Technology company Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Vodafone said in a statement Friday that they aim to produce a code by the end of this year that would counter such trends as increasing jailing of Internet journalists, monitoring of legitimate online activity [IE government monitoring search engines activity--] and censorship.
The talks, which are being held up by a the Washington-based Center for democracy and technology, and San Francisco nonprofit business for social responsibility are trying to craft a code to hold companies accountable if a corporate with governments to suppress free speech or violate human rights.
"Technology companies have played a vital role building the economy and providing tools important for democratic reform in developing countries," said Leslie Harris, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology.
"But some governments have found ways to turn technology against their citizens--monitoring legitimate online activities and censoring democratic material," Harris said.
There were a record 134 people were jailed last year according to the CPJ census. One third were bloggers and online reporters.
"Governments around the world are jailing Internet journalists at a growing pace, with 49 bloggers, online editors and Web-based reporters behind bars at the end of 2006," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.
1 comment:
Well written article.
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