One Third Of Jailed Journalists Are Bloggers
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, December 7, 2006
A new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists warns of increasing authoritarian attitudes towards the free flow of information on the Internet as statistics reveal that of the estimated 134 journalists jailed for their work worldwide, a full third are Internet writers and bloggers.
Reuters reports, “We’re at a crucial juncture in the fight for press freedom because authoritarian states have made the Internet a major front in their effort to control information,” Committee Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement.
“China is challenging the notion that the Internet is impossible to control or censor, and if it succeeds there will be far-ranging implications, not only for the medium but for press freedom all over the world.”
The past few months have produced a noted increase in the amount of negative rhetoric spewed forth by western governments over the so-called dangers of the Internet and its exploitation by “terrorist organizations.”
What we are witnessing is clearly a chilling effect and an attempt to stifle people from feeling comfortable in openly expressing their feelings about the phantom “war on terror” and other political catastrophes via the forum of the world wide web.
As the implementation of biometric technology and its application to security becomes more widely used, we are not far from the day when we have have to thumb scan simply to use the Internet and only with government permission will we be allowed to run a blog.
Read it here.
