On March 12, 2008, the international organization “Reporters without Borders” under the auspices of UNESCO announced Online Free Expression Day to draw public attention to the issue of free access to the global network.
“Reporters Without Borders” is an international human rights non-governmental organization that protects freedom of speech around the world. This organization was founded in Paris in 1985. The goal of the organization is the fight against censorship. Every year, the organization publishes its own list of “Internet Enemies”.
In 2008, Reporters Without Borders first invited users to visit their website to express their protest against censorship practiced by some governments and to demand greater rights for Internet users.
In a report published as part of the Day of Freedom of Speech on the Internet in 2012, the organization “Reporters Without Borders” identified 12 countries as “enemies of the Internet” that in various ways restrict citizens’ access to information on the World Wide Web. The following countries made the list: Belarus, Cuba, China, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.
In addition to the ranking of “Internet enemies”, rights defenders have also compiled a list of countries that are under so-called “surveillance”. Countries like Australia, France, South Korea, Sri Lanka etc made it to this list.In 2012, India and Kazakhstan also made it to this list.
Since 2010, Russia has also been on this list. According to the results for 2012, Russia ranked 148th in the annual press freedom ranking of the international human rights organization “Reporters Without Borders”.
The organization said that in 2012, protest actions took place in Russia on an unprecedented scale and civil society had never been so active, but the government responded to these actions by adopting a range of punitive measures: introducing criminal prosecutions for defamation, tightening the control of the Internet and banning the funding of human rights organizations from abroad.
The actuality of the Day of Freedom of Speech on the Internet was underlined by demonstrations against the Act ACTA (Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), which envisages a tightening of supervision over the observance of copyright on the Internet and the information technology market. At the end of January 2012, 22 European states signed the agreement. Opponents of the adoption of ACTA, including a number of European experts, lawyers, journalists and politicians, believe that the program hides great dangers for the future of the Internet, freedom of speech, and human rights. ACTA, for example, contains very vague requirements that can be used, if necessary, to increase corporate control over the Internet.
Source: news.yandex.ru
