Congressional Human Rights Caucus - Human Rights and the Internet
Yesterday Prof. John Palfrey testified before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in Washington, DC regarding "Human Rights and the Internet -- The People's Republic of China." Chaired by Congressman Tim Ryan, the purpose of the briefing was to inform lawmakers as they deliberate over relevant legislative measures:
"In the 108th Congress, the provisions of the "Global Internet Freedom Act" (H.R. 48) were subsumed into the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 2004-2005 (H.R. 1950) and passed by the House on July 16, 2003. Christopher Cox reintroduced the bill (H.R. 2216) in the 109th Congress in May 2005. If passed, the act would authorize $50,000,000 for FY2006 and FY2007 to develop and implement a global Internet freedom policy. The act would also establish an office within the International Broadcasting Bureau with the sole mission of countering Internet jamming by repressive governments."
John Palfrey's prepared written testimony is available on his blog (given time constraints at the hearing, he much abbreviated his comments). His colleague, Nart Villeneuve, Director of Technical Research at the Citizen Lab, also testified. Both John Palfrey and Nart Villeneuve are OpenNet Initiative principals, which has researched and reported on Internet filtering in China, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Burma, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Tunisia, and Iran.
Yesterday's caucus was extremely well attended, and reported on by the media: Reuters, San Francisco Chronicle, and the BBC.
If you would like to learn more about this issue, please see our previous homepage post where we list relevant Berkman research.
"In the 108th Congress, the provisions of the "Global Internet Freedom Act" (H.R. 48) were subsumed into the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 2004-2005 (H.R. 1950) and passed by the House on July 16, 2003. Christopher Cox reintroduced the bill (H.R. 2216) in the 109th Congress in May 2005. If passed, the act would authorize $50,000,000 for FY2006 and FY2007 to develop and implement a global Internet freedom policy. The act would also establish an office within the International Broadcasting Bureau with the sole mission of countering Internet jamming by repressive governments."
John Palfrey's prepared written testimony is available on his blog (given time constraints at the hearing, he much abbreviated his comments). His colleague, Nart Villeneuve, Director of Technical Research at the Citizen Lab, also testified. Both John Palfrey and Nart Villeneuve are OpenNet Initiative principals, which has researched and reported on Internet filtering in China, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Burma, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Tunisia, and Iran.
Yesterday's caucus was extremely well attended, and reported on by the media: Reuters, San Francisco Chronicle, and the BBC.
If you would like to learn more about this issue, please see our previous homepage post where we list relevant Berkman research.