Belarus uses Internet as a net to catch critics of the regime, says “Reporters Without Borders”
16.03.2014 | Politics
However, in the Commonwealth of Independent States, it is Russia and the country's security service that seem to have the tightest grip over the Internet.
The media freedom organization Reporters Without Borders has released its annual list of "Enemies of the Internet," which this year includes three of the world's leading democracies.
The report was issued on March 12 to coincide with World Day Against Cyber Censorship and seeks to draw attention to "government units and agencies that implement online censorship and surveillance."
Antoine Hery, the head of RSF's World Press Freedom Index, told RFE/RL that many chronic offenders remained on this year's list.
"Belarus, of course, and Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, etcetera - those countries are looking pretty much uniquely at the Russian model and the Russian model is absolutely terrible," he said. "We have a feeling that those countries are getting worse and worse every year. But that's not only related to their online activities or censorship of the Internet, it's related to the situation of the media in general."
Johann Bihr, the head of RSF's European and Asian desk, noted that tactics used by different governments to block or control the Internet vary.
In the case of Belarus we can speak about tight control over access to websites outside the country as well as using the Internet as a net to catch critics of the regime: "Belarus now has ensured that the flow of information on the Internet is tightly controlled and more and more bloggers and netizens are arrested based on various pretexts for informing online," said Bihr.
But in the Commonwealth of Independent States, it is Russia and the country's security service that seem to have the tightest grip over the Internet.
"This year, we have included the Russian security service - the FSB [Federal Security Service]- among the Internet enemies," said Bihr. "This is a token for the Russian surveillance system known as SORM [System of Operative-Investigative Measures], which allows the FSB to have direct access to the servers of the Internet access providers throughout the country."
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