bopuc/weblog

I agree that it's a big concern. I guess that the thinking is that Tunisia is willingly opening their current policy to criticism by hosting this conference. Unesco might be gambling that this will help advance the cause. Just a guess - I'm not trying to excuse anyone.

What I find strange/difficult to comprehend is Unesco Canada's unwillingness to condemn Tunisia's Internet policy.

The same goes when business is in game. As Mikel said in his weblog, the censorship system in China is built by… Nortel Networks, a canadian company (and others). Once again it shows that a free market is not necessary what makes people free.

The fact that some organization does not condemn openly some practices is a question of strategy. I'm often the one who will open my mouth, but sometimes it's not that effective. Boris instead tries to convince people even if they do things wrong and step by step change the road. For humaninatarian organizations, the same thing is happening, You can surely make a blow statement saying "Hey, guys you are bad", and a few months after, if you want to help schools, to install a medical team in a region with problems, authorities will tell you "Hey, we are bad, you don't have the right to enter". Then the people who are suffering about it… are not the politics, but the common people.

Sometimes all people know about the dirty thing, but the best way to move forward is a kind of shut-up and take actions.

Sad, but reality. But boris will say I blah blah too much ;) sorry for the space used.

A few references:

http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2002/1202china.html
[[[The report, published last week,
singled out Microsoft, Sun, Cisco, Nortel
Networks and Websense as vendors that have
"provided important technology which helps
the Chinese authorities censor the Internet."]]]

Amnesty International report
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/engasa170072002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES%5CCHINA

[[[
Foreign companies, including Websense and Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, Microsoft,(27) have reportedly provided important technology which helps the Chinese authorities censor the Internet. Nortel Networks(28) along with some other international firms are reported to be providing China with the technology which will help it shift from filtering content at the international gateway level to filtering content of individual computers, in homes, Internet cafes, universities and businesses.
]]]

http://www.ichrdd.ca/english/commdoc/publications/globalization/goldenShieldEng.html

[[[
Many companies, including notably Nortel Networks, until recently Canada’s largest firm, are playing key roles in meeting the security needs of the Chinese government. Nortel Networks and other international firms are in effect helping China to displace the firewall it constructed at the international gateway with a more sophisticated system of content filtration at the individual level.
]]]

And

[[[
In order to make the Golden Shield a reality, the Chinese government is dependent upon the technological expertise and investment of Western companies. Canada’s Nortel Networks is playing a key role in these developments as witnessed by:

-- its joint research with Tsinghua University on specific forms of speech recognition technology, for the purpose of automated surveillance of telephone conversations;

-- its strong and early support for FBI plans to develop a common standard to intercept telephone communications, known as CALEA, in conjunction with technology transfer through its joint venture, Guangdong Nortel (GDNT);

-- its close relationship with Datang Telecom, a Chinese firm with substantial interests in the state security market in China;

-- the promotion of JungleMUX which allows video surveillance data to be transported from remote cameras back to a centralized surveillance point to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS);

-- the deployment of its "Personal Internet" suite in Shanghai, greatly enhancing the ability of Internet service providers to track the communications of individual users;

-- a US$10 million project to build a citywide fibre-optic broadband network in Shanghai (OPTera) enabling central authorities to monitor the interests of subscribers at the "edge" of the network, principally through the Shasta 5000 firewall, in direct conflict with the right to privacy. This technology will also make it more difficult for dissidents to have clandestine communications and facilitate police monitoring of Internet users attempting to access URLs not judged appropriate by the Chinese government;

-- the integration of face recognition and voice recognition technology in collaboration with AcSys Biometrics, a subsidiary of Burlington, Ontario-based NEXUS. (2)
]]]