 France
and the Netherlands have called for international guidelines to prevent
private firms from exporting high-tech equipment that could be used for
Internet censorship.
Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said there must be concrete
measures taken to ensure that the Internet remains a universal forum
and singled out Iran for blocking access to anti-government websites.
We must support cyber-dissidents in the same way that we supported
political dissidents, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told
a meeting in Paris attended by some 20 countries including the United
States and Japan.
France and the Netherlands plan to hold a ministerial-level meeting
in October to flesh out the guidelines for firms who sell technology
that could be used to suppress democracy.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi has accused German engineering
giant Siemens and Finnish telecoms firm Nokia of supplying Iran with
technology to help it suppress dissent. The firms have denied the
charges.
Jean-Francois Julliard, from the media rights group Reporters Without
Borders (RSF, accused French phone equipment provider Alcatel of selling
bugging equipment to Myanmar. He also singled out networking giant Cisco
for allegedly selling encoders to China.
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