Press freedom must extend to the Internet, says Reporters Without Borders

From Agence France Presse via Yahoo News: Press freedom abuses throughout the world include the harassment and imprisonment of online journalists and the suppression of Internet news content and commentary, a new report by Reporters Without Borders reminds us. RSF highlighted two types of online press freedom abuses in the report: the "gag the Internet" ethos of totalitarian governments like China, and the effort to restrict access to certain material in the name of the war on terrorism or more general crime fighting, as practiced by democracies such as the United States. In China, 61 web-based dissidents are in jail. And in the U.S., where laws like the Patriot Act impose government surveillance of Internet activity, the Senate has backed a plan to fight international Internet censorship but refused to check U.S. companies who manufacture the email and Internet surveillance tools used by "gag the Internet" governments. Other nations cited in the report include France, Tunisia, Vietnam. Along with the U.S., the European Union and Council of Europe are singled out for failing to balance press freedom issues with the need to pursue the fight on terrorism.

Source: Agence France Presse via Yahoo News