An opening in cyberspace closes
By Shawn W Crispin
BANGKOK - When a state-linked Cambodian Internet service provider (ISP) blocked
access this month to a critical non-governmental organization report detailing
the government's alleged mismanagement of natural and energy resources, the
censorship closed the loop on the region's fast-closing cyberspace.
The Cambodian government has prioritized improving its Internet controls and
legislation, despite the fact less than 0.3% of the population is online, one
of the lowest Internet penetration rates in the world. The recent bust of an
alleged terror plot against the government revealed that authorities had
capability to hack into suspects' - and perhaps perceived other adversaries' - e-mail accounts.
It wasn't long ago that Asia's Internet was being heralded as an inexorable
force for democratic change across the predominantly authoritarian-run region.
Rising Internet penetration rates and the proliferation of websites that
provided alternative news and critical views, particularly in countries where
the state had long dominated information flows, marked substantial democratic
gains.
Across the world, governments are now bidding to claw back those gains and
assert tighter control over the Internet through improved surveillance and
censorship capabilities. Meanwhile, new laws are granting state authorities in
many countries new powers to block and censor online content, often in the
arbitrary name of maintaining social order or national security.
The battle for Internet freedom is particularly pitched in Southeast Asia,
where even nominally democratic governments are now cracking down on
journalists, bloggers and ordinary Internet users. China has emerged as the
region's Internet censorship role model, with its successful use of
sophisticated filtering and surveillance technologies, widely known as
Beijing's "Great Firewall".
Those capabilities have been widened through a new government-run computer
monitoring information system, known as the "Golden Shield Project". Of the 28
journalists now imprisoned in China, as tallied by the New York-based Committee
to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 24 of them were charged and sentenced for
articles and commentaries they posted online.
In its recently released "Attacks on the Press" compendium, CPJ contends that a
growing number of Southeast Asian governments have moved to emulate China's
cyber-censorship techniques. The advocacy group argues that as Western nations
have moved to engage China's authoritarian regime, several Southeast Asian
governments no longer feel obliged to follow through on the democratic reforms
- including commitments to Internet freedom - the West had once pressured them
to adopt.
Those pressures are expected to diminish further as the US looks towards China
to help bail-out its bankrupt financial and banking systems through the
continued purchase of US treasury bonds. The US's collapsing demand for
regional exports and flagging outward investments is expected to eventually
translate into reduced diplomatic clout in Southeast Asia, a retrenchment that
will likely enhance China's already rising regional influence.
Long-time US ally Thailand stands as a case in point. The Thai government has
launched one of the most aggressive crackdowns on Internet freedom seen
anywhere in the world - so far without a peep of dissent from Bangkok's US
embassy. The crackdown was presaged by the passage of the 2007 Computer Crime
Act, which among other measures made the use of proxy servers to circumvent
government blocks on websites an offense punishable by imprisonment.
The Information Technology and Communication Ministry has since earmarked
millions of dollars to develop and deploy improved firewall technologies and
the ministry now maintains an Internet "war room" where officials conduct
surveillance over Internet content. The ministry said in early January that it
had closed down 2,300 websites for posting materials deemed critical of the
Thai royal family.
The Justice Ministry has since indicated it will seek a court order to block
another 3,000 to 4,000 sites for the same reason. At least one Thai Internet
user is currently in prison for posting materials deemed offensive to the royal
crown, and two bloggers were temporarily detained but not formally charged on
similar charges in 2007.
Cyber-backslider
Nominally democratic Malaysia is another prominent backslider. The government
pledged in 1996 not to censor the Internet to lure foreign funds to the
Multimedia Super Corridor project, an ambitious state gambit that aimed to
incubate Malaysia's own version of the US's Silicon Valley. The no-censorship
policy allowed online news providers and bloggers to report and comment on news
that the state-controlled mainstream media either neglected or was instructed
from above to ignore.
That commitment was symbolically dropped last year when the government ordered
local ISPs to block access to prominent blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin's Malaysia
Today news site, which has a larger readership than several established
state-influenced newspapers. He has been charged and detained under both the
Sedition and Internal Security Acts for online writings which were critical of
the government.
