Belarus is Internet’s black hole (Photo)

Belarus occupies top places in annual lists of Internet enemies released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

RSF’s list of enemies of the Internet includes such countries as Saudi Arabia, Burma, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. The organization believes that governments of these countries violated the freedom of expression on the Net, the website European Belarus says.

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s Tunisia, Muammar al-Gaddafi’s Libya, Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s Belarus, Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, Francisco Macнas Nguema’s Equatorial Guinea are in the situation described by RSF as “unchanging hell”. “The leader’s ubiquitous portraits on the streets and front pages of the newspapers are enough to dispel any doubt about the lack of press freedom,” the report says. Other dictatorships do without a personality cult but are just as suffocating, with the press under the state control. The countries at the bottom of the press freedom index are the dictatorships where dissidents and pro-reform journalists manage to open cracks in the walls that enclose them, the authors note.

Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea are the last in the list.

We remind that the scandalous decree on national segment of the Internet, signed by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, is to come into effect on July 1. The content of the decree brought on criticism by the Belarusian media community and international human rights organizations, including OSCE. Independent experts have no doubts that Lukashenka’s decree is aimed at blocking oppositional Internet resources ahead of the upcoming presidential elections.

One of the most controversial clauses says: “Upon the request of a user, providers of Internet services effect services limiting access to information which is aimed at extremist activities”. It is known that Belarusian authorities often accuse the opposition of “extremism”.

Photo by alexis-fiend.livejournal.com