[IRP] FW: [URGENT] Internet Censorship in Venezuela. Bill on Social Responsibly of Internet service providers and electronic media + Creation of National Internet Exchange Point
Jacinto Dávila
jacinto
Thu Dec 16 15:12:09 EET 2010
Dear Ginger et al,
Thank you for considering the Venezuelan case. The situation is more
complex than those reports suggest. There were indeed reasons for
concern in a preliminary proposal to amend what we call the law for
social responsibility in the media (Ley RESORTE), but the version
approved yesterday does not contain those references to Internet. The
document is available, in Spanish, here:
http://lubrio.blogspot.com/2010/12/removieron-de-la-ley-resorte-los-puntos.html
Another law is being discussed right now (the "telecommunications" law)
and there is not definitive document that I know.
With respect to the so-called "enabling laws" for next year, which by
the way is a perfectly legal procedure used (and abused) by many
presidents and members of parliaments before, I have not heard or read
any reference to Internet censorship or anything like it.
Regards,
Jacinto
Ginger Paque escribi?:
> Hi Lisa and all,
>
> There are two troubling projects in current discussion in the
> Venezuelan parliament, the one Lisa mentions, and one seeking new
> Internet regulations. They are both likely to pass this week. These
> merit international review and discussion:
>
> *After Legislative Setback, Venezuela's Chavez Plans to Legislate by
> Decree*
> http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=381328&CategoryId=10718
> <http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=381328&CategoryId=10718>
> Chavez announced that he will ask his lame-duck National Assembly
> (where he will lose his unchallenged majority on January 5) to pass an
> "Enabling Law" that will allow him to dictate by decree for 18 months
> -- bypassing the incoming Opposition legislators. ...
> ...
> In the next 165-member National Assembly, the ruling party will have
> the majority of lawmakers but not, as it has had up to now, the
> two-thirds majority necessary to approve organic laws or extraordinary
> measures such as granting special powers to the president.
>
> A Venezuelan newspaper account: *Venezuelan govn't seeks media law to
> regulate the Internet *
> http://english.eluniversal.com/2010/12/10/en_pol_esp_venezuelan-govnt-se_10A4838455.shtml
>
>
> Global Voices has a comment on the Resorte (*Internet law)* here,
> although it does not take into account yesterdays discussions:
> http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2010/12/12/venezuela-law-for-internet/
>
>
> *
> * *Ginger (Virginia) Paque
> * IGCBP Online Coordinator
> DiploFoundation
> www.diplomacy.edu/ig <http://www.diplomacy.edu/ig>
>
> *The latest from Diplo...*
> http://igbook.diplomacy.edu <http://igbook.diplomacy.edu/>is the
> online companion to /An Introduction to Internet Governance, / Diplo's
> publication on IG. Download the book, read the blogs and post your
> comments.
>
>
> On 12/16/2010 5:44 AM, Lisa Horner wrote:
>>
>> Hi all
>>
>>
>>
>> Please see below information about the worrying bills that have been
>> presented in Venezuela. Is there anything we can do on this?
>>
>>
>>
>> Apologies for cross posting.
>>
>>
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Lisa
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Pedro Less Andrade [mailto:pedroless at google.com]
>> *Sent:* 15 December 2010 23:34
>> *To:* Kurt Opsahl; <katitza at eff.org> <mailto:katitza at eff.org>; Sonja
>> Gittens-Ottley; Sebastian Bellagamba; Ra?l Echeberr?a; Alejandro
>> Pisanty; OscarM; Cynthia Wong; Ruth Puente; Lisa Horner
>> *Subject:* Re: [URGENT] Internet Censorship in Venezuela. Bill on
>> Social Responsibly of Internet service providers and electronic media
>> + Creation of National Internet Exchange Point
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>>
>>
>> The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and its Office
>> of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression just sent a press
>> release today on the Venezuelan issue.
>>
>> http://www.cidh.oas.org/Comunicados/English/2010/122-10eng.htm
>> <http://www.cidh.oas.org/Comunicados/English/2010/122-10eng.htm>
>>
>> http://www.cidh.oas.org/Comunicados/Spanish/2010/122-10sp.htm
>>
>>
>>
>> It has very good paragraphs on freedom of expression and Internet.
>>
>>
>>
>> Please, circulate this among your contacts and the Internet community.
>>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>>
>>
>> Pedro
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 1:32 PM, Pedro Less Andrade
>> <pedroless at google.com <mailto:pedroless at google.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Dear all,
>>
>>
>>
>> You might heard about these two bills that are going to be debated at
>> Venezuela National Assembly next Tuesday. Those represent a serious
>> threat to free expression online. It will be interesting the
>> possibility to have a strong coordinated response from the Internet
>> Community.
