Freedom of Expression

Citizen Lab Wins Press Freedom Award for Defense of Internet

The Citizen Lab is the recipient of this year’s press freedom award of the Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom (CCWPF), The 13th annual Press Freedom Award goes to a Canadian person or group who has defended or advanced the cause of freedom of expression. The Citizen Lab team, based at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, was selected for its ongoing dedication to free expression online through work that exposes cases of Internet censorship and espionage around the world.

From CNBC
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Citizen Lab Recipient of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) 2010 Vox Libera Award

The Citizen Lab is proud and humbled by the announcement that we are the recipient of the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) 2010 Vox Libera Award. The announcement stated “The Citizen Lab was selected for its dedication to free expression and access to information online. World leaders in the field of “hacktivism,” the Citizen Lab’s members focus their research on documenting cases of internet espionage and censorship around the world, reinforcing the idea that the Internet should remain a safe, public domain”.

From Digital Journal

Toronto’s Citizen Lab uses forensics to fight online censors

A basement in the gray, Gothic heart of the University of Toronto is home to the CSI of cyberspace. “We are doing free expression forensics,” says Ronald Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab, based at the Munk Centre for International Studies. Deibert and his team of academics and students investigate in real time governments and companies that restrict what we see and hear on the Internet. They are also trying to help online journalists and bloggers slip the shackles of censorship and surveillance.

From the Committee to Protect Journalists, found here

Announcing the GNI Monitor!

We are pleased to announce a new project this summer in the Citizen Lab, called the “Global Network Initiative Monitor” or “GNI Monitor” for short.

The project’s mission statement can be downloaded here.

The project will combine technical and contextual research methods to measure compliance of both participants and non-participants to the GNI principles, as well as evaluate the GNI process overall.

Related:
CBC News “Tech Giants to be rated on Human Rights,” Tuesday 21 July 2009, More Here

Amnesty International Event/Open Democracy

Amnesty international is having an event on Wednesday June 6th in the UK that I’m speaking at by webcast. The event is called “irrepressible.info” and is about threats to freedom of speech and access to information online.

You can read more about it here

Leading up to the event, I wrote an editorial comment that has been published on the Open Democracy website

Vancouver Sun Article on "The Not So Free Internet."

Peter Wilson of the Vancouver Sun put together a lengthy feature article on the ways in which freedom of information exchange is being undermined on the Internet. I provided some background info and input.

The not-so-free Internet: From Chinese filtering to police access in Canada, governments are trying to regulate the Internet. But technology has a habit of bypassing everything regulators can throw at it.

Peter Wilson
Vancouver Sun
22 September 2005

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Copyright © 2005 Vancouver Sun

“The Net treats censorship as damage and routes around it.”
— John Gillmore, co-founder of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, circa 1992.

When Canadian Internet law expert Michael Geist tried to download his e-mail in a Beijing hotel room recently he ran into what he thought was nothing more than a technical hiccup.

“I’d be downloading and all of a sudden it would be cut off,” said Geist. “And at first I thought it was a coincidence and the network had a glitch.”

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