EDRI - Freedom to publish

Dutch University sued to stop publishing research on chip technology

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:50:21 +0100

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors has sued the Dutch Computer Security Group of Radboud University in Nijmege in order to stop the publication of research results showing security flaws in NXP's Mifare Classic wireless smart cards used in transit and building entry systems around the world.

The technology is used for the transit system in The Netherlands, in the subway systems in London, Hong Kong and Boston, as well as in cards for accessing buildings and facilities, covering 80 percent of the market.

The security researchers of the Dutch university have checked the Mifare system used with Oyster cards for transport in London and recently succeeded in cracking the encryption on a card and clone it. They added credit to it

Italian blog closed by Police

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:45:53 +0100

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On 6 June 2008, the blog of the Italian journalist Antonino Monteleone was closed, without notification, by the Polizia Postale of Calabria under accusations of defamation, but the journalist claims that this action came after having posted uncomfortable information on political figures.

The whole story started in 2006 after the elections, when the blogger posted extracts from a document containing CVs of candidates for the Italian Parliament. The document included information of certain names on the nomination list that had previous relations to cases of power abuse and manipulation of tenders or even with mafia activities. On 9 December 2006, Monteleone posted an article on Galati, member of UDP party then, undersecretary in the

Radio Free Europe's websites in Belarus under attack

Wed, 07 May 2008 18:41:04 +0100

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Several Radio Free Europe websites were under a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack in the past week. The attacks started on 26 April 2008, the 22nd anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, primary targeted at the Belarus Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) service which was offering live coverage of a rally of protest organized in Minsk against the plight of uncompensated victims and a government decision to build a new nuclear plant.

Martins Zvaners, RFE spokesman, thinks that was the largest attack ever experienced by RFE. At its peak, the DDoS attack was sending more than 50000 requests to the RFE sites, flooding its servers' capacity and throwing them

More control over the Internet wanted in Russia

Wed, 07 May 2008 18:37:27 +0100

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

The Russian prosecutor's office wants to extend the anti-extremism laws to the Internet, proposing an amendment to the rules that presently govern printed media on the basis of which newspapers considered by the court to have published extremist material can be shut down.

In terms of the new proposal, which began circulating in the State Duma's Security Committee on 10 April 2008, any kind of material considered extremist or website deemed to have hosted extremist material should be blocked by ISPs. If found guilty of repeatedly hosting extremist materials, the website will be shut down. A list of extremist Internet-based materials and sites must be regularly made available and the ISPs will be bound to

Swiss Bank was denied the closure of whistleblowers website

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:33:26 +0000

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White reversed his initial decision of shutting down the wikileaks.org domain of Wikileaks, a website where whistleblowers can untraceably leak documents.

Wikileaks, launched in early 2007, has anonymously posted documents revealing delicate subjects such as the infiltration of agents of the Stasi, the former East German secret police, into the commission investigating their organization or massive corruption in Kenya.

The Swiss bank Julius Baer sued Wikileaks, at the beginning of February 2008, in relation to documents posted to the site that were showing corruption in the bank's Cayman Islands branch allegedly used by bank clients to launder money, hide assets and evade taxes. The Bank had obtained

ENDitorial: Finnish web censorship

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:01:58 +0000

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

As of 1 January 2007 a law took effect in Finland allowing the Police to maintain a secret blacklist of child porn sites and distribute it to ISPs so that these may block access to those sites. Use of the lists is ostensibly voluntary to ISPs, but there have been rather strong hints of making it mandatory if not adopted otherwise. After a slow start, Police actually started distributing the list late last year and several ISPs have began using them.

In February 2008, the police added the site lapsiporno.info to the blacklist. Despite the name (Lapsiporno means "child porn" in Finnish), the website contains no child or any other kind of porn, but criticism of censorship and a partial collection of addresses from the officially secret

French Police extends the Internet blacklist

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:54:01 +0000

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

French Internal Affairs Minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, announced on 14 February 2008 new measures to fight against cybercrime, including extending the websites blacklist and pushing for computer online investigations, without the permission of the country of the hosting company.

The Minister visited the Cybercrime Brigade that is located in Nanntere and announced a new "best practices chart" with the operators in order to block websites. According to the statements, the Norwegian model was taken into consideration, meaning the creation of a list with websites not only with child pornography information, but also the ones with information on making explosives or chemical weapons, terrorist propaganda and racial hate speech.

