Canada Losing Ground

The headline of Reporters Without Borders' 2007 Press Freedom Index reads:

Eritrea ranked last for first time while G8 members, except Russia, recover lost ground

A G8 member other than Russia also lost ground: Canada. In this year's survey Canada ranks 18th with a score of 4,88 while in 2006 Canada ranked 16th with a score of 4,50. While it may only be a small dip, it is a slide nonetheless. As Canadian it is embarrassing and I want to highlight three trends that I see:

1) Government Surveillance of Journalists

Last September it was revealed that the names of journalists who had filed Access To Information as well as the content of their requests were being discussed on conference calls and circulated to the Prime Minister's Office as well the the departments who were the target of the forthcoming article. In this particular case it was a reporter who had asked for information regarding the landing of CIA planes in Canada:

During that call, and minutes of others like it obtained by The Gazette, officials freely discuss media requests for information their departments have received. They also exchange information on who intends to submit a request and who is about receive documents under the access law.

"Noted there will shortly be another Bronskill/CIA Planes article, as new ATIP info is going out from PSEP," the public safety and emergency preparedness department reported. "The info essentially reiterates that normal procedures were followed and nothing abnormal was discovered."

2) A "Controlled" Press Centre

Although it was shelved upon becoming public the Prime Minister's plan to build a new press centre has serious negative consequences for journalism in Canada. Annoyed with the questions asked by journalists the Prime Minister sought to have his staff select which reporters could ask questions but was refused so he resurrected the Liberal's plan to build a new media centre in which his staff would control who asked questions. The ability to manipulate and control what questions are asked is a serious threat to democracy. As The Star notes: "If reporters can't freely question political leaders, press freedom is diminished, and so is democracy."

3) Media Consolidation

AdBusters reports that "just four corporations now control 70 percent of the country’s newspaper circulation" and my hometown, Vancouver, is the worst in the country. In Vancouver one company owns "70 percent of the entire media market and is the only voice of record for the city."

[CanWest] now owns both of Vancouver’s daily newspapers (the Sun and the tabloid Province), the city’s top-rated television station (GlobalTV), 12 community newspapers, eight analog and digital television stations, and one of two national papers. For good measure, it also owns the only daily in the nearby provincial capital, Victoria’s Times Colonist.

• Feds must examine Irving media empire: Fraser


• Media consolidation continues as Quebecor buys Osprey


• Media consolidation

UPDATED: Nov, 10, 2007

4) Non-Compliance with Access to Information requests

- What right does the public have to know?
- Access to information system too often a barrier to transparency:Newspaper group
- 2007 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AUDIT

The National Freedom of Information Audit conducted by the Canadian Newspaper Association concluded:

Clearly, most Canadian jurisdictions continue to demonstrate confusion, inconsistency and a flawed understanding of the importance of transparency to the democratic system and how access to information rights are a public right that underpins the transparency principle.

Canada: What Questions Get Asked?

The Toronto Star has an article about the free speech ramifications of the now shelved plan to build a new press centre in which the Prime Minister would get to choose which reports -- which questions -- would be asked. (The Liberals under Martin tried to do this too).

The background: Shortly after he was elected Prime Minister, Stephen Harper tried to change the rules for press conferences at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa, which is controlled by the press gallery. He insisted that his staff be allowed to choose which reporters could ask him questions, instead of the reporters themselves deciding.

... the Prime Minister's Office asked civil servants to draw up a $2 million plan to renovate a vacant shoe store in downtown Ottawa into a new press conference centre, this one to be controlled by the Prime Minister. The plan has been shelved, at least for now.

This is the system used by the president of the United States – and many other countries. It is a bad one, and here's why. The real issue is not who gets to ask questions, but what questions get asked. If Canada adopts the U.S. style, the Prime Minister will be able to call on friendly reporters and avoid reporters who ask difficult, necessary questions.

The GFW of Comcast?

