[Values-ethics] "Silenced": cf Tunisia ¬ Switzerland, for instance

Sat Oct 4 00:58:14 BST 2003

Bonsoir - good evening

I'll carry on in English because this is a common language to both lists,
and Ms Elwarda understands it too. Introductions:

- values-ethics at wsis-cs.org is a mailing list created after the "Values and
Ethics caucus meetings at PrepCom3 for WSIS, and the situation described in
"Silenced" is certainly a Values and Ethics issue.
- wsis at comunica-ch.net is the mailing list of  the Swiss platform of Civil
Society Associations for WSIS, and the (in)admissibility of WSIS2 being held
in Tunisia if the human rights continue being trampelled there has been
discussed in  this list
- last but by far not least, Ms Sophie Elwarda regularly sends news about
censorship and repression of internet access in Tunisia, in particular
regarding the imprisonment of Zouhair Yahyaoui, the "editor of Tunezine"
mentioned in the quoted page on Tunisia below.

***

"Silenced is an independent research initiative managed jointly by Privacy
International [ http://www.privacyinternational.org/ ] and the GreenNet
Educational Trust [ http://www.greenneteducationaltrust.org.uk/ ]. The
twelve-month project was undertaken through a collaboration of more than
fifty experts and advocates throughout the world. The work was made possible
by a grant from the Open Society Institute."

For the rest of the description, see
http://www.privacyinternational.org/survey/censorship/index.html . At the
bottom of this page, there's a link to the report itself:
http://www.privacyinternational.org/survey/censorship/silenced.pdf
2Mb but contrary to WSIS pdf's, no silly pics of "important people": 136
pages of well-documented and well-referenced information. You will find the
pages on Tunisia and Switzerland below.

All the best

Claude

Claude Almansi
claude.almansi at bluewin.ch
www.adisi.ch

***

>From "silenced":

Africa

Tunisia

The Internet arrived in Tunisia in the mid 1990's
and is now the most developed environment in
Northern Africa. President Zein Al Abdeen Bin Aly
has embraced the Internet in order to promote
economic development.
Tunisia is considered the only Arab country that
retains Internet technological independence, and
has evolved its own Internet industry. Its creation
of a high tech net medium ranked the country
51st position (out of 72 countries) in a UNDP league
table of global technology achievements. The
Tunisian government has a strong online presence.
All Tunisian media have their own websites.
Tunisian radio and television are broadcast live
over the Internet.
The government has extensively invested
in developing the telecommunication and
telephone infrastructure and increasing the
Internet bandwidth to assure more Internet
penetration. It has allowed privatised companies
to work both as ISPs as well as establishing
cybercafes throughout the country. All universities
and secondary schools are connected. Internet
rates have been dropping, along with customs
duties on imported computer equipment, making
Internet access more affordable for Tunisians.

Although the government states that it advocates
Internet technology, the State Security Police
keeps the Internet under tight control, making
sure that the usage conforms to the government's
rules. The Internet regulations reflect the
government's restrictive approach to freedom of
expression and freedom of the press. In Tunisia,
all news media, including the Internet, should
promote the official line of the government
and avoid news and commentary that imply
criticism of government policies. The Agence
Tunisienne d'Internet (ATI) works not only as the
regulatory body for the Internet but also in the
role of cyber-police as a watchdog over Internet
usage and users. Like other media forms, Internet
users perform self censorship in order to escape
government restrictions.

The Tunisian government was an early adopter of
Internet restrictions. In 1997, it enacted a decree
that made ISPs responsible for their content and
required them to submit monthly lists of their users.
Encryption was also banned by a 1997 decree.
A law on digital signatures was approved in 2000
and a new law on telecommunications was
adopted in January 2001. The press code also
applies to the Internet.
Several cyber activists have been arrested and
questioned about their Internet activities and
papers, NGO sites, and independent weblogs
have been blocked. The editor of the Tunezine
web site was sentenced in 2002 to two year
imprisonment for criticising the government on his
web site.
Tunisia is co-hosting the World Summit on
Information Society (WSIS) in 2005. This has been
controversial given the Tunisian governments
actions against free speech on and off the
Internet. A number of press groups and NGOs
have called for the summit to be moved to a
country more respectful of free speech.