Online media regulation in Ukraine

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:25:04 +0000

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

A public workshop held in Ukraine on 12 December 2007 was aimed to discuss the issues regarding the regulation of the new online media. The workshop was organised by Internews Ukraine together with the Council of Europe and the National Commission on Freedom of Speech and Development of the Information Sphere under the President of Ukraine.

Besides the Ukrainian participants - from online and offline media - from Kiev and other important cities in Ukraine, the Council of Europe invited two experts - Thomas Schneider, Chairman of the Council of Europe Group of Specialists on Human Rights in the Information Society and Bogdan Manolea from EDRi as observer in the same Group mentioned above.

Putin wants control of Russian Internet

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:19:05 +0000

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As the Internet use in Russia increases spectacularly, having tripled in the last three years, Putin' governance concentrates its efforts on getting control over the Russian Internet after having already gained much control over the traditional mass media.

Putin's allies and supporters have created blogs and news sources to flood the Internet with messages favourable to the present political power.

During a national broadcast live on TV and Radio in October 2007, Putin tackled the issue of Internet censorship. "Naturally, in this sphere, as in other spheres, we should be thinking about adhering to Russian laws, about making sure that child pornography is not distributed, that financial crimes

New Italian draft law - to disguise state censorship

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:27:33 +0100

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As it already happened six years ago with the infamous law 62/2001, a new law draft on the "re-arrangement of publishing", prepared by the Italian government on 3 August 2007 and now entering parliament procedure, clearly intends to enforce bureaucratic and financial burdens, as well as sanctions, also on the free and private expression of thought by "normal citizens" using the internet.

The text prepared by the government is deliberately confusing and ambiguous. If approved by parliament as it is, it would cause confusion and uncertainty on the possibility of free expression even for people who are not professional journalists or publishers of newspapers, magazines or broadcasting.

Sign up EDRi Statement on CoE Recommendation - Campaign update

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:25:37 +0100

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31 international and national organisations from different countries have already signed EDRI statement on a new Recommendation from the Council of Europe (CoE) failing to uphold freedom of expression in the online environment.

As other related instruments are currently in preparation by the CoE, EDRI calls for NGOs and groups from all over the world to sign up in support of EDRI statement and take further action to help avoid the risk of more damages to freedom of expression and information in the online world. Signatures should preferably be gathered before 28 October 2007, as the next meeting of the CoE expert group having prepared this Recommendation is scheduled on 29-30 October 2007 in Strasbourg

List of Signatories-New Council of Europe Recommendation fails to uphold online freedom of expression

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 08:57:32 +0100

Act Now to Protect Freedom of Expression Online:
- Sign up in support to this EDRI statement (NGOs and groups from non CoE member States also welcome)

EDRI Statement and Call for Action on new CoE Rec. failing to uphold FoE

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:52:33 +0100

(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

Today EDRI issued a statement to express its serious concerns over a new Council of Europe Recommendation on 'promoting freedom of expression and information in the new information and communications environment'.

According to EDRI, the newly adopted instrument promotes opaque "self-regulation" and other soft law instruments driven by private interests and implemented through technical mechanisms. EDRI considers this Recommendation to be damaging and a retrograde step for freedom of expression and freedom of the press in the online world. EDRI is deeply concerned that such instruments will be used to legitimize subtle means of censorship, through privatised censorship and measures to protect against

EDRI Campaign on CoE Recommendation Failing to Uphold Freedom of Expression

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:43:32 +0100

On October 10, 2007, EDRI issued a statement to express its serious concerns over a new Council of Europe Recommendation on 'promoting freedom of expression and information in the new information and communications
environment'.

Read EDRI Statement and Act Now to Protect Freedom of Expression Online:
- EDRI Statement: 'New Council of Europe Recommendation fails to uphold online
freedom of expression' (PDF). Also available in the following languages: Čeština, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Македонски

EDRI - Freedom to publish

Dutch University sued to stop publishing research on chip technology

Italian blog closed by Police

Radio Free Europe's websites in Belarus under attack

More control over the Internet wanted in Russia

More Internet content blacklisted in Europe

Swiss Bank was denied the closure of whistleblowers website

ENDitorial: Finnish web censorship

French Police extends the Internet blacklist

Online media regulation in Ukraine

Putin wants control of Russian Internet

New Italian draft law - to disguise state censorship

Sign up EDRi Statement on CoE Recommendation - Campaign update

List of Signatories-New Council of Europe Recommendation fails to uphold online freedom of expression

EDRI Statement and Call for Action on new CoE Rec. failing to uphold FoE

EDRI Campaign on CoE Recommendation Failing to Uphold Freedom of Expression