Bahrain, Belarus Added to 'Enemies of the Internet' List
Reporters Without Borders has added Bahrain and Belarus to its "Enemies of the Internet" list for their restrictive approach to the Web.
Bahrain and Belarus join the ranks of other countries that RWB considers to be most restricting Internet freedom, including Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
"Bahrain offers an example of an effective news blackout based on a remarkable array of repressive measures: keeping the international media away, harassing human rights activists, arresting bloggers and netizens (one of whom died in detention), smearing and prosecuting free speech activists, and disrupting communications, especially during the major demonstrations," RWB said.
Belarus President Lukashenko, meanwhile, has increasingly cracked down on the Web as citizens have used it to mobilize against his regime.
"The list of blocked websites has grown longer and the Internet was partially blocked during the 'silent protests,'" RWB said. "Some Belarusian Internet users and bloggers have been arrested while others have been invited to 'preventive conversations' with the police in a bid to get them to stop demonstrating or covering demonstrations."
The Belarus government has used Twitter to intimidate protestors, RWB continued, while the country's main ISP has diverted those trying to access social network Vkontakte to sites with malware.
A new law that took effect on Jan. 6, meanwhile, "reinforced Internet surveillance and control measures," RWB said.
Last year, Bahrain and Belarus were on RWB's "under surveillance" list, but their actions bumped them up to the official "enemies" list.
The "under surveillance" category includes countries like Egypt, where "the new regime has resumed old practices and has directly targeted the most outspoken blogger," RWB said.
RWB also called out Eritrea ("a police state that keeps its citizens away from the Internet"), Malaysia ("which continues to harass bloggers"), Russia (used cyber attacks to stop political debate), South Korea (censoring North Korean propaganda), Thailand (sending bloggers to prison), Turkey (thousands of inaccessible websites), Sri Lanka (online media blocked), and the United Arab Emirates (surveillance has been reinforced preventively in response to the Arab Spring).
RWB noted, however, that Thailand "could soon join the club of the world's most repressive countries as regards the Internet," thanks to continued content filtering and jailing of bloggers.
Burma might slip off the "enemies" list and change places with Thailand, RWB said, since it has "clearly embarked on a promising period of reforms, which has included the release of journalists and bloggers and the restoration of access to blocked websites."
New additions to "under surveillance" include India and Kazakhstan.
"Since the Mumbai bombings of 2008, the Indian authorities have stepped up Internet surveillance and pressure on technical service providers, while publicly rejecting accusations of censorship," RWB said.
In Kazakhstan, "an unprecedented oil workers strike, a major riot, a strange wave of bombings and the president's ailing health all helped to increase government tension in 2011 and led to greater control of information, especially online information: blocking of news websites, cutting of communications around the city of Zhanaozen during the riot, and new, repressive Internet regulations."
The group noted, however, that Libya has been dropped from the "under surveillance" list since the fall of the Gaddafi regime "has ended an era of censorship." Venezuela was also removed from that category since 2011 legislation "that could potentially limit Internet freedom has yet to have any damaging effect in practice."
RWB said countries like Azerbaijan, Morocco, and Tajikistan are on its radar. Pakistan might also end up on the 2013 "enemies" list since it plans to implement a national Internet filtering and blocking system.
For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.
blog comments powered by Disqus