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 Appeal
On the 8th of February, 2002 the district authority of Düsseldorf have
issued blocking decrees against more than 80 access providers. The district
authority refer to their function as regional supervision authority for
legal protection of young people and "punishment of infringement of the
regulations" according to the German Interstate Media Treaty.
As a result customers of access providers in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia
who have given way to this measure of censorship now face a filtered
internet, up to now only associated with countries such as Iran, Iraq or the
PR-China. The abolishment of free web access for all citizens can be
considered the district authority's application for a permanent position
within the axis of feeble-mindedness.
We condemn this violation of the free communication structure of the
internet and the abolition of the fundamental right of a free, unimpeded and
at least worldwide communication, put into practice by the district
authority and their head Büssow. Perfidiously, the "fight against
right-wing extremism" or protection of young people are being used as a
pretext, although such measures cannot provide an effective protection. This
case of censorship - which is unique so far - first of all mainly affects
right-wing extremist sites but Büssow's authority denigrates opponents of
censorship and fundamental rights campaigners as sympathizers with
right-wing extremism. We reject this sort of denigration that comes from an
authority whose very methods are apparently not on the liberal and
democratic side any more. It is an undignified behaviour for every democrat
to solve a social problem like right-wing extremism by means of censorship
and punishment of all citizens.
There is no doubt that the websites filtered by the district authority are
offences against basic democratic rights. Yet, filtering out those sites
actually prevents net citizens from accessing relevant information and
making up their own mind about complex social problems in order to better
understand and fight them.
We demand:
- repeal of the blocking decrees, at once!
- Büssow to resign immediately and be sentenced for the attack on
telecommunication infrastructure in legal proceedings founded on the rule of
law!
- no destruction of the internet by state authorities under the pretext of
fighting right-wing extremism!
- The web to those who dwell within!
- better information of the public concerning the actual internet
situation.
- you to take part in a demonstration against censorship taking place in
Düsseldorf on the 6th of April, 2002.
-
Registered Association for Promotion of Mobile and Immobile Public Data
Traffic (Verein zur Foerderung des oeffentlichen bewegten und unbewegten
Datenverkehrs e.V., Bielefeld)
www.foebud.org, www.bigbrotherawards.de
- Rena Tangens und padeluun, artists, Bielefeld
- VOV - Virtual local branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Virtueller Ortsverein der SPD), http://www.vov.de
- Ulla Lessmann, chairwoman of the Association of German Writers, local district of Cologne
(Verband Dt. Schriftsteller), http://www.vs-koeln.de
- Knud Vöcking, spokesman of PDS NRW
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