Information Policy

Moderators say reader comments on news stories are higher risk than forums

Media sites which ask readers to comment on news stories are at greater risk of bearing responsibility for those comments than for comments in online forums or discussion groups, leading web moderators have warned.

Though there are few verdicts to help lawyers and site moderators come up with hard and fast rules, it is generally believed that a web publisher who does not pre-screen user comments is not liable for libellous or otherwise unlawful comments because they had no editorial involvement in them.

Sites which pre-screen all comments are generally deemed to share responsibility with the poster because they have chosen to publish any comments that appear.

But one moderating veteran has said that when unscreened comments appear under news stories the publishers of the site could be liable for them.

"Many lawyers I've spoken to now view the invitation of content – so if you have a comments section at the end of an article on a newspaper site – they view that as inviting comment and therefore you are responsible for it and therefore you probably want to consider pre-moderating all the content that goes there," said Danny Dagan, a moderation consultant who has helped establish online communities for The Sun newspaper, amongst others.

http://www.out-law.com/page-9373

Mobile WiMax Services Launched in Malaysia

Packet One Networks (P1) the local broadband services provider on Tuesday launched the first large-scale commercial deployment of mobile WiMax services in Malaysia. Established by the WiMax Forum, WiMax is a wireless technology deployed to deliver last-mile wireless broadband access over long distances. Specifications for the 802.16e mobile WiMax were approved in December 2005.

The launch of WiMax services has been delayed owing to an extensive user trial for ensuring the compliance of the services with internal standards of quality. According to Michael Lai, CEO of P1 the service provider is targeting to sign up 100,000 subscribers over the next 12 months. The company is also the first among four companies awarded licenses in March 2007 to operate WiMax services on the 2.3GHz spectrum band in Malaysia. Malaysia's first 802.16e mobile WiMax service is now available in selected locations in the Klang Valley region, which encompasses capital city of Kuala Lumpur and the affluent central belt of Selangor state.

The operator's WiMax offerings provide data speeds ranging from 400Kkbps to 2.4Mbps. A monthly 1.2Mbps service package costs 99 ringgit (US$29.6) and a 2.4Mbps package is priced at 229 ringgit (US$68.5). Subscribers will have to sign up for a 12-month contract.

http://egovonline.net/news/news-details.asp?newsid=15361

DT gains ten millionth DSL retail customer

According to Telecompaper, Deutsche Telekom's (DT) fixed/broadband division T-Home gained its ten millionth DSL retail customer in August. Customers in 750 cities and municipalities have access to downlink speeds of up to 16Mbps, and 50 cities will have speeds of up to 50Mbps via VDSL by the end of 2009. IPTV via ADSL2+ will be available in around 1,000 cities and municipalities by the end of 2008. Also by the end of this year, 96% of all German households will be covered by DT's ADSL network, with more than 80% of lines capable of providing speeds of 2Mbps or greater.

http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=24815

Malaysia Defends Blocking Political Website

The Malaysian government on Thursday defended blocking access to a prominent political website that has attacked top leaders, saying it had ignored warnings against publishing 'slanderous' articles. Malaysia's media is tightly controlled by the government, and it has expressed frustration over its inability to rein in Internet news portals which have become popular alternative news sources.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/SE%2BAsia/Story/STIStory_272789.html

EU: Roaming prices: Calling home becomes cheaper again - but not

On 30 August, it will become cheaper to make or receive calls while travelling in the EU. The price ceiling for roaming calls (the Eurotariff) introduced by the EU in 2007 will fall from EUR 0.49 to EUR 0.46 per minute (excluding VAT) for making a call and from EUR 0.24 to EUR 0.22 per minute (excluding VAT) for receiving a call while in another EU country. These price reductions are the result of the EU Roaming Regulation, proposed by the European Commission in 2006 to curb the excessive roaming charges consumers had to pay for roaming calls (on average EUR 1.15 per minute at the time). The EU Roaming Regulation which will expire in 2010, is currently under review. Following the specific request of the European Parliament the Commission must propose by the end of 2008 whether to extend the Regulation in time and in scope. Figures published by national telecoms regulators this summer have shown that prices for roaming text messages and data services remain unjustifiably high.

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/press/index_en.htm

Problems with online FoI in the Georgia-Russia conflict

The conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia region has extended to Internet, both countries having launched cyber-attacks and blocking each other's broadcasting sites.

Georgian authorities have blocked access to Russian news broadcasters and websites, the action being justified by Georgia's Interior Ministry with the argument that Russian broadcasts would "scare our population" which the government could not allow.

Mamia Sanadiradze, founder and CEO of Caucasus Online, the biggest Georgian ISP, told Reuters: "People from the (Georgian) security agencies asked me to block Russian sites. There were threats from viruses, we faced disinformation and so on. (...) I hope that when war is over, we will unblock these sites."

On the other hand, Georgian online news media and the Georgian government websites have been attacked by Russian hackers, including the President's site. In order to remain accessible, the foreign ministry website changed its URL address.

