Secure the freedom of the internet

Göttingen
No country in the world forbids so many people free access to the internet as the People’s Republic of China .For China’s power elite fears freedom of thought. Already more than 104 million Chinese use the worldwide web to keep themselves informed. However they do not have more access to politically independent news than in the state controlled TV. It is in vain for them to look, even with western internet providers like Google, for information on "Dalai Lama”, "Democracy”, "Taiwan”, the meditation group "Falun Gong”, which is persecuted by the state, or news from foreign democratic media. For the western internet providers have also "voluntarily” committed themselves to censure of the media. Their support for one of the most brutal persecuting states in the world they justify with being anxious to abide by the law. They want to respect China’s laws, say the western media firms, who see the People’s Republic as a lucrative market and therefore do not wish to upset the Chinese leaders.

So Google, Yahoo and Microsoft support the arbitrary regime in Peking, which treats more than a billion people as disenfranchised citizens. More than 65,000 internet police make sure with a complete surveillance that freedom of thought in China is still unknown. The monitoring state is supported by private denunciators, who are encouraged by the authorities to spy on their fellow-citizens. Anyone reporting offenders is richly rewarded. Every internet café is required to note down the names of all users and the internet addresses visited by them. They must also make sure that no one calls up or disseminates information critical of the government. In the year 2004 alone 12,570 internet cafés were closed for infringement of the internet regulations.

Please call on internet providers like Google and Yahoo to demand freedom of thought on the internet in China and not to submit to the draconian and arbitrary sanctions.