Sparks Fly At The UN’s Internet Governance Forum As Speakers Damn US Companies For Helping China Restrict Internet Usage. But How Could That Be -- The Chinese Representative Said There Are No Internet Restrictions!

The UN Internet Governance Forum meeting in Athens this week is the follow-up to the World Summit of the Information Society meeting held last year in Tunisia. The four main topics this year were openness, security, diversity and access, with issues ranging from whether English should be such a dominant Internet working language to freedom of expression.

But it was the openness panel that unleashed so much debate and it quickly centered on China, and perhaps served as a warning to the Chinese as they prepare for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing that everything they do increasingly comes under the microscope.

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Complaints were hurled again (again because at most media meetings and even US Congressional hearings where this is discussed it is basically the same discussion with no result -- companies are charged with putting business before freedom of expression whereby the companies claim they are abiding by local laws and regulations of the country) -- but what made this session different was the reaction by a Chinese representative to all that was said about Internet usage restrictions in his country.

He heard Cisco say it didn’t sell anything different to the Chinese that it doesn’t sell elsewhere. Microsoft said it abided by Chinese law, and Google said the same but pointed out its Chinese servers are actually located outside China so the authorities can’t get to them whereas in a celebrated Yahoo case the Chinese jailed a journalist from information provided on Yahoo servers based in China. .

But Chinese diplomat Yang Xiaokun, who is based at the UN in Geneva, wouldn’t have any of that.

“I don’t think we should be using different standards to judge China,” he said. “In China we don’t have software blocking Internet sites. Sometimes we have trouble accessing them, but that’s another problem.

“And I know that some colleagues listen to the BBC in their offices from the Web cast. And I've heard people say that the BBC is not available in China or that it's blocked. I'm sure I don't know why people say this kind of thing. I work in Geneva. I am part of the Chinese mission to the U.N. And I listen to the BBC in my office. And I’ve heard people say that the BBC is not available in China or that it’s blocked. I’m sure I don’t know why people say this kind of thing. We do not have restrictions at all.”

That stirred the panel moderator, the BBC’s Nick Gowing, to ask the diplomat if he could elaborate further. “How can I elaborate on it if we don’t have any restrictions,” was the reply.

But he continued, “Some people say that there are journalists in China that have been arrested. We have hundreds of journalists in China; very few have been arrested. But there are criminals in all societies and we have to arrest them. It is they that have legal problems. It has nothing to do with freedom of expression.”

That was all too much for Richard Sambrook, director of the BBC World Service, who declared, “I’m glad he listens and reads us in Geneva, but if he was in China he would not be able to listen to our Mandarin service on short wave radio and not be able to read our Mandarin news site on the website. And this is now very well established and it is very effectively blocked on both the Internet and shortwave radio and has been for many years.”

Various government officials made all the right noises in Athens about freedom of expression with perhaps the most eloquent speech coming from Viviane Reding, the EU Commissioner for the Information Society and Media. She told delegates:

“Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, there is the need to respect fundamental human rights and the need to protect freedom of expression. In just a few years, the Internet has undoubtedly turned into one of the most dynamic communication tools the world has ever seen. The flow of information that it facilitates strengthens democratic processes, stimulates economic growth and allows for cross-fertilizing exchanges of knowledge in a way never seen before.

“Too often however, this very freedom is under attack from those that do not value freedom of expression or disregard the economic and social benefits of allowing a free flow of information within and across borders. Freedom is too often seen as a threat by those who do not value human rights or want to impose their vision of the world or their religious beliefs.

“A key objective for the European Commission is therefore to keep the Internet as an open and censorship-free zone where all the world's citizens can communicate freely with each other without needing to seek the permission of anyone else, not least their governments, to do so, in line with internationally recognized fundamental rights.”

A Harvard University study says that 19,032 web sites are inaccessible inside China.