Media Coverage of Citizen Lab and OpenNet Initiative at WSIS/Tunisia

The OpenNet Initiative’s Tunisia Report generated considerable coverage, a lot of which features The Citizen Lab’s very own Director of Technical Research, Nart Villeneuve. Nart compiled the list below for archival purposes.

BBC – Controversy dogs UN net gathering (pdf)
BBC – Tunisia slated over net controls (pdf)
BBC – Hungry for net freedom in Tunisia (pdf)
Reuters – Rights group faults Tunisia on Internet censorship (pdf)
Times Online – Read all about it. But be quick (pdf)
VOA – Information Summit Closes Amid Criticism of Tunisian Censorship (pdf)
Inter Press Service – Activists Give a Crash Course in Overcoming Electronic Hurdles
South China Morning Post – TUNISIA: Study says Tunisia centralises web filtering
Le Monde – Les ONG accusent quinze Etats de censurer la liberté d’expression sur Internet (pdf)
Libération – «Le spectre du filtrage n’a jamais été aussi large» (pdf)
OpenNet Initiative – World Summit Opening in a Closed Society: Tunisia’s Approach to Internet Filtering Contradicts the Objectives of an ‘Open’ Information Society

News coverage of our Tunisia Report…

Our report on Tunisia’s Internet filtering regime is picking up some news coverage. The Associated Press has a piece in wide circulation, and here is a great BBC story featuring ONI researchers Derek Bambauer and Nart Villeneuve. It appears that the spotlight on Tunisia’s filtering regime is taking center stage at WSIS. Hopefully the debates will result in some significant attention being given to the detrimental consequences of unlawful censorship and surveillance practices.

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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“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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