Report Warns Against Well-Meaning Net Censorship

athloi writes "A report entitled 'Governing the Internet,' was issued Thursday by the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The document, which highlights the increasing environment of internet 'policing' around the world, characterized the practice as 'a bitter reminder of the ease with which some regimes -- democracies and dictatorships alike -- seek to suppress speech that they disapprove of, dislike, or simply fear.' From the article: 'The OSCE report says Kazakhstan's efforts to rein in Internet journalism in the name of national security is reminiscent of Soviet-era "spy mania," and it says Georgian law contains numerous provisions curbing freedom of expression online. Web sites, blogs and personal pages all are subject to criminal as well as civil prosecution in Kazakhstan, and the country's information minister, Yermukhamet Yertysbayev, has vowed to purge Kazakh sites of "dirt" and "lies."'"

Comments

First -1 censored post

[Anonymous Coward]

fp

Kazakhstan censoring negative reports

[darkmayo]

from Uzbekistan, namely about how there Potassium is better.

Re:Lots of this going around

[Anonymous Coward]

I would ban your blog based on the name alone. I might be missing the irony (haven't read it), but Israel-bashing under the title of "Holocaust now" is not acceptable by any standards.

Re:Lots of this going around

[computational super]

The thing about free speech, as protected by the US Constitution, is that it only protects you against the government

Actually, it only stops congress from passing laws against free speech. The constitution doesn't say anything about law enforcement officials enforcing laws not passed by congress - hello Gonzales loophole!

Better act now

[Lockejaw]

This would be a good "Ask Slashdot" question, maybe if somebody else asked it it might be posted.

No, go ahead and post it. Slashdot isn't part of the Zionist conspiracy.
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Yet.