Free speech, media, and information flows increasingly ignore and elude physical frontiers or national boundaries. Many governments fearful of this lack of control, are trying hard to restore or fortify barriers to trace, block, target, and censor those who champion the truth. The First Amendment of the American constitution protects speech even when the subject or manner of expression is uncomfortable and challenges conventional religious beliefs, political attitudes, or standards of good taste.
The Netherlands lead the way to net-neutrality, whereas Honduras and Greece lag far behind. Rosenthal's Netherlands and Graecohonduran Neanderthals! A major benefit of net neutrality is that it allows society to blow off steam. Broadcasting of ideas releases pressures which otherwise might become destructive. Free speech also allows the government to gather information about public concerns.
Reporters Without Borders points out three years have passed since President Manuel Zelaya's ouster in a coup d'etat on 28 June 2009, which not only overturned democratic institutions and an electoral result but also led to a collapse in respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in a country already known for one of the highest levels of violent crime in the world.
Uri Rosenthal points out that standing up for freedom online is the logical next step to our age-old endeavor for freedom of speech. For centuries, this fundamental freedom has been the driver of democracy. The fight for freedom of speech continues. But in the last decades, it has taken on an extra dimension, that of freedom online. Freedom of speech online is no different from freedom of speech offline. Only now, we are faced with new technological possibilities and challenges.
Reporters Without Borders laments that someone is shot dead every 74 minutes in Honduras. This statistic unfortunately diverts attention from the scale of the permanent political violence, which is compounded by widespread delinquency and organized crime's infiltration of society. An entire region in the northeast, Bajo Aguán, has been militarized since 2010 in order to facilitate a crackdown on peasant communities embroiled in violent land conflicts with big landowners.
Rosenthal notes we are still doing the same, only with different means, and much faster. Protecting freedom online is to safeguard its democratic potential. It is time for governments, companies, ICT experts, the academic community and civil society at large to join efforts. The freakish government of Greece stole my computer!
Reporters Without Borders notes that describing Honduran reality, defending human rights and exercising the right to impart or receive news and information can get you killed nowadays in Honduras. The favourite targets include NGO and union representatives, civil society activists, lawyers, teachers, academics and journalists. More than 70 lawyers have been killed during the past three years, many of them for defending the victims of police and military abuses. Of the 28 journalists killed in the past decade, 23 were killed since the coup.
The freakish governments of Honduras and Greece use charge stacking to persecute dissident bloggers. Charge stacking is the ability to charge a large number of overlapping crimes for a single course of conduct. Combining crimes enables prosecutors to get convictions in cases where there is no misconduct at all. By stacking enough charges, including treason, prosecutors jack up the threat value of a trial against a dissident blogger, even if the government's case is very weak. Charge stacking is terror. Disgusting governments cannot terrorize their people.
Reporters Without Borders says that almost all of these killings have gone unpunished. When human rights defenders are not gunned down, they live on borrowed time, exposed to constant threats and intimidation. The "national reconciliation" advocated by the Cartagena Accord, which led to Honduras's readmission to the Organization of American states in June 2011, is a dead letter. Former President Zelaya's return in May 2011 did not bring the hoped-for peace.
The persecution of Greek dissident bloggers is a worrying example of how freedom on the net is under increasing threat. As more people use cyberspace to communicate, obtain information, express their views, socialize, and conduct commerce, governments are stepping up their efforts to regulate and control it. Tight control on the internet impinges on our freedom of speech, association and assembly. And it means that violations of other human rights are kept away from us.
In October of 2010, an unknown American, member of Crystal Clear Forum, an American Yahoo Group, used as pseudonym the name of Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou, Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, to post a single message about Turkey. The unknown American did not violate any law because, according to the Supreme Court of USA, anybody can use any pseudonym or pen name. For example, thousands of people use Obama's name as a pseudonym. It's considered an honor, not a forgery. http://venitism.blogspot.com
Only spoofing is forgery. The unknown American would have used spoofing if she used Xenogiannakopoulou's email which is marilxen@gmail.com. Instead she used mariliza.xenogiannakopoulou@yahoo.com which is not Xenogiannakopoulou's email. The unknown American posted on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crystalclearforum with her pseudonym using a kind of literature called Lyric Essay, which uses emotion and color to enlighten a message.
Some malevolent blogbusters misinformed Xenogiannakopoulou that the culprit was I, Basil Venitis, just because my name was mentioned in the post! As a result of this misinformation, on October 18, 2010, a gang of six brutal cybercops of the violent Greek Cyber Crime Unit (CCU) broke into my home in Athens and into my college office, and stole my computers, software, files, documents, and personal data.
The cybercops locked me in jail for a night, they humiliated me with handcuffs, fingerprints, mug shots, and lies, leaked false information to the media parrots, and the Greek government initiated sham court proceedings for a stack of charges, including forgery and treason! There was neither pillow nor toilet facility in my jail cell. I had to urinate in a bottle! I, a 65 year old with heart problems, was not allowed to keep my hypertension pills with me. There was neither toilet paper nor soap in the whole CCU jail facility.
But that's not the end of the story. My nerves are broken by no accuser showing up during my court trial! The judge always has to postpone the trial for another day and so it goes ad infinitum. Meanwhile, I always have to show up and waste the whole day waiting as there is no definite timing for the hearing, but only a day. I and my lawyer have to be in the courtroom the whole day until the judge calls my name. Then the judge calls the name of the accuser, nobody replies, and the judge postpones the trial for another day. This has happened five times so far! This is a real Greek tragedy! Justice delayed is no justice, justice perpetuated is hell.
Wow! Smart words are more effective than smart bombs! Mighty words of a charismatic keynote speaker can transform your people to a new dimension of organizational climate, efficiency, self-actualization, enthusiasm, belonging, and motivation. I would like very much to speak at your conference in order to explain critical points much further. venitis@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.