>>
>>
>>
>> Please find below a report that I prepared about the two bills:
>>
>>
>>
>> On December 10, we learned about a two new attempts to censor
>> Internet in Venezuela:
>>
>>
>>
>> 1. A new bill that will go to parliament next week to amend the Law
>> of Social Responsibly for Radio and Television and adds special
>> provisions for Internet service providers and electronic media.
>> Please find the text of the bill here
>> <http://www.asambleanacional.gob.ve/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=2760&tmpl=component&format=raw&Itemid=185&lang=es> from
>> the National Assembly website (also attached). The National Assembly
>> scheduled the debate of the new bill for Tuesday December 14.
>>
>>
>>
>> 2. There is another bill to reform the National Organic
>> Telecommunications Law. Section 212 of the bill established a
>> National Internet Exchange Point (IPX or NAP). This will be a way
>> for the government to have a centralized Internet point of access to
>> the country an control the traffic get in and out of the country.
>> Please find the bill here
>> <http://www.asambleanacional.gob.ve/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=2761&tmpl=component&format=raw&Itemid=185&lang=es> (also
>> attached).
>>
>>
>>
>> Manuel Villalba, a lawmaker from President Hugo Chavez's Socialist
>> Party, said the law was aimed at protecting citizens.
>>
>> "Nowhere is the restriction of access to the Internet suggested.
>> There should just exist protection of citizens' moral and ethical
>> honor," said Villalba, who heads the National Assembly's media
>> commission.
>>
>>
>>
>> The bill allows the government to restrict access to websites if they
>> are found to be distributing messages or information that incite
>> violence against the president. The bill also applies limits on
>> content in "electronic media" according to the time of day, with
>> adult content reserved for programing after midnight.
>>
>>
>>
>> I made a preliminary assessment of both bills:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *1. About the Bill on Social Responsibly:*
>>
>>
>>
>> Section 1: The "purpose" of the bill is to establish the social
>> responsibility of providers of radio and television
>> services, Internet service providers and electronic media,
>> advertisers, independent national produces, and users to promote
>> democratic equilibrium between their
>>
>> duties, rights and interests for the purposes of promote social
>> justice and contribute to citizenship formation, democracy,
>> peace, human rights, culture, education, health and social and
>> economic development, in accordance with the rules and principles
>> of constitutional law for the integral protection of children and
>> adolescents, culture, education, social security, free competition
>> and the Organic Law of Telecommunications.
>>
>>
>>
>> The bill is very ambiguous and vague because it extends the
>> application of the prior law (aimed to regulate Radio and TV) to the
>> Internet sphere. It is not clear what applies to Internet Service
>> providers and electronic media and what not.
>>
>>
>>
>> The bill defines 4 elements to be classified: language, sex, health
>> and violence. And categorized each element into different levels of
>> publishing or broadcasting: A, B, C, D and sometimes E.
>>
>>
>>
>> *Section 8 defines the prohibitions *for Radio,* *TV and *Electronic
>> Media* in connection with content that:
>>
>> 1. contain elements of sex type "E" health "D" and violence "C".
>> 2. may incite hatred or promote religious, political, gender
>> intolerance or racism or xenophobia.
>> 3. incite or promote and / or justify crime.
>> 4. could be war propaganda
>> 5. may be handled and designed by media to promote unrest in
>> the citizenship or disturb public order.
>> 6. may be destined to ignore the legally constituted
>> authorities, disrespect to the authorities or persons carrying
>> these charges.
>> 7. could lead to president assassination.
>> 8. could incite or promote breach of law.
>> 9. offend good customs.
>> 10. use visual techniques, sound or contexts that prevent or hinder
>> the users to perceive them consciously.
>>
>> Internet Service Providers should establish mechanism to restrict,
>> without delay, the dissemination of and access to content subsumed
>> under the prohibitions contained in paragraphs 2,3,4,5,6,7,8, 9 and
>> 10, when requested by National Telecommunications Commission
>> in exercise of its powers. The National Telecommunications Commission
>> may order Internet Service Providers to restrict access to messages
>> and reported portals.
>>
>>
>>
>> Internet service providers will be responsible for the information
>> and content prohibited referred in this Article, in cases that they
>> originated the transmittion, modified the data, selected
>> the recipients fail to limited the access to them in response to the
>> request made by
>> bodies with jurisdiction in the matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> *Section 28 subsections 3 and 4*: extend sanctions to ISPs. Penalties
>> could range from 3-4% of their annual gross income. Those penalties
>> has a particular focus on advertisement associated with different
>> activities (professional services without the proper national
>> certification, beneficial institutions without the proper
>> registration, tabacco, alcohol,sexual services and products, ads
>> against transport law (I imagine speeding, radars detectors) among
>> others.