There have been a number of recent reports stating that Comcast is interfering with file-sharing traffic including BitTorent, Gnutella, and Lotus Notes. The reports state that the technique used is the TCP RST packet technique that the GFW of China has made (in)famous. (An intermediary send RST packets to both ends of a connection, effectively terminating it. For more technical info see Ignoring the Great Firewall and ConceptDoppler.)

Interesting.

The geopolitical stakes of 'Saffron Revolution'

Asia Times Online has an interesting article on the 'Saffron Revolution':

In fact the US State Department admits to supporting the activities of the NED in Myanmar. The NED is a US government-funded "private" entity whose activities are designed to support US foreign policy objectives, doing today what the CIA did during the Cold War. As well, the NED funds Soros' Open Society Institute in fostering regime change in Myanmar. In an October 30, 2003 press release the State Department admitted, "The United States also supports organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy, the Open Society Institute and Internews, working inside and outside the region on a broad range of democracy promotion activities." It all sounds very self-effacing and noble of the State Department. Is it though?

In reality the US State Department has recruited and trained key opposition leaders from numerous anti-government organizations in Myanmar. It has poured the relatively huge sum (for Myanmar) of more than $2.5 million annually into NED activities in promoting regime change in Myanmar since at least 2003. The US regime change effort, its Saffron Revolution, is being largely run, according to informed reports, out of the US Consulate General in bordering Chaing Mai, Thailand. There activists are recruited and trained, in some cases directly in the US, before being sent back to organize inside Myanmar. The US's NED admits to funding key opposition media including the New Era Journal, Irrawaddy and the Democratic Voice of Burma radio.

China: Media Shift

I thought it might shift.

• Censor's grip tightening on Internet in China

US-made 'censorware' ends up in iron fists

CS Monitor reports:

The software companies involved sell this technology primarily to private companies in the US and abroad. Companies use these tools to keep employees from accessing pornography sites and websites infected with viruses.

Repressive governments also turn to these American systems, not only to filter out porn and viruses, but also to block political, religious, and other websites.

AT&T Retracts Censor Clause

AT&T has retracted a censorship clause in their ToS which allowed them to "pull the plug" on anything that "tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries." They've now amended the ToS to say:

5.1 Suspension/Termination. AT&T respects freedom of expression and believes it is a foundation of our free society to express differing points of view. AT&T will not terminate, disconnect or suspend service because of the views you or we express on public policy matters, political issues or political campaigns.

BYPASSING CENSORSHIP

The Citizen Lab has released "Everyone's Guide to Bypassing Internet Censorship (pdf)". It was a team effort to produce the guide and I'm very pleased to have contributed to it. I've long argued that users can benefit from circumvention technology the most when the carefully select the technology that meets their specific needs.

The guide walks users through the process of assessing their needs and and capabilities and lists clusters of circumvention technology options for users to choose from.

Syria: Censorship Concerns

The Angry Arab reports:

Al-Akhbar newspaper has decided to stop distributing the paper in Syria due to censorship and irregularities from the Syrian government.

(The Arabic article is available here.)

Child Protection Online

The Privacy Commission's blog has an interesting post about the protection of children online. The context is in terms of privacy and not the usual implementation of filtering technologies.

There are increasingly deep levels of intimacy between marketers and children – there’s a thin line between content and commerce

All the major children’s playsites comply with data protection laws – in fact they all market themselves as champions of children’s privacy

In these children’s sites, the pervasive market research invades privacy – seamless surveillance – colonizing their play – constraining the identities available to them – recasting things like citizenship, friendship, autonomy, choice and control within the framework of the marketplace

It is interesting because all these sites would not be blocked by filtering software (ostensibly implemented to block pornography etc...) because they are kids sites. It not only demonstrates that throwing technology at a social problem will not "fix" it as well as need for parents and children to communicate and educate themselves about Internet safety.

Privacy Commissioner Investigates Harper

The Edmonton Sun reports:

The federal privacy commissioner is examining a public complaint over greeting cards sent from the Prime Minister's Office specifically to Jewish constituents.

Several recipients have reportedly questioned whether the Prime Minister's Office used government data to pinpoint Jewish residents.

