<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Guru,<div><br></div><div>Just because Freedom House gets its funding for the report from the US State Department (as well as other foreign govts may I add) isn't , I believe, sufficient grounds to summarily dismiss the report findings.</div><div><br></div><div>If you or others have issues with the report, then the most strategic way to challenge the findings is with actual data. For instance, it would be interesting to see if a 3rd party using their same methodology would achieve the same aggregate scores for the countries surveyed. </div><div><br></div><div>My personal view is that the scores for the US & UK would, in an independent review, would be far lower - indicating a far more contested digital rights environment. </div><div><br></div><div>regards</div><div><br></div><div>Robert</div><div><br></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "></span></div></span></div></span></span>
</div>
<br><div><div>On 2013-01-17, at 8:21 AM, Guru गुरु wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">
<meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">The study has been done by Freedom
House. <br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_House">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_House</a> says<br>
<br>
"As of 2010, grants awarded from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_federal_government" title="US federal government" class="mw-redirect">US government</a>
accounted for most of Freedom House's funding ..."<br>
<br>
I suppose that helps to discount the wikileaks episode, cyber
warfare on nations, sopa/pipa .. <br>
<br>
regards,<br>
Guru<br>
<br>
<br>
On 01/17/2013 02:35 PM, Riaz K Tayob wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote cite="mid:50F7BEBC.9060600@gmail.com" type="cite">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<header class="article-header">
<h1 class="title" href="http://mashable.com/2012/09/27/us-internet-freedom/">U.S.
Ranks Second in Internet Freedom, Behind Estonia</h1>
<div class="article-info">
<div class="byline">Alex Fitzpatrick</div>
<time class="date" datetime="Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:30:44 +0000">Sep
27, 2012</time></div>
</header>
<section class="article-content"><p>The United States has the second highest degree of Internet
freedom in the world, according to a new study from Freedom
House. What country's ahead of America? Estonia, a country of
1.29 million in northeast Europe.</p><p><a moz-do-not-send="true" name="m!1d92"></a></p>
<div class="microcontent-wrapper" data-fragment="m!1d92"><p><span class="lightbox-expand for-lightbox"><br>
<br>
</span></p>
</div>
<h2>Estonia</h2><p>Why does Estonia top the list? According to Freedom House, it
"ranks among the most wired and technologically advanced
countries in the world."</p><p>"With a high internet penetration rate and widespread
e-commerce and e-government services embedded into the daily
lives of individuals and organizations, Estonia has become a
model for free internet access as a development engine for
society," reads the report.</p><p>Estonia's commitment to technological innovation in
government is especially remarkable considering the former
Soviet state's weak economy following the breakup of the
Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Freedom House credits the
country's first independent leaders with putting the country
on a track towards economic development through technology and
innovation.</p><p>"The country’s new leadership. . .perceived the expansion of
information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a key to
economic growth and invested heavily in their development,"
reads the report.</p><p><em>Update:</em> As a <em>Mashable</em> reader pointed out,
NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence was
built in Estonia in 2008, resulting in the funneling of funds
to improve the country's IT infrastructure. </p><p>Freedom House ranks countries' "Internet Freedom Status" in
three main ways: obstacles to access, limits on content and
violations of users' rights. It also factors in tertiary
factors, including internet penetration and blogger arrests.
Estonia got high marks in almost every category.</p>
<h2>The United States</h2><p>The United States got nearly as excellent marks, with 78%
internet penetration and no notable arrests of bloggers.
However, the debate over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and
the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), two bills considered a threat by
many Internet free speech advocates, raised some eyebrows.</p>
<blockquote><p>"Internet access in the United States remains open and
fairly free compared with the rest of the world," reads the
report. "Courts have consistently held that prohibitions
against government regulation of speech apply to material
published on the internet, but the government’s surveillance
powers are cause for some concern. In early 2012, campaigns
by civil society and technology companies helped to halt
passage of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect
IP Act (PIPA), which were criticized for their potentially
negative effects on free speech."</p>
</blockquote><p>Freedom House also warned of greater U.S. government
interference in the open Internet.</p>
<blockquote><p>"Several developments in recent years, however, have placed
the government and internet freedom advocates at odds over
aspects of internet regulation as well as issues surrounding
online surveillance and privacy. The United States lags
behind many major industrialized countries in terms of
broadband penetration, and network operators have challenged
recent rules concerning network neutrality. The current
administration appears committed to maintaining broad
surveillance powers with the aim of combating terrorism,
child pornography, and other criminal activity. Moreover,
reports have emerged that the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) is seeking expanded authority to control
the design of internet services to ensure that
communications can be intercepted when necessary."</p>
</blockquote><p>At the bottom of the list were Iran, Cuba and China, while
Belarus, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Thailand and seven other
countries received a rating of "Not Free."</p><p>To read the full report, visit <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/freedom-net-2012" target="_blank">Freedom House</a>. Are you surprised Estonia
topped the list? Should the United States be where it is,
higher or lower? Share your thoughts in the comments.</p><p><em>Image courtesy of <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.istockphoto.com/mashableoffer.php" target="_blank">iStockphoto</a>, <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-18654807-global-communications-america.php?st=089de8e" target="_blank">Olena_T</a></em></p>
</section>
</blockquote>
<br>
</div>
____________________________________________________________<br>You received this message as a subscriber on the list:<br> <a href="mailto:governance@lists.igcaucus.org">governance@lists.igcaucus.org</a><br>To be removed from the list, visit:<br> <a href="http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing">http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing</a><br><br>For all other list information and functions, see:<br> <a href="http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance">http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance</a><br>To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:<br> <a href="http://www.igcaucus.org/">http://www.igcaucus.org/</a><br><br>Translate this email: <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate_t">http://translate.google.com/translate_t</a><br></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>