According to the CPJ, it's still unclear whether Malaysian authorities have
deployed the same type of filtering and monitoring technologies seen in China,
but the government is known to monitor Internet content through three different
state agencies, including the Prime Minister's Office. According to e-mail
correspondence shared with this correspondent, Raja Petra, now temporarily
released on Internal Security Act charges, is under family pressure to flee the
country rather than stand trial in Malaysia's politically compromised courts.
The situation is worsening in less democratic countries. Vietnam, known to
maintain some of Asia's most extensive Internet controls outside of China, has
in recent months moved to introduce more stringent regulations governing
bloggers and their postings.
Singapore authorities recently harassed an Asia
Times Online contributor for a November story that detailed the island state's
mounting financial troubles.
Police claimed that the article had been sent with added malicious comments to
the head of state, opposition politicians and newspapers from the reporter's
e-mail account. The reporter denied the charge and police officials later
indicated that an unidentified hacker had sent the message from her account.
Either way, the reporter has been put on official notice that her online
writings and e-mail activities are under surveillance.
Meanwhile, countries as repressive as Myanmar are dedicating significant
resources to Internet censorship. The country's technological failure to
control the Internet was apparent for all to see when undercover journalists
sent footage and reports of the 2007 Saffron Revolution street protests to
outside news organizations, forcing the regime to unplug the Internet
altogether before its fatal, final crackdown. Still, it's unclear how many
undercover journalists the authorities have been identified and jailed as part
of their wider crackdown on dissent.
There are indications that Myanmar authorities have since received censorship
training from Russian and Chinese officials. Some contend that this explains
the mysterious distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on a number of
exile media groups' websites last year. Soe Myint, editor of the New
Delhi-based Mizzima News, said during a recent presentation in Chiang Mai that
the cost to effectively protect his website from future DDoS attacks is beyond
his news organization's financial means.
Despite these growing attacks, there is some cause for hope. Human rights
organizations, investors and several prominent US Internet companies, including
Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft, agreed in a joint initiative last October to
follow guidelines to protect online expression and privacy when faced with
repressive government requests for user identities or assistance in blocking
targeted websites.
Meanwhile, some regional media groups have received foreign assistance to
locate their servers anonymously and remotely in second countries to guard
against future DDoS attacks. And ever-evolving proxy server and other
roundabout firewall technologies continue to put Internet users in countries as
isolated as Myanmar a step ahead of government censors.
Yet even with those agreements and technologies, Asia's Internet is a
substantially more dangerous space than it was previously. Southeast Asian
governments are now responding with bigger budgets and heavier hands to the
technological and political challenge presented by online expression. Under
that mounting assault, previous high hopes for the medium's democracy-promoting
potential have in large measure faded.
Shawn W Crispin is Asia Times Online's Southeast Asia Editor and Asia
Program Consultant to the Committee to Protect Journalists. He may be reached
at [email protected].
A dent in Singapore's financial hub dream
By Megawati Wijaya
Megawati Wijaya is a Singapore-based journalist. She may be contacted at [email protected].
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast
Singapore authorities recently harassed an Asia Times Online contributor for a November story that detailed the island state's mounting financial troubles.
Police claimed that the article had been sent with added malicious comments to the head of state, opposition politicians and newspapers from the reporter's e-mail account.
The reporter denied the charge and police officials later indicated that an unidentified hacker had sent the message from her account. Either way, the reporter has been put on official notice that her online writings and e-mail activities are under surveillance.
Fishy, above story similar to Gopalan Nair's alleged e-mail case:
On 31 May 2008, Mr Gopalan Pallichadath Nair, a US citizen, was arrested at Broadway Hotel in Singapore while on vacation and charged with using insulting words towards High Court Judge Belinda Ang in an e-mail criticising her handling of a case.
Mr Nair vehemently denied sending any emails. His charge was subsequently amended to one of insulting Judge Belinda Ang in his blog post. In the days ahead, further charges were tendered against him: one of sending an insulting email to High Court Judge Lai Siu Chiu in 2006 while she was presiding over a contempt of court case involving SDP chief Chee Soon Juan, and one of disorderly behaviour in public and use of abusive language against police officers.
http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=685
Why all same tactic?
Strange.