon instructions on his website.

[Keyser]

i thought he did a year in jail for putting weapon instructions on his website.

Apparently so.

But so fucking what, you can find way more dangerous military guides and instruction manuals on the internet from many websites.

The reason for his one being singled out was all down to the politics of the website.

[*PRC*Kensei]

as far as i saw in cuba "ordinary" people (not working for university or higher goverment stuff) dont have acces to internet.

but how many people in etheopie have acces to internet ? how many people in rwanda ?

it's a thirth world country's problem. if they people had acces they would not be able to pay for it.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

‘Enemies of the Internet’ authors are enemies of the truth

http://freepeoplesmovement.org/fpm/cubainternet.jpg

Reporters Without Borders” (RSF - it’s French acronym) recently released its 2006 list of “Enemies of the Internet,” supposedly made up of countries which are “suppressing freedom of expression on the internet.” Outrageously, Cuba is among the 13 countries on the list.

RSF has a history of attacking socialist Cuba, and a closer look at the organization reveals why.

A man named Robert Menard founded RSF more than twenty years ago. It’s no coincidence that he gave his group a name similar to that of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), a well respected organization of volunteer doctors that maintains neutrality in all conflicts. On the surface, RSF may appear to be the equivalent of that organization in the realm of “press freedom,” but the group’s actions tell another story.

From the beginning, RSF has demonized and slandered Cuba. It has called the country “the world’s biggest prison for journalists” and has rated it lower for “press freedom” than countries like Colombia, where journalists are regularly murdered for speaking out. It has also launched major campaigns aimed at getting Europeans to avoid travel to and dealings with the small Caribbean country.

It does these things because it in the “fight for press freedom,” but as a tool of the U.S. government and the Miami mafia (the noisy group of mostly white, rich Cubans in Miami who left Cuba soon after its revolution in 1959, because they could no longer exploit the population of the country for their own benefit).

In 2001, Menard worked out a deal with Otto Reich (a former senior official of Reagan and George W. Bush who played a key part in the Iran-Contra affair, the U.S.-backed 2002 coup that temporarily overthrew Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the U.S.-backed 2004 coup that overthrew Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and a number of other atrocities) and the counter-revolutionary Center for a Free Cuba (which receives most of its funding from the U.S. government). Under the deal, RSF was paid $25,000 (U.S. dollars) in 2002 and $50,000 in 2003 for it’s “services”.

Reporter’s Without Borders’ Washington representative, Lucie Morillon, said the contract with the Center for a Free Cuba required the organization to inform Europeans about the supposed repression of journalists going on in Cuba. She also confirmed the amount of money received each year from the Center, and said payments came in regularly, every year.

Reporters Without Borders has run full-page ads in French newspapers, broadcast radio and television ads, put up posters, and handed out leaflets at airports and in front and inside of the Cuban tourism office in Paris; all containing lies about Cuba, in hopes of discouraging tourists from traveling to the island.

These actions have the same goal as the U.S. government’s decades long blockade of Cuba: to destroy the socialist revolution and the “threat of a good example.” Tourism is a key issue for RSF and its backers, because it has become a major source of revenue in Cuba since the downfall of its main trading partners (the USSR and countries of the “Eastern Bloc”) in the early 90's.

In a 2004 the U.S. State Department issued a report to Bush by the “Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba,” which covertly called for increased support to RSF as a part of its overall plan to recolonize Cuba. It read in part, “Support efforts by NGOs in selected third countries to highlight human rights abuses in Cuba, as part of a broader effort to discourage tourist travel. This could be modeled after past initiatives, especially those by European NGOs, to boycott tourism to countries where there were broad human rights concerns.”

The same Miami mafia that supports RSF supported (and participated in) terrorist attacks against tourist accommodations in Cuba in the mid to late 90's. In one incident, Luis Posada Carriles, who is currently being sheltered in the U.S. (see: “U.S. will harbor 'Osama Bin Laden of Latin America',” (http://freepeoplesmovement.org/fpm/page.php?218) The Free Press, Volume 1, Issue 5), put together a string of bombings that left an Italian tourist dead.

The mafia also supported and pushed for the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, which was written by Otto Reich, lawyers of Bacardi (which has actively opposed the Cuban revolution since its factories were nationalized in 1960), and the right-wing “Cuban-American National Foundation.” The act basically allows the U.S. to impose sanctions against anyone investing in Cuba and provides funds to right-wing “exile groups” run by the Miami mafia. Since U.S. President Bill Clinton sign the act into law in 1996, tens of millions of dollars have been given to Reich and the Center for a Free Cuba.

In 1998, the RSF’s founder traveled to Cuba to recruit writers. He offered them payment for completed articles, but only if they attacked the revolutionary government. Unfortunately for him, the first “writer” he recruited was actually Nestor Baguer, a veteran Cuban journalist who fully supports the revolution. Baguer told of his undercover interactions with Menard in the pages of Granma, the official paper of the Cuban Communist Party.

Despite the fact that it openly serves the interests of the Miami mafia, the U.S. government and the rich handful it represents, the RSF claims the money it receives from them doesn’t influence its work. It points to the fact that their contributions only make up a percentage of their income. This is true; but they forget to mention where they get the rest of their money: from a group of rich right-wingers in the U.S. and Europe, including the director of the Center for a Free Cuba and the Bacardi family.

On top of this funding, RSF gets the services of Saatchi and Saatchi, a part of Publicis Groupe, the world’s biggest marketing and “public relations” monopoly. Not so coincidentally, Bacardi is one of Publicis’ biggest customers.

The truth about internet access in Cuba
Cuba is a third world country, and a former colony. These two obstacles are enough to limit the development – let alone internet access – of most similar countries. But on top of that, Cuba also faces a decades long blockade enforced upon it – against the will of almost the entire world – by the U.S. government.

The U.S. blocked Cuba’s access to the internet completely until 1994. The U.S. has also refused to allow Cuba to connect to the internet by laying fiber optic cable from the island to Florida, forcing it to instead rely on slow and extremely expensive satellite connections. As a result of all of this, Cuba doesn’t have the bandwith required to meet its needs.

But despite these problems and limitations, the country has been steadily working to make internet access available to all its citizens for years.

Computer courses are including in the education process in Cuba from first grade on (while students lack even desks in neighboring Dominican Republic!). There are 26 computer schools across the country, which are attended by 40,000 students free of charge. There is also a Computer Sciences University, which is attended by 8,000 students, again totally free of change.

There are more than 600 “Computer Clubs,” which anyone, regardless of age or occupation, can join. This allows everyone a chance to learn about and access computers and the internet.

Doctors, journalists, scientists and artists also have access to computers and the internet in their places of work.

Beyond this, steps are being taken every day to allow more and more people access.

Quite a feat for a country under constant attack and isolation! Furthermore, the internet censorship that the RSF bemoans doesn’t even exist!

Even sources hostile to the Cuba revolution concede that there is no internet censorship in Cuba. CNN admitted as much in an April 11, 2000 article (“Cuba’s internet elite emerges,” CNN.com), writing “granted, the government does not censor, filter or -- it appears -- survey [internet] traffic.”

One thing is made clear by Cuba’s inclusion into Reporters Without Borders’ list of “Enemies of the Internet,” that the authors are enemies of truth.

Source: http://freepeoplesmovement.org/fpm/page.php?218

[subcal]

In australia they are offering filters for free, as a choice for concearned parents. Next step is compulsary ofcoarse.