Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-06-22-Speech-3-165"
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"en.20050622.18.3-165"2
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"Mr President, it was developments in information technology that broke the monopoly of Communist censorship in the 1980s, and helped bring democracy to our part of Europe. We must now go one step further. The next challenge awaiting us is the development of an information society, in which technology and communications are used to enforce human rights standards effectively at international, national and regional levels. While building this information society, we must focus not only on the obvious tasks of promoting and constructing basic infrastructure, but also and above all, on education. By this I mean firstly primary education, in order to ensure that no one feels scared of technological progress, and secondly education on media content, which would allow young people to take a critical and creative approach to all forms of media.
The information society entails free and unrestricted access to technology and information, and this is why I believe that software patents would mean certain death for such a society. Grim dictatorships, motivated by the fear of certain ideas, still find ways of blocking access to information. There is nothing new in this. A law has been adopted in Cuba restricting Internet access to selected businesses and government offices, and banning the sale of computers to the public. Only 6 000 of the 100 000 computers in Cuba are connected to international networks, and even these are kept under close control.
The Belarussian Government is also well aware of the potential role of the Internet in developing civil society and democracy, and it uses every means at its disposal to curb its growing popularity. A new law has been drafted on the mass media.
this law provides for mandatory registration and makes it necessary for Internet-based publishers to obtain what is known as a publishing licence. In reality, the latter will act as a powerful instrument of censorship. A further characteristic feature of the situation in Belarus is the fact that the state is the only Internet provider, as there are no other operators in the country with access to external telecommunications services. The Belarussian Ministry of Communications requires all Internet users to obtain authorisation for their modems at a cost of USD 20, even though the average monthly income per capita is USD 60. There is no escaping the conclusion that this issue must also be a focus of our activities."@en1
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