Security researchers claim to have evidence showing a link between Russian state businesses and the cyber-attacks against Georgia. Denial of service attacks against Georgian websites started a day before the break out of the military conflict over South Ossetia.

Don Jackson, a SecureWorks researcher said that logs showed that part of the attack was run from command and control servers located on the networks of Rostelecom and Comstar, two Russian state-run companies. "We know that the Russian government controls those servers theoretically, if they have not been 'pwned' by somebody else," Jackson told eWeek. The two companies made changes in routing tables that blocked internet traffic to Georgia. The same networks were used to launch denial of service attacks and cache poisoning attacks against Georgian networks, according to SecureWorks.

Reporters Without Borders condemn the violation of online freedom of information. "The Internet has become a battleground in which information is the first victim. On the one side, the main Georgian ISPs severed access to Russian websites. On the other side, Georgian government websites were attacked by Russian hackers. With newspapers and radio and TV stations putting out very little independent news, the Internet is a vital tool for the public, so these attacks must stop at once."

http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.16/foi-georgia-russia

Call for worldwide protests against surveillance

Civil rights organizations call for protests against the constant increase of surveillance conducted by governments and enterprises. A rally under the motto "Freedom not Fear" will be held in Berlin on 11 October 2008. The organizers agree that it is high time to take to the streets in order to defend basic constitutional rights in the light of an ongoing intensification of security and surveillance measures. The rally turns against the promotion of the Federal Criminal Police Office ("Bundeskriminalamt") to a central, executive police agency with the permission to secretively spy into citizens' home computers.

After last year's demonstration for democracy and civil rights, which was the largest in Germany in 20 years with over 15 000 participants, protesters in several countries will, for the first time simultaneously, take to the streets to demonstrate for their freedom. Currently, 15 countries have announced their participation in the international action day on 11 October.

Such unanimous protests are mainly due to the ongoing shift of politicians to push through negotiations on surveillance and control measures behind closed doors. Among others, the international protest criticizes the planned registration of all air travellers in the EU, the planned delivery of data to the USA, biometric data in EU identification documents, as well as the retention of telecommunication data such as phone connections or a caller's whereabouts for all 455 million Europeans.

Against this political spiral of interior armament motivated by crime-related dangers, civil society places the call for "Freedom not Fear".

A moratorium for all surveillance activities and the reduction of all mass scale surveillance, as well as an expansion of digital rights are demanded to protect and strengthen civil liberties. In addition, activists call for an independent review of every single planned or existing surveillance and control measure in terms of its effectiveness and undesired side-effects.

In the run-up to this action day, the German Work Group on Data Retention ("Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung") calls for participation in the Munich demonstration "Freiheit Wei?-Blau - Stoppt den ?berwachungswahn" on 20 September 2008, which targets the restrictions of the right to free assembly and other surveillance measures in the state of Bavaria. In addition, the OneWebDay on 22 September 2008, will serve as a means for further mobilisation for the "Freedom not Fear" action day.

Action day "Freedom not Fear" on 11 October 2008 http://www.freedom-not-fear.eu

Planned activities for 11 October 2008 http://wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/Freedom_Not_Fear_2008

World e-Parliament Report 2008

The World e-Parliament Report 2008 represents a first effort to establish a baseline of how parliaments are using, or planning to use ICT to help them fulfill their responsibilities and to connect to their constituencies. The Report also provides an opportunity for sharing lessons learned and good practices from different regions of the world.

The WePR 2008 is a joint product of UNDESA and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, prepared as part of the work of the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament.

http://www.ictparliament.org/wep2008/wep2008.pdf

Turkish court lifts YouTube ban after online censorship protest

A court in Turkey has lifted a ban on YouTube, the video sharing website, after hundreds of sites voluntarily blocked themselves in protest at growing internet censorship. Access to YouTube had been blocked since May in the latest of a series of bans triggered by the posting of videos deemed insulting to Mustafa Kemal Atat|rk, founder of the modern Turkish state.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/26/turkey.youtube

Google sets up mobile election Web site

With 10 weeks to go before the election, the amount of news coverage surrounding John McCain and Barack Obama is set to skyrocket. In order to help you parse through all the chatter, Google has set up a special Web site (m.google.com/elections) where mobile phone users can find the latest headlines. The products that it is tailoring to election coverage are mobile Search, News, Reader, YouTube, and Maps.In its search product, Google will let you 'link to search results for Obama and McCain, so you don't have to type in their names on your phone each time you want information.' The Mobile News Web site has set up a special link that will go to a site that only houses news that is relevant to the election. Google Reader already has set up specific places for the general public to see what Obama and McCain are reading. On YouTube, both McCain and Obama have their own channels. These channels will be used to hold their speeches, press conferences, and other public statements. Users will be able to watch the videos on their mobile phones. Lastly, Google is suggesting that attendees of the Democratic National Convention in Denver and the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis take advantage of Google Maps for mobile to help get around town.

http://www.ejc.net/media_news/google_sets_up_mobile_election_web_site/