UN
Free Press,
Italy Talks of
Blocking
Websites,
Jordan of
Registering
Them
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 27
-- When the
Foreign
Ministers of
Italy and
Jordan came
Thursday to
speak of
religious
tolerance, the
Italian
mission's
press note
referred to
"diffusion of
the video
Innocence of
Muslims."
Inner City
Press went, to
ask about
censorship not
only in Jordan
but Italy.
Inner
City Press
asked minister
Giulio Terzi
about his
comment that
"It
is absolutely
legitimate for
governments to
block sites
that
include...
incitement to
hatred." Inner
City Press
asked, how
would this be
decided? By
whom?
Terzi
replied that
Italy
"believes in
freedom of
speech and
expression
and of
thought... My
reference was
to, when I was
asked, the
crime of
blasphemy,
considered by
national
criminal code,
could be
pursued
though
impeding
access to
contemporary
way of
communications."
That
is, blocking
websites.
Is that
freedom of
speech and
expression and
of thought?
Jordan
has recently
required
hundreds of
websites to
register with
the
government,
which as Inner
City Press
asked, has
been seen as
undermining
freedom of the
press.
The
Foreign
Minister of
Jordan Nasser
Judeh replied
that this
"press
and
publications
law has
nothing to do
with freedoms
or the right
to
free
expression, it
has a lot to
do with
regulation."
He said
there are
"website that
are not
registered."
Oh.
Watch this
(proudly
unregistered)
site.