(June 11, 2012, By Katrina Kaiser)-- Internet shutdowns, content filtering, arrests of bloggers, and
online surveillance in North Africa have been headline news for the past
year and a half, but internet issues in the rest of the African
continent haven’t received quite as much press coverage.
This silence is partly because there is simply less internet penetration south of the Sahara, but there may also be a paralyzing current of opinion whereby stories that highlight human rights issues or a lack of democracy in the region are either dismissed as old news or written off as paternalistic.
Ethiopia sometimes gets particularly little coverage in Western or international media because the political situation there is not nearly as dramatic as it is in other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The government is nominally structured as a parliamentary democracy and it has good relations with the United States and Europe. Still, the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front tightly controls the country’s electoral politics and media representation.
Internet censorship and content filtering are well-established in Ethiopia. The state owns and manages the country’s sole Internet service provider, Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (Ethio-Telcom). While Ethiopian Internet penetration is only about 1%, there is still a vibrant, tightly-knit community of bloggers whose websites, blogs, and Facebook pages have been blocked by the government. The blocks themselves look innocuous to Ethiopian Internet users, because the browser will simply notify users that the server request has timed out.
This error-message block is similar to what users have experienced in China
when trying to access censored websites or use restricted search terms.
It figures, then, that the Ethiopian and Chinese governments have
conducted joint workshops
on “mass media institution” management and Internet management.
Inexpensive Chinese technology has also replaced American technology for
building Ethiopian Internet infrastructure.
EFF recently reported on a new Telecom Service Infringement Law that includes explicit content-filtering provisions that protect “national security.”
The law criminalizes online speech that may be construed as defamatory or terrorist, and holds the website or account owner liable even if the speech is posted as a comment by a third party on their website. These speech-chilling stipulations are hidden deep within a licensing bill that would, on the surface, seem to simply clarify Ethio-Telecom’s power to regulate Internet services such as VoIP. Read more from EFF Mini Links (Weblog) »
Related topics:
Ethiopia: Africa's cascade of Internet censorship
Dis empowerment and suppression of freedoms in ...
Ethiopia govt denies jamming German radio service
This silence is partly because there is simply less internet penetration south of the Sahara, but there may also be a paralyzing current of opinion whereby stories that highlight human rights issues or a lack of democracy in the region are either dismissed as old news or written off as paternalistic.
Ethiopia sometimes gets particularly little coverage in Western or international media because the political situation there is not nearly as dramatic as it is in other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The government is nominally structured as a parliamentary democracy and it has good relations with the United States and Europe. Still, the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front tightly controls the country’s electoral politics and media representation.
Internet censorship and content filtering are well-established in Ethiopia. The state owns and manages the country’s sole Internet service provider, Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (Ethio-Telcom). While Ethiopian Internet penetration is only about 1%, there is still a vibrant, tightly-knit community of bloggers whose websites, blogs, and Facebook pages have been blocked by the government. The blocks themselves look innocuous to Ethiopian Internet users, because the browser will simply notify users that the server request has timed out.
EFF recently reported on a new Telecom Service Infringement Law that includes explicit content-filtering provisions that protect “national security.”
The law criminalizes online speech that may be construed as defamatory or terrorist, and holds the website or account owner liable even if the speech is posted as a comment by a third party on their website. These speech-chilling stipulations are hidden deep within a licensing bill that would, on the surface, seem to simply clarify Ethio-Telecom’s power to regulate Internet services such as VoIP. Read more from EFF Mini Links (Weblog) »
Related topics:
Ethiopia: Africa's cascade of Internet censorship
Dis empowerment and suppression of freedoms in ...
Ethiopia govt denies jamming German radio service
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