How did the Prime Minister get a list of Jewish constituents?

Canadians deserve better ISP transparency

Michael Geist writes about the lack of transparency surround the traffic shaping conducted by Canadian ISPs. A recent survey found that most Canadians are unaware of net neutrality issues but support net neutrality principles when informed.

Most Canadians can hardly be faulted for being unaware of the issue since ISPs have done their best to keep it off the radar screen. While solving the Net neutrality issue will not happen overnight, addressing the lack of transparency associated with Internet services would go a long way toward creating a more informed debate.

China not blocking RSS/Feeds

EDIT: the focus here is on the fact that China is not dynamically blocking ALL RSS Feeds, however, feeds hosted on already blocked sites are, of course, also blocked.

This article claims that RSS feeds are being blocked in China.

More recent reports tell us that the PSB appears to have extended this block to all incoming URLs that begin with "feeds," "rss," and "blog," thus rendering the RSS feeds from many sites—including ones that aren't blocked in China, such as Ars Technica—useless.

I've tested and they are not blocked.

As Danwei points out "Ars Technica feed are inaccessible in China because it is run through Feedburner's server (feeds.feedburner.com), which is blocked."

GV Advocacy has a nice round-up here.

"Cyber Jihadist" Trial

The trial of a man accused of "virtual jihad" is about to start in Germany, reports dw-world.de. The case will focus on whether the (re) posting of audio and video files on the Internet along with the occasion appeal for jihad constitutes "attempting to recruit members" for terrorist organizations.

"It's an important trial because it will shed light on whether what happens in closed chat groups on the Internet falls under freedom of expression or whether you can penalize it if there's proof of planned attacks," said Carstensen.[press spokesman for Germany's criminal investigators' union (BdK) ]

Plan to tighten identity theft laws

The Toronto Star reports that the Canadian government plans to tighten up efforts to fight identity theft by adding amendments to the Criminal Code:

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson was short on details on the severity of the amendments but said sharpening the Criminal Code will give police better tools to combat the rapidly growing theft trend that is constantly growing thanks to technology.

Always read the fine print.

EU Wants to block searches for "bomb"

"I do intend to carry out a clear exploring exercise with the private sector ... on how it is possible to use technology to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism," Frattini told Reuters.

Wow.

Searching for such words brings up quite a number of non-bomb-making-instruction sites, forcing search engines to not allow searches for such generic terms is ridiculous. The top results for a Google search for "genocide" for example returns a Wikipedia entry, a site dedicated to stopping genocide in Darfur among others. That much is obvious.

Perhaps EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini meant that specific sites, such as sites with instructions on how to make a bomb, should be removed from search engines. In this scenario it is not that a user cannot search for the word "bomb" but if such a designated web site were to appear in the results it would not be shown to the user. This is what is already done by search engines in regard to copyright violations, hate speech, libel/defamation an any other "legal" request (such as news & politics websites that the Chinese government deems illegal). It would be fairly simple for the EU to request that search engines de-list certain sites, but of course, this comes with all the baggage of filtering systems (over-blocking, under-blocking & circumvention).

The above concerns aside the proposal is actually even more misguided. It assumes that search engines are the only way to access information. Such a policy would not take into account direct access to such sites, links fro other sites, especially forums, chat rooms, IM's and so on. It is a shortsighted policy that appears to be mostly for show in the same vein as Seth Finkelstein argues about the deployment of censorware:

...governments end up giving money to these companies for the political benefits of being able to Do Something About The Problem (no matter the flaws).

The "wanting to do something" sentiment appears strong in this case as does the lack of careful consideration.

Spy planes used for surveillance

The Guardian reports that "intelligence agencies are using military aircraft equipped with sophisticated surveillance equipment to eavesdrop on and monitor the movements of suspected terrorists" by flying over cities in the U.K. The plane is thought to be equipped with technology to monitor telephone calls and automatically recognize license plate numbers. The plane's have also been used by police to "identify people speeding, driving when using mobile phones, overtaking on double white lines, or driving erratically."