Censorship on the Web
Created | Updated Jun 20, 2003
Just how far will various governments go?
A Hungarian newspaper, 'Magyar Hirlap', expressed it's dismay, this week, with a plan to set up what could be described as 'Internet Vigilantes'. A group of university students and teachers have proposed to monitor the Hungarian Web pages in close co-operation with the police.
'The aim is to keep order on the web and prevent the display of sites which violate public morals or the law!'
In the same vein, the Burmese government has banned the country's internet users from posting any political writings on the web. The Military has banned items 'harmful to the interests' of Burma,
even indirectly detrimental to state policy or security... or related to politics. Users need prior state permission to create web pages! Burma TV said, in a statement aimed at opposition web sites:
'Internet use will be terminated and legal action taken for violation of ANY of these regulations'.
I am in favour of a certain amount of restraint in the virtual world of WWW. I certainly deplore it's use as a vehicle for the encouragement of child pornography, total anarchy, and the production of weapons of destruction... but this does seem to be taking things a little too far!
