Anexo un editorial del New York Times de hoy
donde se da cuenta de algunas acciones de
Microsoft y Yahoo en China. Puede suceder o estar
sucediendo en otras latitudes más cercanas.
         LG

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>Beijing's New Enforcer: Microsoft
>
>Published: January 17, 2006
>
>Microsoft has silenced a well-known blogger in
>China for committing journalism. At the Chinese
>government's request, the company closed the
>blog of Zhao Jing on Dec. 30 after he criticized
>the government's firing of editors at a
>progressive newspaper. Microsoft, which also
>acknowledges that its MSN Internet portal in
>China censors searches and blogs, is far from
>alone. Recently Yahoo admitted that it had
>helped China sentence a dissident to 10 years in
>prison by identifying him as the sender of a banned e-mail message.
>
>Even as Internet use explodes in China, Beijing
>is cracking down on free expression, and Western
>technology firms are leaping to help. The
>companies block access to political Web sites,
>censor content, provide filtering equipment to
>the government and snitch on users. Companies
>argue that they must follow local laws, but they
>are also eager to ingratiate themselves with a
>government that controls access to the Chinese market.
>
>Such obvious disregard for users' privacy and
>ethical standards may make it easier to do
>business in China, but it also aids a repressive
>regime. Some in the American Congress are
>talking about holding hearings. Microsoft has
>responded to criticism by saying, "We think it's
>better to be there with our services than not be
>there." This is a false choice. China needs
>Internet companies as much as they need China.
>
>A decade ago, consumers began to rebel against
>the sweatshop practices of Western manufacturers
>that made clothes and toys in China and
>elsewhere. The smart businesses cleaned up. They
>formed associations to adopt codes of good labor
>practices and set up independent monitoring.
>
>Reporters Without Borders, a group advocating
>press freedom, recommends that Internet
>companies also adopt a good conduct code,
>pledging not to filter out words like
>"democracy" and "human rights" from search
>engines and maintaining their e-mail and Internet servers outside China.
>
>Western businesses have always overestimated the
>price of defending human rights in China. Some
>have done it effectively - privately and
>respectfully - and paid no cost. But the beauty
>of such an industrywide code of conduct for
>Internet companies is that it would put no company at a disadvantage.
>
>Western technology companies could have a
>powerful case if they acted as a group in
>telling China that they are under tremendous
>consumer and political pressure to stick up for free expression.
Nearby Tue Jan 17 12:40:52 2006