>>
>>
>>
>> *Section 29* established additional penalties, suspension and
>> revocation of government concesions to provide their services.
>>
>> The penalties could go up to 10% and suspensions of services up to 72
>> hours, when providers disseminate the following type of messages:
>>
>>
>>
>> a) Those that promote, advocate or incite war
>> b) Those that promote, advocate or incite public disturbances;
>> c) Those that promote, advocate or incite crime;
>> d) Those that may incite hatred or promote religious,
>> political, gender intolerance or racism or xenophobia.
>> e) Those that may be discriminatory
>> f) Those that may be contrary to National security;
>> g) Anonymous messages.
>> h) Those that could be war propaganda
>> i) Those that could be handled and designed by media to promote
>> unrest in the citizenship or disturb public order.
>> j) Those that are intended to ignore the legally constituted
>> authorities, disrespecting the public authorities or persons carrying
>> these authorities.
>> k) Those which could lead to president assassination
>>
>>
>>
>> Revocation will take place when providers subject to this
>> law repeated the conducts sanctioned above.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> * 2. About the Bill amending the National Organic Telecommunications
>> Law: *
>>
>>
>>
>> *New Section 212: Creation of National **Exchange Point or Network
>> Access Point for Internet Service Providers in Venezuela*
>>
>> The State create an Exchange Point or Network Access Point for
>> Internet Service Providers in Venezuela in order to manage
>> the traffic from and to Venezuela with the purpose to having a more
>> efficient use of the networks in the country, given the strategic
>> nature of the sector. The governing body (National Telecommunications
>> Commission) will determine the State enterprise that will be
>> responsible for installation, operation and maintenance of
>> the Exchange Point or Network Access Point for Internet Service
>> Providers and will issue, by resolution, the rules applicable to
>> determine the model, constraints, requirements, implementation
>> schedule and any other matter necessary to achieve the conditions
>> that may be appropriate for proper implementation.
>>
>>
>>
>> If the government force all the national ISPs to connect to the
>> IXP/NAP the will have the technical ability to inspect, filter and
>> block internet traffic from and to Venezuela.
>>
>>
>>
>> * Conclusions: *
>>
>>
>>
>> This constitutes a flaflagrant violations to the OAS Inter-american
>> Convention of Human Rights, particularly sections related to freedom
>> of speech and indirect censorship.
>>
>>
>>
>> If both bills got passed, Internet services, particularly web 2.0
>> platforms, will face increasing blocking and filtering in Venezuela,
>> at ISP level.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> * Useful links: *
>>
>>
>>
>> *Press:*
>>
>> http://ca.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idCATRE6B90SA20101210 (Reuters,
>> English)
>>
>> http://fromtheold.com/news/internet/chavez-plans-censor-internet-20933 (English)
>>
>>
>> http://www.codigovenezuela.com/2010/12/noticias/politico/la-censura-para-internet-se-discute-el-martes/
>>
>>
>> http://caracas.eluniversal.com/2010/12/10/pol_ava_gobierno-creara-punt_10A4839611.shtml
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *Blogs:*
>>
>> Internet censorship in Venezuela: the real objectives (in
>> English): http://daniel-venezuela.blogspot.com/2010/12/internet-censorship-in-venezuela-real.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *Venezuela's National Assembly Website:*
>>
>> * Proyecto de Ley de Reforma de la Ley Org?nica de
>> Telecomunicaciones
>> <http://www.asambleanacional.gob.ve/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=2761&tmpl=component&format=raw&Itemid=185&lang=es>
>>
>>
>> * Proyecto de Ley De Reforma de La Ley de Responsabilidad Social
>> en Radio y Televisi?n
>> <http://www.asambleanacional.gob.ve/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=2760&tmpl=component&format=raw&Itemid=185&lang=es>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>>
>>
>> Pedro
>>
>> --
>> Pedro Less Andrade ? Gerente Senior de Asuntos Gubernamentales y
>> Pol?ticas P?blicas / Senior Policy Counsel ? Google ? Latin America
>> O: +54 11 5530 3209 ? M: +54 911 6242 4153 ? pedroless at google.com
>> <mailto:pedroless at google.com>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> --
>> Pedro Less Andrade ? Gerente Senior de Asuntos Gubernamentales y
>> Pol?ticas P?blicas / Senior Policy Counsel ? Google ? Latin America
>> O: +54 11 5530 3209 ? M: +54 911 6242 4153 ? pedroless at google.com
>> <mailto:pedroless at google.com>
>>
>>
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