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Voices of the People
Overview
The level of dissatisfaction rely heavily on the individual nation, and there are no overriding responses that the Asian countries researched share. The ardent need for free internet access is most strongly felt in Burma where local bloggers risk serious repercussions of getting caught. However, different countries have varying degrees of consequences with regards to citizens attempting to make their stand known. For examplein Iran,pressure from the online community have forced the government to retract its filtering of several sites in many instances. On the other side of the spectrum, people seem genuinely satisfied with the internet regime imposed by their governments and see criticisms of the filtering regimes as attempts to impose western ideology on a wholly different culture.
1. Burma
Within Burma's heavily controlled media & Internet environment, citizen journalism has provided at least a limited means for free expression. Repressed Burmese citizens are always asking for information as well as requesting help and assistance from the outside world. Nevertheless, few of their voices ever reached the world at large. With all internal media controlled by the state, the Internet provides one of the few routes left for the people to get information from inside Burma through to the outside world.
Civilian journalists represent a group of amateur journalists who bravely took up responsibility of capturing the Burmese story when professional journalists are denied entry or even killed in the course of reporting. Local bloggers engage in activities such as the disseminating information on how foreign proxy sites can be hosted to view blocked sites and swapping tricks and links on their pages with the help of modern technology like cell phones, laptops etc. Although the repercussions of getting caught are great, many of these civilian journalists are still in the battle against online censorship using the internet as a platform. These actions, although risky, represents a powerful statement of political dissent. Burmese netizens have shown that the tools of Web 2.0 and UGC (user-generated content), they can create bi-directional communications and create awareness of the Junta's many brutal sides of Burma's ruling military junta, would have never been known to the outside world.
2. China (see more here)
Despite the general misconception that the Chinese are unhappy with internet censorship in China, a majority of the Chinese population are satisfied with current online filtering activities. Based on a recent survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, over 80% of the Chinese feels that the internet should be controlled. In 2007, approximately 85% of them stated that they think the state government should be responsible for internet filtering activities. Most maintains a negative perspective on the Internet environment - from untrustworthy content to risky consequences on daily life.
Many of the Chinese trusts information on government websites more than any other kind of online content from established media, search engines or bulletin boards. An estimated 93% of Chinese internet users considered online content to be unsuitable for children. One of the reasons for this could be that the locally-controlled state media warn frequently of the repercussions of a "free" internet platform.
Even with prevalent fears of online dangers, there was still a sharp increase of 65% from 137('000,000) to 210('000,000) internet users from 2006 to 2008. Most feel that the internet culture is "cool" and frequently uses the platform as a channel for interactivity, entertainment, as well as to keep themselves updated. In addition, more than half of the Chinese population feels that they might be out dated if they do not know more about the internet. For the Chinese who advocates for a "free" internet, a variety of methods are frequently used in order to circumvent these censors. These include the use of proxy relays, software that allows users to surf the internet anonymously, web-based circumventors, and tunneling that allows users in a censored location to access information through a tunnel to a computer in an unfiltered location.
3. Iran
There is much dissent over the way in which Iran governs its internet content. In 2004, the arrest of three online journalists and bloggers led to massive online protests against the blocking. Also, this led to the widespread boycott of the controversial elections that year. The strength of the online and international community seems formidable, and pressure have resulted in several impressive acheivements for the oppressive online censorship. Massive pressure from the online community led to the release of the arrested journalist. On the same day, more than 200 Iranian bloggers protested against the shutdown of reformist news site, Emrooz, by renaming their sites "Emrooz" and featuring content from the particular site. Bloggers adopted the use of the Real Simple Syndication (RSS) technology to evade the blocking of the sites.
Arrest and detentions of bloggers and online journalists have been increasing over the recent years. Many accused the state of holding them in solitary confinement and subjecting them to torture in order to force them to confess. Despite continual pressure and threats from authorities on bloggers, the internet community continues to strive towards preventing the augmentation of the Iranian internet control. Insofar, applications/tools/websites such as Google Cache, Emrooz, Gooya News, Voice of America among many others that were previously blocked by the Iranian authorities have been unblocked due to massive online and global pressure. This seems to be a positive inclination towards the inability to rely on censorship as a long term basis of control. Despite attempts at censorship, the World Wide Web is simply too vast. The exponential development of technology would also create redundancy in the filtering regime as censorship gets increasing harder to implement.
