IP: Vietnam Will Censor Internet Conten

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

[at some point, we will have to face the bi-lateral issues of network
communications. The notion of censoring inbound and restricting outbound is
a complicated issue involving religion, cultural and most important
political issues. The first time someone, wityh world press contacts,  is
thrown in prison for accessing the web via a bypass route will be the time
the sh_t hits the fan.


Dave]


All information coming into Vietnam through the Internet will be
censored and the government announced Tuesday it will control who
has access to online services. It also will limit the gates
through which Internet servers in Vietnam are linked to the
world's largest information network.


A senior official at the General Department of Post and
Telecommunications told Reuters the measures come into effect this
month, but added that officials were still working on details and
planned to meet in two months time to discuss implementation. The
controls were issued in a decree by Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet,
who said information servers must be based in Vietnam. This will
ensure that information entering and leaving Vietnam goes through
a government-filtered gateway, the Communist Party newspaper, The
People, reported.