Keep the Internet Free!
Some sensible comments from a European politician, and from Sweden no less. Carl Bildt is former Swedish PM from the conservative party Moderaterna in the early 1990s. Unfortunately, his government, too, was weak on immigration, but all in all, Bildt is probably the best PM Sweden has had for decades:Who is going to be isolated?
On the one side is the United States, which wants to retain supervision of the Internet and has managed to get the reluctant support of most of the global Internet community. With the theocracy of Iran as the standard-bearer, this group brings together Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba and Venezuela. North Korea is probably keen to join in as well. The European Union seems to be in the middle, wavering back and forth - and in its wavering it has recently come down with a position that has brought it enthusiastic applause from Tehran, Beijing and Havana. The Internet is vital to our future, and we Europeans should be as keen as anyone to preserve the essence of a system that has worked amazingly well. If that entails leaving some ultimate safeguard powers in the hands of the United States, that's certainly better than having theocrats or autocrats around the world getting their hands on the levers of control.
EU Wants to “Internationalize” the Internet
“It’s a very shocking and profound change of the EU’s position. The EU’s proposal seems to represent an historic shift in the regulatory approach to the Internet from one that is based on private sector leadership to a government, top-down control of the Internet.”
Defend Web from thug states
This worldwide web of tyrannies, hiding behind the veneer of technical complaints, now seeks to control not just what its own citizens are able to see and say on the Internet, but what every individual on the face of the planet is able to see and say. If the UN is given control of the Internet we can expect free trade and freedom of speech to be crushed. The Internet was created in and by the land of the free, America. It has now become the object of an alarming power-grab by the world's dictatorships and their puppet, the United Nations. America must not surrender its citizens' freedom to the mercy of a debating society for dictators.
Blogger says the future of journalism is online
Journalist K. Paul Mallasch sees the future of journalism as a conversation, something he says is only viable through online journalism. "In the past, media has been, for the most part, a one-way process, with the 'journalists' telling the people what’s important," Mallasch said.
posted by Unknown @ 2:07 PM
3 Comments:
Re: "With the theocracy of Iran as the standard-bearer, this group brings together Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba and Venezuela. North Korea is probably keen to join in as well"
Iran, Saudi Arabia, N. Korea, Cuba - geez, I can't wait to migrate by internet use to this bunch. I expect them to run the internet about as successfully as they run their economies. I bet these cretins haven't a clue as to how insanely ridiculous they appear. OTH - it might be interesting to see internet porn stars clad in burquas
Nouille:
I suggest you read Wretchard's comments first. Given the EU's lack of spine on various issues it would only be a matter of time before Kofi Annan and the UN got involved. Wouldn't that be fun (for those on the take in the UN at least).
http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/
"Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba and Venezuela."
Sounds like the membership of the United Nations Committee on Human Rights.
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