EU ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling will corrupt history
Google has taken its first public steps to comply with a troubling ruling by the European Court of Justice establishing a so-called “right to be forgotten” throughout the European Union. The ruling, on May 13, requires that search companies consider individuals’ demands to remove Internet links that reference them, and to give those requests priority…
CPJ concerned by EU court ruling censoring search engines
San Francisco, May 13, 2014 — The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by today’s ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which holds that Internet search engines can be compelled to remove “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” links about an individual, even if the content at the link…
Vietnam Tightens the Squeeze on Its Bloggers
A mushrooming blogosphere has challenged the state’s media monopoly, drawing a heavy-handed bid to bring the Internet under government control. By Shawn W. Crispin Blogger Pham Viet Dao attends a conference on social media in Hanoi on December 24, 2012. Dao was arrested on June 13, 2013, on accusations of anti-state activity. (Reuters/Nguyen Lan Thang)
Turkish president should veto Internet bill
San Francisco, February 6, 2014–The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Turkish President Abdullah Gül to veto the Internet bill passed Wednesday by the Turkish Parliament. The bill would grant the Turkish government unprecedented control over the Internet by allowing Web pages to be blocked without a court order, requiring mandatory data retention by Internet…
Turkish Internet bill would deepen press freedom crisis
The Turkish parliament is on the verge of voting on radical censorship measures that, if approved, would allow the government to block individual URLs without prior judicial review, mandate Internet data retention for periods of up to two years, and consolidate Internet Service Providers (ISPs) into a single association, among other changes. If passed, the…
On Internet freedom, India’s perilous trajectory
By the time the first story based on former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s disclosures splashed across the front pages of the world’s newspapers, India had reportedly begun deployment of its own major surveillance architecture, the Central Management System (CMS). The system is a $132 million project that allows central access to all communications content and…
While tech companies call for spying reform, telcos silent
On Monday, eight of the world’s leading technology companies set aside their rivalries to issue a direct challenge to U.S. lawmakers: lead the world by example and fix America’s broken surveillance state. Although the tech companies’ statement sends a powerful message, notably absent from the letter’s signatories is the appearance of a single telecommunications company,…
Decree targets online freedoms in Vietnam
Bangkok, July 22, 2013–A new decree aimed at regulating Internet-related information and services in Vietnam represents a significant new danger to online journalists and bloggers, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The decree was signed into law on July 15 and will be implemented on September 1, according to news reports.
In NSA surveillance debate, tech firms urge transparency
Some of the Internet companies at the heart of the outcry over U.S. government surveillance today joined with human rights and press freedom groups, including CPJ, in calling for greater government disclosure of electronic communications monitoring.