FC: Burma restricts political websites -- no surprise

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Here's my report from a trip to Burma and my interview with Aung San Suu Kyi:
  http://www.y2kculture.com/mccullagh/burma.1296.txt

This BBC article was surprisingly mild -- when I was in Rangoon in '96, a 
BBC correspondent was beaten up ostensibly accidentally by the SLORC and 
deported. Tanks were in the streets to intimidate student protesters, 
making Net-censorship arguably the least of their concerns. And where 
political freedom is lacking, so is economic liberty: one student I stayed 
with made $20 a month in his full-time job, about enough to log on probably 
every decade or two.

-Declan

*********

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_611000/611836.stm

              Thursday, 20 January, 2000, 13:40 GMT
              Burmese ban on political websites
              By regional analyst James Miles

              The Burmese authorities have banned
              the country's internet users from
              issuing material of a political nature.

              Burmese television said the country's
              only authorised internet service
              provider, Myanmar Post and
              Telecommunications, had outlawed
              the use of sites which were - as it
              put it - detrimental to government
              policies.

              The regulations will come as no
              surprise in a country that has been
              among the most hostile in Asia
              towards the internet revolution.

              Burma has
              lagged behind
              even some of
              Asia's most
              authoritarian
              countries such
              as China and
              Vietnam in its
              embrace of the
              internet.

              [...]


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