4. North Korea
Despite claims by Kim Jong II on being an internet expert, this is clearly not the case for majority of citizens residing in North Korea. Little information is available on the general opinion of internet users in North Korea but with inference from available statistics and information, several conclusions can be drawn. First, with the negligible population of online community in North Korea, with majority of its users being elites and members of the party, there can hardly be much negative sentiments over the heavy censorship of the internet regime. In addition, being one of the most impoverished nations in the world, access to internet is nowhere near the priorities of an average North Korean struggling for survival in the harsh communist regime.
Foreigners living in North Korea access internet using Chinese and Japanese ISPs, and are subjected to the filtering laws of the countries in which the ISP presides in. Any opinions regarding the filtering regime is hence, not specific to North Korea per se. It would be inconsequential towards drawing a conclusion for the internet filtering regime in North Korea. Putting the North Korean internet filtering regime into perspective, the population of internet users is too minimal and too skewered to be of much significance to the analysis of the above section.
5.Vietnam
Blogging is considerably active in light of the heavy restrictions imposed upon the population. Although not highly publicized like the China and Burma internet filtering regime, the Vietnamese have seen several arrests of journalist and pro-democratic activist in recent years. In 2007, Nguyen Van Dai, one of the leaders of the pro-democracy movement was arrested and persecuted for posting regular pro-democracy essays on foreign websites. Although appeals have been made to protest the sentencing of these Vietnamese online dissidents, they were mass appeals from people outside Vietnam.
Most bloggers prefer to write in English primarily in order to remain unfiltered. This would naturally also compromise the extent of each blogger’s reach. In this way, the Vietnamese government has managed to limit voices of the people. Nguyen Dan Que, who was arrested for writing on the lack of freedom of information, has since been released but remains under surveillance. But the constant and consistent presence of such dissenting bloggers suggests a deep dissatisfaction with the level of control over the internet.
Despite all these constraints, the internet is a rising power in Vietnam - with 88% of professional internet users stating that the internet is indispensable in their daily business. Inafew cases, people are still able to circumvent the reach of internet filters. One anecdote speaks of a 75-year old who used the internet platform as a means of reaching out to fellow citizens tired of corrupted officials in a bid to end it. Although faced with threats from anonymous people, she stood firm with her views and is, thus indicative of mounting pressure for a freer internet.
The level of dissatisfaction rely heavily on the individual nation, and there are no overriding responses that the Asian countries researched share. The ardent need for free internet access is most strongly felt in Burma where local bloggers risk serious repercussions of getting caught. However, different countries have varying degrees of consequences with regards to citizens attempting to make their stand known. For examplein Iran,pressure from the online community have forced the government to retract its filtering of several sites in many instances. On the other side of the spectrum, people seem genuinely satisfied with the internet regime imposed by their governments and see criticisms of the filtering regimes as attempts to impose western ideology on a wholly different culture.
1. Burma
Within Burma's heavily controlled media & Internet environment, citizen journalism has provided at least a limited means for free expression. Repressed Burmese citizens are always asking for information as well as requesting help and assistance from the outside world. Nevertheless, few of their voices ever reached the world at large. With all internal media controlled by the state, the Internet provides one of the few routes left for the people to get information from inside Burma through to the outside world.
Civilian journalists represent a group of amateur journalists who bravely took up responsibility of capturing the Burmese story when professional journalists are denied entry or even killed in the course of reporting. Local bloggers engage in activities such as the disseminating information on how foreign proxy sites can be hosted to view blocked sites and swapping tricks and links on their pages with the help of modern technology like cell phones, laptops etc. Although the repercussions of getting caught are great, many of these civilian journalists are still in the battle against online censorship using the internet as a platform. These actions, although risky, represents a powerful statement of political dissent. Burmese netizens have shown that the tools of Web 2.0 and UGC (user-generated content), they can create bi-directional communications and create awareness of the Junta's many brutal sides of Burma's ruling military junta, would have never been known to the outside world.
2. China (see more here)
Despite the general misconception that the Chinese are unhappy with internet censorship in China, a majority of the Chinese population are satisfied with current online filtering activities. Based on a recent survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, over 80% of the Chinese feels that the internet should be controlled. In 2007, approximately 85% of them stated that they think the state government should be responsible for internet filtering activities. Most maintains a negative perspective on the Internet environment - from untrustworthy content to risky consequences on daily life.
Many of the Chinese trusts information on government websites more than any other kind of online content from established media, search engines or bulletin boards. An estimated 93% of Chinese internet users considered online content to be unsuitable for children. One of the reasons for this could be that the locally-controlled state media warn frequently of the repercussions of a "free" internet platform.
