The Parliament has adopted a text denouncing the governments of
China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia for persecuting political
opponents for views expressed online. It also name-checks Google,
Yahoo! and Microsoft as companies that help those governments
censor their citizens.
"[The] Chinese government has successfully persuaded companies
such as Yahoo, Google and Microsoft to facilitate the censorship of
their services in the Chinese internet market," says the text.
Google said that it believes that even the censored search
engine provides some benefits. "Google respects the fact that
people and organisations, including Amnesty, oppose our decision to
launch a search service in China," said a Google spokeswoman in a
statement. "Google believes that Google.cn will provide significant
benefits to Chinese Internet users and that our engagement in China
meaningfully expands access to information there."
"Google.cn already discloses to users when information has been
removed from our search results in response to local laws and
regulations. We believe this provides some additional transparency
and is a step in the right direction," said the statement.
The Parliament cannot directly control companies' behaviour.
"There is not pressure we can bring to bear directly on companies,
but we have passed this on to the Commission and the Council of
Ministers and want them to draw up a code of conduct," said a
European Parliament spokesman.
The text is not a legally enforceable document, it is simply a
register of the Parliament's support for freedom of expression on
the internet, said the spokesman.
The document says that the Parliament "strongly condemns
restrictions on internet content, whether they apply to the
dissemination or to the receipt of information, that are imposed by
governments and are not in strict conformity with the guarantee of
freedom of expression."
The Parliament said that it "strongly condemns the harassment
and imprisonment of journalists and others who are expressing their
opinions on the internet [and] calls, in this respect, on the
Council and the Commission to take all necessary measures vis-à-vis
the authorities of the concerned countries for the immediate
release of all detained Internet users".
The Parliament also wants the Commission to consider limiting
aid to countries whose internet policies do not protect freedom of
expression. The document said that the Parliament "calls on the
Council and the Commission when considering its assistance
programmes to third countries to take into account the need for
unrestricted Internet access by their citizens".
The Parliament spokesman said that the document could be
considered alongside proposals that emerged at the World Summit on
the Information Society in Tunis at the end of last year. He also
said that it could be adopted not just by the Commission, but by
the United Nations and the International Telecommunications
Union.
