InternEtional

[lythium]

My previous thread here (Concerning Egypt) got me wondering...

A blogger, who (understandably) had some critique on the Egyptian way of ruling a country, was jailed for 2 years after insulting the president of Egypt on his blog.

This made me think about a couple of things, which I would like to hear some opinions on.

1. The internet knows no borders. It does in Egypt as well as in China, where many internet pages are blocked by the government. Is this right? Should the internet not be a place where everyone can reach anyone else in the world, without national interferrence?

2. The internet as the spearhead of free speech. Anyone with any ideas should be able to post those on his or her internet pages. This would be in accordance with the universal rights of man. Obviously, that raises a whole new discussion, which I don't think belongs in this thread, about when freedom of speech becomes harmful, but should it not be possible to criticize anything you want and ventilate any ideas you have, on the internet, as long as they are not inciting harm/violence/racism/etc?

So, what is the position of national governments in the internet. Should they be able to interfere into their inhabitant's behaviors on the internet, or should the internet be immune from national policies and be an international forum of free speech? And should every person on the planet be able to access anything on the internet?

And more radically, does Egypt have the right to bar an international criticist and does China have the right to shun the Chinese people from accessing websites?

[Lady Dragonfly]

In spite of the fact that UN Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed freedom of speech as inherent human right, most of the countries recognized it only formally. Even in the West it is somewhat limited.
In the totalitarian/authoritarian countries it is limited...ahem... a little bit more, no big deal. But people in those countries, God bless them, have some other good rights instead. For example, they may worship their President. Or King. Or Generalissimus. Or Fuhrer. Internet is a good way to express love and adoration too. A bit of censorship, a little of jail time, and everybody will learn to "love thy neighbor", especially if this neighbor is The Neighbor.

Seriously, I think the right to criticize is one thing and the right to insult publicly is another. There is a fine line sometimes.
The Internet laws are far behind in time and space IMO.


You might find this interesting:

American Civil Liberties Union : Free Speech : Internet Censorship

[lythium]

Oh cool , thanks. (sorry for my late reply.. life deprives me of much of my time.)