Newsmen decry biz bias of Net firms

A group of Asian journalists assailed Internet companies Yahoo and Google for siding with governments that curtail freedom of expression and information in cyberspace.

Members of the South East Press Alliance (SEAPA) revealed that Yahoo, Google, and even software manufacturer Microsoft have agreed to compromises regarding people’s access to information in exchange for the opportunity to do business in 15 Asian countries, one of which is China -- the biggest market in the world with a population of over 1.3 billion.

In a conference entitled “Free Expression in Asian Cyberspace: A Conference of Asian Bloggers, Podcasters, and Online Media,” SEAPA members highlighted the threats and actual attacks against free expression in the Internet, particularly in countries such as Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, Libya, Nepal, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Maldives, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

The event, the first conference of online news and commentary providers in Asia, was held last April 18 to 21 at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati City.

Filipino journalist Manuel L. Quezon III, who participated in the event, said SEAPA online journalists and bloggers consider themselves already in danger, thus the need to organize conferences to exchange information and even tactics. Manila was chosen as the site of the first conference as it has a more liberal government regime.

SEAPA executive director Roby Alampay, who is also a Filipino, said the countries and societies that really enjoy a high level of freedom are actually in the minority. He said the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia are very fortunate to enjoy a very high level of access and freedom when it comes to the Internet.

Alampay explained that Internet companies have different ways of curtailing freedom of expression, either through technology or otherwise, such as through the “application of laws, defamation laws, censorship, filtering searches, and blocking of IP addresses and monitoring of activities on the Internet.”

Jeff Ooi, of the Paris-based press freedom body Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF, also known by its English name Reporters without Borders), reported in the conference that Cisco, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google have given in to pressure from the Chinese government to limit its citizens’ access to information via the Internet.

For instance, he said, Yahoo releases user identities to Chinese authorities; Google blocks specific cache pages; Microsoft shuts down MSN Space; and Internet routers are installed to filter content.

As a result of Internet companies giving away user information to governments, many journalists, media assistants, and activists are killed, harassed, or imprisoned, RSF claims.

According to the RSF’s Press Freedom Barometer 2006, 56 cyber-dissidents in Asia have been imprisoned -- 48 of whom are from China.

Great firewall

Isaac Mao, one of the early bloggers in China, revealed that the “Great Firewall of China” is an Internet backbone that aims to control and filter people’s access to the Internet. It also blocks thousands of overseas Web sites to prevent people from accessing them. One of the banned Web sites is Wikipedia, said to be the biggest encyclopedia in human history.

“I think the system is very effective but very bad to knowledge sharing and to the civilization of people,” Mao said.

Mao said Internet companies are very eager to enter the Chinese market, but reason -- as their excuse for curtailing the users’ access to the Net -- that they have to follow the laws and regulations imposed by the Beijing government.