Hillary Clinton´s Speech on "Internet Freedom"

"Internet Freedom
The prepared text of U.S. of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton's speech, delivered at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.
JANUARY 21, 2010

...

During his visit to China in November, President Obama held a town
hall meeting with an online component to highlight the importance of
the internet. In response to a question that was sent in over the
internet, he defended the right of people to freely access
information, and said that the more freely information flows, the
stronger societies become. He spoke about how access to information
helps citizens to hold their governments accountable, generates new
ideas, and encourages creativity. The United States' belief in that
truth is what brings me here today.

...

In the last year, we've seen a spike in threats to the free flow of
information. China, Tunisia, and Uzbekistan have stepped up their
censorship of the internet. In Vietnam, access to popular social
networking sites has suddenly disappeared. And last Friday in Egypt,
30 bloggers and activists were detained. One member of this group,
Bassem Samir - who is thankfully no longer in prison - is with us
today. So while it is clear that the spread of these technologies is
transforming our world, it is still unclear how that transformation
will affect the human rights and welfare of much of the world's
population.

...

On their own, new technologies do not take sides in the struggle for
freedom and progress. But the United States does. We stand for a
single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge
and ideas. And we recognize that the world's information
infrastructure will become what we and others make of it.

This challenge may be new, but our responsibility to help ensure the
free exchange of ideas goes back to the birth of our republic. The
words of the First Amendment to the Constitution are carved in 50
tons of Tennessee marble on the front of this building. And every
generation of Americans has worked to protect the values etched in
that stone.

Franklin Roosevelt built on these ideas when he delivered his Four
Freedoms speech in 1941. At the time, Americans faced a cavalcade of
crises and a crisis of confidence. But the vision of a world in which
all people enjoyed freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom
from want, and freedom from fear transcended the trouble of his day.

...

Some countries have erected electronic barriers that prevent their
people from accessing portions of the world's networks. They have
expunged words, names and phrases from search engine results. They
have violated the privacy of citizens who engage in non-violent
political speech. These actions contravene the Universal Declaration
on Human Rights, which tells us that all people have the right "to
seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and
regardless of frontiers." With the spread of these restrictive
practices, a new information curtain is descending across much of the
world. Beyond this partition, viral videos and blog posts are
becoming the samizdat of our day.

As in the dictatorships of the past, governments are targeting
independent thinkers who use these tools.

...

Those who use the internet to recruit terrorists or distribute stolen
intellectual property cannot divorce their online actions from their
real world identities. But these challenges must not become an excuse
for governments to systematically violate the rights and privacy of
those who use the internet for peaceful political purposes.

...

Those who disrupt the free flow of information in our society, or any
other, pose a threat to our economy, our government and our civil
society.

...

The final freedom I want to address today flows from the four I've
already mentioned: the freedom to connect - the idea that governments
should not prevent people from connecting to the internet, to
websites, or to each other. The freedom to connect is like the
freedom of assembly in cyber space. It allows individuals to get
online, come together, and hopefully cooperate in the name of
progress.

...

The principles I've outlined today will guide our approach to the
issue of internet freedom and the use of these technologies. And I
want to speak about how we apply them in practice. The United States
is committed to devoting the diplomatic, economic and technological
resources necessary to advance these freedoms.

...

I'm proud that the State Department is already working in more than
40 countries to help individuals silenced by oppressive governments.
We are making this issue a priority in at the United Nations as well,
and included internet freedom as a component in the first resolution
we introduced after returning to the UN Human Rights Council.

We are also supporting the development of new tools that enable
citizens to exercise their right of free expression by circumventing
politically motivated censorship. We are working globally to make
sure that those tools get to the people who need them, in local
languages, and with the training they need to access the internet
safely. The United States has been assisting in these efforts for
some time. Both the American people and nations that censor the
internet should understand that our government is proud to help
promote internet freedom.

...

Information freedom supports the peace and security that provide a
foundation for global progress. Historically, asymmetrical access to
information is one of the leading causes of interstate conflict. When
we face serious disputes or dangerous incidents, it's critical that
people on both sides of the problem have access to the same set of
facts and opinions.

As it stands, Americans can consider information presented by foreign
governments - we do not block their attempts to communicate with
people in the United States. But citizens in societies that practice
censorship lack exposure to outside views. In North Korea, for
example, the government has tried to completely isolate its citizens
from outside opinions. This lop-sided access to information increases
both the likelihood of conflict and the probability that small
disagreements will escalate. I hope responsible governments with an
interest in global stability will work to address such imbalances.

...

We are reinvigorating the Global Internet Freedom Task Force as a
forum for addressing threats to internet freedom around the world,
and urging U.S. media companies to take a proactive role in
challenging foreign governments' demands for censorship and
surveillance. The private sector has a shared responsibility to help
safeguard free expression. And when their business dealings threaten
to undermine this freedom, they need to consider what's right, not
simply the prospect of quick profits.

...

Given the magnitude of the challenges we're facing, we need people
around the world to pool their knowledge and creativity to ... defeat
violent extremism

...

We cannot stand by while people are separated from our human family
by walls of censorship. And we cannot be silent about these issues
simply because we cannot hear their cries. Let us recommit ourselves
to this cause. Let us make these technologies a force for real
progress the world over. And let us go forward together to champion
these freedoms."
[link to www.foreignpolicy.com]
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copied from a nice poster on the german heise forum
Discuss.