aljazeera, 12 May 2011
As governments fear popular protest movements, filtering has been initiated in Ethiopia, Uganda, Ivory Coast and beyond.
Despite much attention paid to Egypt and Libya's Internet shutdowns, Tunisia's pervasive Internet filtering, and Morocco's arrests of bloggers, little attention has been given to Internet censorship issues throughout the rest of the African continent. Events in recent weeks, however, have brought the region's online troubles into sharp focus.
In Ethiopia, government filtering of websites has long been common practice. Despite an Internet penetration rate of only 0.5 per cent, the Ethiopian government blocks a range of political opposition websites, as well as independent news sites reporting on the country and the sites of a few human rights organizations.
Ethiopia's Internet infrastructure is state-owned, leaving control of it entirely at the hands of the government.
Recently, on World Press Freedom Day, Ethiopian officials hijacked an event sponsored by UNESCO, removing independent journalists from the lineup and installing government-approved reporters in their place, as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported.
At the same time, the government lifted the ban on a variety of sites normally blocked under the country's filtering regime. Ostensibly, the lift occured in the face of the UNESCO event's theme: new media and the Internet.
Despite the unblocking - likely temporary, if history is any indicator - Ethiopia continues to be one of Sub-Saharan Africa's worst offenders when it comes to Internet freedom. More read on aljazeera
As governments fear popular protest movements, filtering has been initiated in Ethiopia, Uganda, Ivory Coast and beyond.
Despite much attention paid to Egypt and Libya's Internet shutdowns, Tunisia's pervasive Internet filtering, and Morocco's arrests of bloggers, little attention has been given to Internet censorship issues throughout the rest of the African continent. Events in recent weeks, however, have brought the region's online troubles into sharp focus.
In Ethiopia, government filtering of websites has long been common practice. Despite an Internet penetration rate of only 0.5 per cent, the Ethiopian government blocks a range of political opposition websites, as well as independent news sites reporting on the country and the sites of a few human rights organizations.
Ethiopia's Internet infrastructure is state-owned, leaving control of it entirely at the hands of the government.
Recently, on World Press Freedom Day, Ethiopian officials hijacked an event sponsored by UNESCO, removing independent journalists from the lineup and installing government-approved reporters in their place, as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported.
At the same time, the government lifted the ban on a variety of sites normally blocked under the country's filtering regime. Ostensibly, the lift occured in the face of the UNESCO event's theme: new media and the Internet.
Despite the unblocking - likely temporary, if history is any indicator - Ethiopia continues to be one of Sub-Saharan Africa's worst offenders when it comes to Internet freedom. More read on aljazeera
No comments:
Post a Comment