[Chapter-delegates] Polish Government approves proposal to create registry of banned websites

Thu Jan 21 02:25:21 PST 2010

Marcin,
perhaps you should use this, and blame OSCE (and by proxy your government)
of having double standards

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jVKv3k0Ac_gTtb3xD21oYQ7-ekcQ

VIENNA — Turkey should "reform or abolish" its Internet law, which "limits
freedom of expression ... (and) severely restricts people's right to access
information," the European security body OSCE said Monday.

In a new report, the Organization for Security and Cooperation found that
3,700 Internet sites were currently blocked in Turkey, including YouTube,
GeoCities, and Google sites.

"In its current form, Law 5651, commonly known as the Internet Law of
Turkey, not only limits freedom of expression, but severely restricts the
citizens' right to access information," OSCE Representative on Freedom of
the Media Miklo Haraszti said.

While some content, such as child pornography, must indeed be sanctioned,
"the law is unfit to achieve this," Haraszti said.

"Instead, by blocking access to entire websites from Turkey, it paralyses
access to numerous modern file sharing or social networks."

Blocking Internet access inside Turkey was "an affront to the public's right
to the entirety of the Internet," he added.

"Additionally, some of the official reasons to block the Internet are
arbitrary and political, and therefore incompatible with OSCE's freedom of
expression commitments."

Haraszti said that when he was in Turkey last week to present the report, he
was not able to access the OSCE's own YouTube site.

"The results make the means unjustifiable," he said.

The OSCE official also complained that Turkish laws failed to protect
freedom of expression and journalists risked imprisonment for carrying out
their work.

"Therefore 'reform or abolish' the Internet Law is our main recommendation.
I hope that the Turkish authorities will soon remove the blocking provisions
that prevent Turkish citizens from being part of today's global information
society," Haraszti said.

   - Turkey blocking 3700 websites, reform needed:
OSCE<http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60H2WJ20100118?type=technologyNews>
   Reuters - 2 days ago
   - 3700 websites blocked in Turkey <http://news.am/en/news/12447.html>
   Information-Analytic Agency NEWS.am - 1 day ago
   - Turkey urged to stop blocking 1000s of Web
sites<http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-technology/turkey-urged-to-stop-blocking-1000s-of-web-sites-20100119-mh0c.html>
   Sydney Morning Herald - 2 days ago

On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 4:43 AM, Marcin Cieslak <saper at saper.info> wrote:

> A piece of bad news:
>
>
> http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/01/21/poland-government-approves-proposal-to-create-registry-of-banned-websites-and-services/
>
> --Marcin
>
> _______________________________________________
> Chapter-delegates mailing list
> Chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org
> http://elists.isoc.org/mailman/listinfo/chapter-delegates
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/private/chapter-delegates/attachments/20100121/9f4dd00c/attachment.htm>