Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-06-Speech-4-242"
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"en.20060706.35.4-242"2
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".
Mr President, this resolution is a broad one attempting to deal with global access to the web, which is a huge issue. It welcomes the statement from the world summit in Tunis last November on the prime importance of the information society for democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular freedom of expression and opinion, as well as the freedom to receive and give access to information.
The reality is, of course, that the web provides a fantastic vehicle for change in countries that have to date suppressed freedom of expression and frustrated democracy. For that reason, the Internet is a real headache for totalitarian dictators and governments, who go to great lengths to restrict and prevent its free use. This resolution uses strongly worded language and condemns a number of countries who are openly attempting to restrict and censor information over the web, referring to them as enemies of freedom of expression.
Many of these countries continue to imprison persons who are referred to as ‘cyber dissidents’ and we call for their immediate release. This is particularly the case with China, and we have named a whole series of people involved.
The resolution also tries to deal with the more sensitive issue of involvement by Western, and specifically US and European, technology and companies in providing the capacity for certain governments to censor and filter Internet material. The great firewall of China is perhaps the starkest example of such censorship. The Chinese authorities have successfully persuaded companies such as Yahoo and Google to allow filtering of their search engines. For example, if one types in Tiananmen Square in China, one is likely to get an architectural history of the buildings around the square.
We call on the Commission to put together a voluntary code of conduct, working with rather than lecturing to companies operating in repressive countries, in an effort to reduce the capacity to prevent freedom of expression."@en1
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