[Chapter-delegates] Internet censorship in Poland: ISOC Poland joins the debate with the Prime Minister TODAY - watch live at 1400 CET

[Tommi Karttaavi]

Dear Marcin, all,

There has been a similar development in Finland. The police maintains a
list of banned sites that operators are blocking on DNS-level. So far the
blocking has been voluntary for the operators. The censorship system was
set up to prevent access to child porn, but of course there has been talk
about extending it to block other materials also (e.g. online gambling). 

The blacklist has been said to contain also legitimate websites. A Finnish
Internet activist published a list of blocked sites to express criticism on
the censorship. His site was added on the blacklist, which is problematic
because the police should have applied for a court order to confiscate the
server if the material (links) on it was indeed illegal. So it would seem
that we have an censorship system that can applied arbitrarily without due
process or any transparency. Some might consider that unconstitutional.

A more detailed overview can be found from the blog of the Electronic
Frontier Finland:
http://www.effi.org/blog/kai-2008-02-18.html

Regards,

Tommi

On Fri, 5 Feb 2010 00:51:51 +0000, Marcin Cieslak <saper at saper.info> wrote:
> Today, on Friday Feb the 5th, 14:00 Central European Time, I will take
> part in the meeting of the Internet and civil society community 
> with the Prime Minister of Poland, Mr Donald Tusk.
> 
> Following a last week meeting I took part with Minister Boni
> (responsible for day-to-day operations of the cabinet) where
> representatives of 7 organisations (including Internet Society
> Poland represented by myself) have expressed their deepest concern
> about proposed introduction of the government-run list of banned
> websites and Internet services that is about to be introduced by
> the proposed law that regulates gambling in the country. The issue
> has stirred lots of controversy amount the Internet community in
> the country, with mainstream media to follow up on the issue.
> 
> The proposed law introduces a general ban on gambling not 
> lincensed by the government *including* online gambling that
> might be targeted at the Polish user (being either (a) available
> in the Polish language (b) operating from Poland or (c) being
> advertised in Poland). To support the ban, the government
> proposal that has been approved by the Council of Ministers
> mid-January 2010 a special register of banned Internet websites
> and services is about to be introduced. The register will
> be run by the Polands telecom regulator (UKE) and entries
> are about to be added by the police and the customs and
> approved by the circuit court in Warsaw.
> 
> The register, however, will not only include gambling sites
> - it is also targeted at the child pornography sites
> (possession and dissemination of such material have been
> made illegal in Poland recently) as well as the sites dealing with
> the fund transfer from bank accounts/credict cards using fradulent
> information (i.e.  phishing sites). A quasi-judicial procedure is
> about to be introduced.  All Internet providers need to comply to the
court
> request within 6 hours.
> 
> Internet Society Poland in a joint letter with 9 other civic society
> organisations has protested against the proposed change on
> the constitutional grounds.
> 
> The meeting is scheduled to take two hours and will be transmitted
> live on the Internet (as well as being covered by three nationwide
> TV networks).
> 
> This will be of course in Polish but the atmosphere may be nevertheless
> interesting.  In addition to ISOC Poland and other organisations a
> sample of Internet users, bloggers and online activits has been
> invited, based on the questions and issues they have raised on the
> dedicated Internet portal during last week. I have been told that
> number of participants will be about 50.
> 
> It can be watched live:
> 
> http://www.premier.gov.pl/centrum_prasowe/centrum_multimedialne/na_zywo/
> 
> http://www.onet.tv/zapytaj-premiera-debata-na-zywo,6130793,relacja.html
> 
> http://www.lookr.tv/
> 
> 
> Special iPhone version:
> 
> http://www.premier.gov.pl/iphone
> 
> Full details of the event:
> 
> http://www.premier.gov.pl/centrum_prasowe/wydarzenia/id:4129/
> 
> List of invited organisations:
> 
>
http://www.premier.gov.pl/files/news/download/Organizacje_pozarzadowe_na_spotkanie_z_premierem.pdf
> 
> More details (in Polish) on the office of the prime minister website:
> 
> http://www.premier.gov.pl/centrum_prasowe/wydarzenia/id:4129/