Daily Documentary: Digital Pyre

Reporters Without Boarders is an amazing independent organization based out of France that works to maintain international freedom of the press and supports the pursuit of independent non-regulated media throughout the world.

As a component of this noble effort they release an annual report that details the level of censorship enforced by the governments of every nation, country, and regime. Additionally, this report includes a list of countries that are described as “enemies of the internet”.

“Enemies of the internet” include countries that block sites, threaten those who attempt to utilize mass media, and actively restrict digital communications such as has been done in:

• Bahrain

• Belarus

• Burma

• China

• Cuba

• Iran

• North Korea

• Saudi Arabia

• Syria

• Turkmenistan

• Uzbekistan

There is also a second list described as “under surveillance”. This list is technically more benign than the “enemies of the internet”, however it can be construed as representing a far greater level of ominous intent.

The reason this second list is insidiously upsetting is due to the major nations that have been included, and the reasons for their inclusion. Representing primary nations that should be considered safe havens for free speech are France (the geographical home of Reporters Without Boarders) and Australia. The addition of Australia resulted from the wide spread use of a content filtering system that was intended to prevent the spread of child pornography. However, its’ development and function are too nonspecific to be considered as strictly existing for the enforcement of the single well intentioned concept that was used to justify its’ creation.

The existence of this material then leads to the attempts to pass Internet restricting legislation within the United States. The latest effort to push this material consisted of a law called SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act).

This law faced a drastic public outcry due to its’ capacity to allow the government to indiscriminately delete any online content without any form of trial or justification. Ostensibly the law was intended to prevent the spread of Internet based copyright violation. However, it had the same level of nonspecific flexibility as the system that got Australia placed on the “under surveillance” list.

This means that had the law passed the United States would be placed on the list as well. The United States has long been considered to be the ultimate supporting nation of free speech. The nation takes great pride in this fact. And yet, the U.S. nearly joined the list of nations that hold little regard for such an important principle.

Fortunately, the citizens of the U.S. were able to use their right to free speech in order to prevent the law from being passed. And, with the aid of organizations such as Reporters Without Boarders the citizens of every nation shall one day be able to enjoy the same capacities.