Kate Allen: The terrible growth of internet repression

By day Wang Xiaoning was an engineer in the Chinese city of Shenyang. But in his spare time Wang wrote about political reform in China, using the internet, like millions of other people around the world, to spread his ideas for change. Today he is serving a 10-year jail sentence for "incitement to subvert state power", while his wife is taking legal action against the software giant Yahoo, which stands accused of releasing information that led to Wang's arrest.

Wang's fate is shared by a growing number of cyber-dissidents around the globe. They are victims of governments who fear that the very technology needed to promote investment and economic competitiveness - the world wide web - also allows their citizens access to unprecedented power to make their voices heard.

One year ago, Amnesty International launched the "irrepressible.info" campaign to highlight the plight of these cyber-dissidents and to celebrate the people's fight for freedom of expression even when the consequences are dire. For internet repression is rapidly expanding. According to the Open Net Initiative, five years ago serious and systematic internet filtering was applied by three countries: China, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Today they have detected filtering in more than two dozen countries.

The most talked about example of internet censorship still remains China, a country surrounded by "The Great Firewall of China", a filtering system which prevents tens of thousands of political, social, religious and cultural internet sites reaching people inside the country. The firewall is backed by a matrix of control including a force of internet surveillance police, said to reach tens of thousands in number. On 6 March this year, the government banned the opening of further internet cafés.

The Chinese government has promised "complete media freedom" surrounding the Beijing Olympics in summer 2008. But so far movement has been backwards. On 24 January President Hu Jintao ordered officials to "purify the online environment", ensuring that online information is "ethically inspiring".

Around 60 cyber-dissidents like Wang Xiaoning remain in prison for internet activity: Shi Tao, who emailed information about restrictions on journalists; Li Zhi, who criticised official corruption; and Jiang Lijun, who published an open letter to the Chinese Communist Party calling for democratic reform.

The issue of internet repression has come to a head in China not merely through the sophistication of its control system, but because China is a market like no other, with over 140 million web users. Western companies have been drooling over the market it offers them - and, to date, their commitment to freedom of expression has come a sorry second.

While Google launched a censored version of its search engine - www.google.cn - Microsoft closed down a political blog at the request of the Chinese government and Yahoo stands accused of releasing private information about its users which has led to the identification and arrest of cyber-dissidents.

What has really shocked campaigners over the last year is the growth of internet repression. Experts speak of the export of the "Chinese model": extensive use of the internet for economic purposes, with severely curtailed political potential. The latest Open Net Initiative (ONI) Report on internet filtering shows that at least 25 countries now apply state-mandated net filtering, including Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Burma, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Morocco, South Korea, Thailand and Tunisia.

But filtering is only one aspect of internet repression - politically motivated closure of websites and internet cafés, as well as threats or imprisonment, are reported far more widely. A 22-year-old Egyptian blogger, Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman, was sentenced to four years' imprisonment in February for "contempt of religion" and "defaming the President of Egypt". In Iran, internet surveillance is increasing and bloggers have been sentenced to prison and flogging.

The internet is difficult to control by its nature - but the determination of governments to do so should not be underestimated. As the internet reaches more people, governments' desire to censor grows, as does their reliance on companies to help them do that censoring. At the heart of the internet is a promise, the promise of free speech and access to uncensored information for millions of people. We have got to be on our guard against those who want to control access to information and take that free speech away.

The writer is UK Director of Amnesty International, which is webcasting a discussion, Some People Think the Internet is a Bad Thing, from 6.30pm tonight at www.amnesty.org.uk/webcast