Access and Control: A growing diversity of threats to internet freedom
By Karin Deutsch Karlekar and Sarah G. Cook

As the internet and other new media come to dominate the flow of news and information around the world, governments have responded with measures to control, regulate, and censor the content of blogs, websites, and text messages.

Indeed, the recent case of an Iranian blogger who died in police custody is a disturbing reminder that expressions of political dissent or even independent thought circulated through the internet carry as much risk as those circulated via underground journals in an earlier era. And just as authoritarian regimes once devoted massive resources to controlling the print media and the airwaves, so today China employs a small army of functionaries tasked with monitoring and censoring the content of websites and blogs.

The mounting assault on digital freedom is taking place in an environment of explosive growth in the use and, more significantly, the influence of new media forms. An increasing number of organizations and civic initiatives use websites to inform the public about their causes and question government performance.

Recent years have also featured a ―blogging revolution,‖ as millions of people have begun keeping online journals, commenting and sharing opinions on a vast number of cultural, social, and political issues. This expansion has taken place in developed and developing countries alike, in countries where the press is under duress as well as in vibrant democracies.

Even as new information sources become more prevalent and influential, governments, and in some cases private actors, have begun to push back through the development of techniques designed to control what people read, view, and discuss.

Predictably, some of the world’s most repressive regimes, like those in China and Iran, have created a pervasive, sophisticated, and multilayered system of censorship that significantly limits the content that citizens can access or post on the internet and transmit via mobile phones, particularly when it comes to topics deemed sensitive by the authorities.

Harsh laws, an apparatus of monitoring and surveillance, torture, and imprisonment await those who cross the ―red lines‖ separating acceptable from unacceptable thought. In settings that are somewhat less repressive— such as Egypt, Russia, and Malaysia—the internet has emerged as a haven of relatively free speech in otherwise restrictive media environments. In these societies, however, the space for free comment and open circulation of ideas is slowly closing, as governments devise subtle methods to manipulate online discussion and apply vague and flexible security laws to arrest and intimidate bloggers.

As with traditional media, the result of this sophisticated harassment is an insidious form of selfcensorship among journalists and commentators. Even in more democratic countries—such as the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Turkey—internet freedom is increasingly undermined by legal harassment, opaque filtering procedures, and expanding surveillance. On the whole, threats to internet freedom are growing and have become more diverse, both in the array of countries that impose restrictions and in the range of methods employed.

This dynamic of increasing digital media use worldwide accompanied by more systematic and sophisticated methods of control is the core finding of this study, a pilot report on internet and new media freedom. On the basis of a newly developed set of 19 indicators, the study evaluates the level of internet and mobilephone freedom experienced by average users and activists in a sample of 15 countries across 6 regions: China, India, and Malaysia in Asia; Cuba and Brazil in Latin America; Egypt, Tunisia, and Iran in the Middle East and North Africa; Kenya and South Africa in sub-Saharan Africa; Russia, Estonia, and Georgia in the former Soviet Union; and the United Kingdom and Turkey in Europe.

Covering the calendar years 2007 and 2008, the index addresses a range of factors that might affect such freedom, including the state of telecommunications infrastructure, government restrictions on access to technology, the regulatory framework for service providers, censorship and content control, the legal environment, surveillance, and extralegal attacks on users or content producers. The selected indicators capture not only the actions of governments but also the vigor, diversity, and activism of the new media domain in each country, regardless of—or despite—state efforts to restrict usage.

Download Freedom on the Net: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media

PDF format, 2.7MB, 126Pages.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview Essay
Access and Control: A Growing Diversity of Threats to Internet Freedom .................... 1
Freedom on the Net Methodology .................................................................................. 12
Charts and Graphs of Key Findings .............................................................................. 20
Country Reports
Brazil ......................................................................................................................................... 28
China ......................................................................................................................................... 34
Cuba .......................................................................................................................................... 45
Egypt ......................................................................................................................................... 51
Estonia ...................................................................................................................................... 55
Georgia ..................................................................................................................................... 59
India........................................................................................................................................... 63
Iran ............................................................................................................................................ 70
Kenya ........................................................................................................................................ 76
Malaysia ..................................................................................................................................... 80
Russia ........................................................................................................................................ 85
South Africa .............................................................................................................................. 91
Tunisia ....................................................................................................................................... 95
Turkey ...................................................................................................................................... 100
United Kingdom ...................................................................................................................... 106
Glossary ................................................................................................................................ 113
Survey Team ............................................................................................................ 117

ABOUT FREEDOM HOUSE
Freedom House is an independent private organization supporting the expansion of freedom throughout the world.

Freedom is possible only in democratic political systems in which governments are accountable to their own people, the rule of law prevails, and freedoms of expression, association, and belief are guaranteed. Working directly with courageous men and women around the world to support nonviolent civic initiatives in societies where freedom is threatened, Freedom House functions as a catalyst for change through its unique mix of analysis, advocacy, and action.

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