Even with prevalent fears of online dangers, there was still a sharp increase of 65% from 137('000,000) to 210('000,000) internet users from 2006 to 2008. Most feel that the internet culture is "cool" and frequently uses the platform as a channel for interactivity, entertainment, as well as to keep themselves updated. In addition, more than half of the Chinese population feels that they might be out dated if they do not know more about the internet. For the Chinese who advocates for a "free" internet, a variety of methods are frequently used in order to circumvent these censors. These include the use of proxy relays, software that allows users to surf the internet anonymously, web-based circumventors, and tunneling that allows users in a censored location to access information through a tunnel to a computer in an unfiltered location.
3. Iran
There is much dissent over the way in which Iran governs its internet content. In 2004, the arrest of three online journalists and bloggers led to massive online protests against the blocking. Also, this led to the widespread boycott of the controversial elections that year. The strength of the online and international community seems formidable, and pressure have resulted in several impressive acheivements for the oppressive online censorship. Massive pressure from the online community led to the release of the arrested journalist. On the same day, more than 200 Iranian bloggers protested against the shutdown of reformist news site, Emrooz, by renaming their sites "Emrooz" and featuring content from the particular site. Bloggers adopted the use of the Real Simple Syndication (RSS) technology to evade the blocking of the sites.
Arrest and detentions of bloggers and online journalists have been increasing over the recent years. Many accused the state of holding them in solitary confinement and subjecting them to torture in order to force them to confess. Despite continual pressure and threats from authorities on bloggers, the internet community continues to strive towards preventing the augmentation of the Iranian internet control. Insofar, applications/tools/websites such as Google Cache, Emrooz, Gooya News, Voice of America among many others that were previously blocked by the Iranian authorities have been unblocked due to massive online and global pressure. This seems to be a positive inclination towards the inability to rely on censorship as a long term basis of control. Despite attempts at censorship, the World Wide Web is simply too vast. The exponential development of technology would also create redundancy in the filtering regime as censorship gets increasing harder to implement.
4. North Korea
Despite claims by Kim Jong II on being an internet expert, this is clearly not the case for majority of citizens residing in North Korea. Little information is available on the general opinion of internet users in North Korea but with inference from available statistics and information, several conclusions can be drawn. First, with the negligible population of online community in North Korea, with majority of its users being elites and members of the party, there can hardly be much negative sentiments over the heavy censorship of the internet regime. In addition, being one of the most impoverished nations in the world, access to internet is nowhere near the priorities of an average North Korean struggling for survival in the harsh communist regime.
Foreigners living in North Korea access internet using Chinese and Japanese ISPs, and are subjected to the filtering laws of the countries in which the ISP presides in. Any opinions regarding the filtering regime is hence, not specific to North Korea per se. It would be inconsequential towards drawing a conclusion for the internet filtering regime in North Korea. Putting the North Korean internet filtering regime into perspective, the population of internet users is too minimal and too skewered to be of much significance to the analysis of the above section.
5.Vietnam
Blogging is considerably active in light of the heavy restrictions imposed upon the population. Although not highly publicized like the China and Burma internet filtering regime, the Vietnamese have seen several arrests of journalist and pro-democratic activist in recent years. In 2007, Nguyen Van Dai, one of the leaders of the pro-democracy movement was arrested and persecuted for posting regular pro-democracy essays on foreign websites. Although appeals have been made to protest the sentencing of these Vietnamese online dissidents, they were mass appeals from people outside Vietnam.
Most bloggers prefer to write in English primarily in order to remain unfiltered. This would naturally also compromise the extent of each blogger’s reach. In this way, the Vietnamese government has managed to limit voices of the people. Nguyen Dan Que, who was arrested for writing on the lack of freedom of information, has since been released but remains under surveillance. But the constant and consistent presence of such dissenting bloggers suggests a deep dissatisfaction with the level of control over the internet.
Despite all these constraints, the internet is a rising power in Vietnam - with 88% of professional internet users stating that the internet is indispensable in their daily business. Inafew cases, people are still able to circumvent the reach of internet filters. One anecdote speaks of a 75-year old who used the internet platform as a means of reaching out to fellow citizens tired of corrupted officials in a bid to end it. Although faced with threats from anonymous people, she stood firm with her views and is, thus indicative of mounting pressure for a freer internet.
thenhuiloo_chloe |
Latest page update: made by thenhuiloo_chloe
, May 30 2008, 6:14 AM EDT
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Keyword tags:
freedom of speech
internet censorship
internet filtering
people reactions
people responses
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