Media as today's main information sources unarguably have the power to influence political agenda-setting and public opinion. They decide which topics and issues are covered and how they are reported. Still, in many cases those decisions are not primarily determined by journalistic criteria, but affected by external factors. The importance of shareholders forces media to generate more profit every quarter, which can chiefly be raised by enlarging audiences and hence attracting more advertising money. Therefore the focus of media's programming in many cases shifts towards audience alluring content like entertainment, talk-shows, music and sports.
Further pressure regarding the selection of content occurs from advertisers and marketers, who often implicitly or explicitly suggest to refrain from programming which could show them or their products and services (e.g. tobacco) in an unfavorable light. Interlocking directorships and outright ownerships can moreover be responsible for a selective coverage. Financial connections with defense, banking, insurance, gas, oil, and nuclear power, repeatedly lead (commercial) media to the withholding of information, which could offend their corporate partners. In totalitarian regimes also pressure from political elites may be a reason for the suppression or alteration of certain facts.
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The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the licensing authority for electronic services, has imposed a number of restrictions of the use of the Internet. Licenses to ISPs (Internet Service Provider) will be issued under the terms of the highly restrictive Telephone and Telegraph Act of 1885.
Under the terms of the agreement, users are prohibited from using any sort of data encryption and have to agree that their electronic communications may be monitored by government agencies. Transmission or reception of obscene or objectionable material is also prohibited and may lead not only to immediate disconnection of service but also to prosecution by authorities.
Users of electronic services will also have to submit to service provider's copies of the National Identity Card. According to the terms of issuance of licenses, service providers will also be responsible for ensuring that the programs and information provided through electronic services do not "come into direct clash with accepted standards of morality and social values in Pakistan."
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The World Wide Web is constituted by documents linked with other documents, thus allowing access to referred documents. Censorship affects hyperlinks as well. Say, you publish an essay on racist propaganda on the Net and make link references to neo-nazi web sites. It goes without saying that you do not endorse neo-nazi pamphlets. By linking to these web sites you want your readers to get an idea of what you are writing about. Linking does not necessarily mean approving. Is this not evident?
According to Swiss and German prosecuting attorneys you may have committed a crime without having illegal intentions. From his web site Thomas Stricker, director of the Institute of Computer Systems at the ETH Zurich, has linked to an anti-racist web site with links to racist content in order to draw the attention to the difficulties legal regulation of the Net has to face. Neglecting his intentions, Swiss authorities instituted a criminal action against Stricker.
Another case, reported by the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, proves that not just links to racist resources or to resources with links to such resources are under prosecution. The Motion Picture Association of America sued to prevent Internet users from linking to websites that have DeCSS, a program helping Linux users play DVDs on their computers. The trial is scheduled for December.
References:
Global Internet Liberty Campaign, Hollywood wants end to links, in: GILC Alert 4,4, April 24, 2000, http://www.gilc.org/alert/alert44.html
Wolfgang Näser, Allgemeines zum Thema "Homepage",
Florian Rötzer, Ab wann ist ein externer Link auf strafrechtlich relevante Inhalte selbst strafbar?, in:
Florian Rötzer, Strafverfahren gegen ETH-Professor wegen Links zu rassistischen Websites, in:
Florian Rötzer, Ab wievielen Zwischenschritten ist ein Link auf eine rechtswidrige Website strafbar, in:
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Vandana Shiva is the Director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology in New Delhi. She has been a tireless and one of the most original campaigners for ecological diversity, eco-feminism and against "official" development policies and commercial exploitation. Book publications include Ecofeminism (1993), Monocultures of the Mind (1993) and Biopiracy : The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge (1997
also called "the study of code". It includes both, cryptography and cryptoanalysis
Being itself under the umbrella of the