[Foundation-l] Concern for the safety of Wikimedians at Wikimania in Alex...

[Oldak Quill]

On 05/03/2008, Nathan <nawrich at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=10611
>
>  (link found from the en.wiki [[Cuba]] article).
>
>  I'd suggest we focus Wikimania events on areas with Internet access for the
>  general population that is at least minimally free - this article says
>  looking things up on the Internet (what Wikimedia is all about) can be
>  "dangerous,"

No, not good. For what it's worth, I notice the "Digital Access Index"
('to measure the access of a country's inhabitants to information and
communication technology') for Egypt is 0.40. Compare this to Cuba's
0.38 on a 0 to 1 scale. Not sure if this is merely a measure of the
density of cyber cafes, or a measure of freedom to access the
internet...

Further information relating to Egypt on the Reporters without Borders
Internet site:

"The government set up a unit in September 2002 to investigate
Internet crime and its director, Ahmed Essmat, told the daily Al Ahram
that his staff monitored the Internet in real time. Police especially
seek out those visiting pornographic websites and can very quickly go
to the home of someone doing so. Surveillance is easier because all
ISPs pass through the state-run Egypt Telecom.

At the end of 2001 and early 2002, Internet users were warned off
taboo issues (such as relations between Copts and Muslims, publicising
terrorist ideas, human rights violations, criticising the president,
his family and the army and promoting modern versions of Islam) and
told that too much outspokenness was unwelcome."


Who knows, with a change of leader, things might be very different in
Cuba in a couple of years (Raul Castro has already signed up to a
couple of human rights treaties). With a literacy rate higher than the
United States, a newly free Cuba would be the ideal setting for a
Wikimania.

-- 
Oldak Quill (oldakquill at gmail.com)