The 2003 Reporters without Borders (RSF) Internet Surveillance Report paints a grim picture of world governments’ efforts to restrict the flow of information, and points a finger at South Africa’s Electronic Communications and Transactions Bill.
Conducted worldwide, the study seeks to inform ”Internauts” of both their responsibilities and rights when using the most pervasive and contested information medium of the current age -‒ and places the responsibility of its use firmly in users’ hands.
The report looks at South Africa, noting the controversial Electronic Communications and Transactions Bill which allows the communications minister to monitor internet traffic and content.
The report further notes that private companies in this country are concerned the Bill allows government interference in e-commerce, despite statements from the minister to the contrary.
The survey also singles out government attempts to ”take over” the administration of the ”.za” domain name which recently sparked a furious, high profile stand-off with ZA domain administrator Mike Lawrie.
Commenting on the report and the government’s move to gain control of the ZA domain, internet analyst Arthur Goldstuck says this move should rather have been seen in a positive light.
”It was time that there was more answerability and accountability with regard to the .za space,” he says.
Goldstuck says the domain was previously ”arbitrarily managed” and that the government’s ”consultative” approach did not alienate stakeholders and was in fact ”an example” to other countries.
On a more positive note, the report also points out that South Africa, as the African continent’s ‘backbone’ with virtually all the continent’s internet content flowing through its connections, is well-placed to boost its own growth.
Vincent Cerf, writing for RSF in the report, says that surfers should ”exercise due diligence to assure their governments are not hiding political censorship behind a putative moral façade”.
The responsibility also lies with users to ascertain whether information disseminated is correct and useful. Cerf suggests an oft mentioned but little used skill; ”critical thinking”, and cites frenetic spam mail forwarders as the bane of surfers everywhere.
He continues, saying that users have the responsibility, as with all media, to counteract incorrect information, by ”drawing attention to the problem” or correcting the bad data.
The survey cites user numbers across the globe, and details governments’ both devious and sometimes insulting efforts to restrict citizens to the internet.
By way of example, the Myanmar junta has installed the ”Myanmar Wide Web” that itself is strictly monitored. Only a few hundred people in a country of 10 000 internet users have been granted access to the World Wide Web in its entirety, and e-mail is closely monitored.
But it isn’t just oppressive regimes that seek to curtail the internet’s pervasive spread: Canada, post September 11, passed legislation that effectively undermined journalists’ right to protect their sources, and allows the government to intercept private e-mail communications at the defence minister’s behest.
The Chinese government is probably the most high profile internet restrictor, with reports of jailed dissidents, website blocking, and shutting down of cyber cafes. But Chinese citizens have sheer numbers in their favour, with it becoming technically impossible to monitor the 59 100 000 users in the country.
The government is constantly tweaking an arsenal of legislation to confine surfers, but their efforts led instead to 18 Chinese intellectuals penning a ”declaration of rights of Chinese internet users”, that thousands of the country’s users have already signed.
Read the full report here