References

Comite pour le Respect des Libertes et des Droits
de l'Homme en Tunisie (CRLDHT)
http://www.maghreb-ddh.sgdg.org/crldht/index.html

Conseil National Pour Les Libertés en Tunisie
http://www.cnlt98.org/

Article XIX, Tunisia: Surveillance and Repression
http://www.article19.org/docimages/660.htm

Human Rights Watch on Tunisian Internet
Censorship
http://www.hrw.org/advocacy/internet/mena/tunisia.htm

Tunezine
http://www.tunezine.com/

www.alternatives-citoyennes.sgdg.org

Agence Tunisienne d'Internet
http://www.ati.tn/

Arrêté du ministre des communications du 9
septembre 1997, fixant les conditions d'utilisation
du cryptage dans l'exploitation des services à
valeur ajoutée des télécommunications.
http://www.infocom.tn/juridique/arrete9-9-97.htm

Arrêté du ministre des communications du 22 mars
1997 portant approbation du cahier des charges
fixant les clauses particulières à la mise en ouvre
et l'exploitation des services à valeur ajoutée des
télécommunications de type Internet
http://www.infocom.tn/juridique/arrete22-3-97_internet.htm

Loi n°2000-83 relative aux échanges et commerce
électroniques
http://www.infocom.tn/juridique/ecommerce.htm

Loi n° 1-2001 du 15 janvier 2001 portant
promulgation du code des telecommunications
http://www.infocom.tn/juridique/code_telecom.html
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--

Europe

Switzerland

Despite Switzerland's relatively advanced
Internet infrastructure, there exists a digital divide.
According to data collected by the Bundesamt
für Statistik the typical Swiss Internet user is young,
male, relatively well educated, and relatively
affluent,. The main digital divide is between those
who are computer-literate and those who are
not, a gap that correlates strongly with the level
of formal education and therefore also with socioeconomic
status. In the past few years a publicprivate
partnership has worked to bring computers
to public schools, and by spring 2003 almost all
public schools had Internet access. However,
often this is not used because teachers lack
training. In the future this problem may accelerate:
the more access to Web sites (and other types
of Internet communication) is restricted the more
access to information will be limited to those with
special technical and social skills.

Switzerland is a signatory to the University
Declaration of Human Rights, and articles of
its constitution guarantee the right to access
information, data protection, and privacy of post
and telecommunications, and freedom of speech.

After 9/11, the Swiss government issued an
"emergency decree" that has since been
extended until the end of 2003 that requires such
institutions as hospitals and universities to hand
over "suspicious" data to the authorities even in
the absence of a formal request. In spring 2003,
the government proposed a new law intended to
further expand these powers.

The Parliament approved a new law on
interception of communications in 2001. The law
requires ISPs to retain communications data for six
months. In the case of mobile phones, such data
includes location data, requiring mobile network
operators to constantly track phones and store the
data they so collect. The law also requires ISPs to
have the capability of interception email in real
time. In case of an interception order, the ISP must
forward a copy of every email belonging to the
targeted individual to a special police service in
Berne. Lobbying organisations like the SIUG, as well
as consumer organisations and data protection
officers, regularly stress that email and Internet
traffic are not anonymous at all except when
using encryption programs like PGP. The SIUG and
Big Brother Awards Switzerland are organising
workshops on "safe surfing". Cryptography is
not restricted in Switzerland. In Spring 2003, the
Swiss Parliament decided to require compulsory
registration for all users of prepaid mobile phone
calling cards. It is, however, illegal to monitor
Internet traffic in enterprises.

Switzerland signed the Cybercrime Convention
in November 2001. A federal coordination unit
for cybercrime control (KOBIK), was formed
in February 2002 and became operational in
April 2003. The agency's mission is to look for
"illegal content" on the Internet and to prepare
prosecutions. Individuals may report crimes,
including hacking and pornography, to the unit.
The Criminal Code prohibits the posting of illegal
materials such as racist speech and online
incitement to violence. The question of ISPs' liability
for content hosted on their servers is not clear
and there have been no court cases. However,
in several instances the federal police have
issued advice to ISPs to delete or block access to
specific Web sites. For example, the examining
magistrate of the Canton of Vaud asked ISPs to
manipulate the DNS to block access to specific
Web sites, and there have been cases where a
big company tried to block employee access to
the site belonging to a union. The big commercial
ISPs especially have tended to honour requests
to block or delete sites, and they have added
paragraphs to their Acceptable Use Policies to the
effect that they may delete Web sites or accounts
without the client's consent. Legally, it seems that
ISPs can be made liable if they continue to host
Web sites with illegal content after being made
aware of them. However, ISPs are not required
to proactively check the content of the Web
sites they host. Some commercial enterprises use
filtering software, but these are not used by public
institutions.

There have been no court cases involving the use
of copyright law to limit speech on the Internet.
However, in November 2001 Microsoft Switzerland
sent a letter to many companies asking them to
hand over detailed data on all PCs and software
in use. There were protests over this letter, mainly
by the Union Syndikat (www.syndikat.ch).

References

Union of online workers
http://www.syndikat.ch/

Swiss Network Operators Group (Swinog)
homepage
http://www.swinog.ch/

2001 Wiretap law
http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/c780_1.html

Laws on interception of telecommunications traffic
and email
http://cryptome.org/ch-ilets-regs.htm