Global Voices Advocacy » Sana Saleem

Global Voices Where Every Voice Counts

Sana Saleem — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 22:02:09 +0000

Every year Human Rights Day provides an opportunity, to many of us, to highlight issues that matter to us and to advocate human rights for all. This year the spotlight is on the rights of people – the poor, the marginalized and the indigenous, women and youth and those across the gender spectrum. Every one has the right to be heard and the right to participate.

The idea that every voice counts is one that is very close to the notion of Global Voices as a platform and as a community. As netizens unite to have their voices heard when the world's authorities argue on who should run the internet, we decided to ask our diverse community to participate and speak out on issues that matter to them and look back at issues we have covered over the year bearing in mind that every voice counts.

Global Voices community members make their #VoiceCount. Image collage by author.

With Syria and Gaza plunging into information by pulling the plug on the internet, the right to access remained one of the most pertinent issues. Our special coverage included Syria,archiving online reactions to Syria's internet blackout and the resurgence as parts of Syria regained connectivity, protests in Bahrain and Yemen amid media blackout, conflict voices from Caucasus and Sudan revolts, in-depth coverage of Russia's protest movements,bearing witness to Egypt's historic presidential elections and the aftermath and the intense elections in Venezuela, seeking indigenous voices representing 370 million people that speak more than 4000 languages, a spotlight on the forgotten voices of Myanmar's Rohnigya, keeping an eye on the worldwide #occupy movements and SlutWalks a new protest movement defending women's rights and most importantly monitoring and defending internet freedom, free speech and freedom to access with Global Voices Advocacy evolving in to a community determined to take a stand.

Then there were other stories that needed the world's attention as we stood true to the notion that we are reminded of today; every voice counts.Qatar's life imprisonment of a poet that praised Arab spring,Russia's crackdown on online satire, women being barred and penalized from using mobile phones in villages in India, stricter SIM card registration process hampering communication in Zambia, Pakistan's consistent pursuit to replicate the great firewall of China, Tajikistan blocking of facebook and summoning Mark Zuckerberg – a move startlingly similar to that of Pakistani authorities, Internet companies overlooking user privacy, the fight for free expression as authorities muscle in more control, we continued to speak out against impunity and for justice for threatened voices, these are the few issues global voices as a community has been able to bring attention to. As we move forward towards the end of the year, there will be a more comprehensive overview of the year through the eyes of the networked.

For now, on Human Rights Day, we stand in solidarity with people around the world and believe in every individual's right to be heard, to participate and be counted. Our commitment remains, to amplify the voices of the networked and to enable and support the indigenous communities to become a part of the larger community.

Open Letter: To the Netizens of China, From a Netizen of Pakistan

Sana Saleem — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 07:39:41 +0000

To the Netizens of China,

致中国网民，

I am writing this letter to you on behalf of many Pakistani Internet users who are currently fighting their government’s attempt to restrict their access to information. The 20 million Internet users in Pakistan are on the brink of being monitored, filtered and possibly silenced for their views, and we fear that the government of China and Chinese spy-tech companies are aiding this human rights violations. It is distressing that Chinese companies have been named as being involved in aiding authoritarian regimes. Chinese companies like ZTE Corp and Huwaei have been accused of aiding censorship in Libya and Iran. Although it is difficult to track China’s involvement, there are no qualms about China’s censorship model being an ideal for developing countries and authoritative regimes.

我代表很多巴基斯坦网民写这封信，是因为希望你们了解我们正在与政府限制访问互联网信息的举措进行抗争。巴基斯坦超过2000万网络用户正处于被监控、过滤和噤声的边缘。我们担心中国政府和中国的监控技术公司也帮助了这种侵犯人权的行为，所以希望你们知情和支持。一些中国公司，例如中兴通讯和华为公司，都有辅助官方的审查计划，在利比亚和伊朗的网络审查中也被揭参与。虽然很难追查他们的具体参与细节，但是毫无疑问中国的审查模式已经被这些发展中国家和独裁政权所效仿。

We reach out to you to appeal for solidarity. We hope that you will stand by us and strengthen our appeal to Chinese surveillance companies and the government of China to not aid the Government in Pakistan in shrinking our space and eventually silencing our voices.

我们希望这封信能够得到你们的支援和共鸣。我们希望你们能够与我们站在一起，加强对中国企业和政府的诉求之声，不要协助巴基斯坦政府压缩我们的言论空间，甚至完全让我们消声。

For the past few years, the government has been using religion and morality as a ploy to restrict and monitor information. This is a dangerous precedent in a country marred by censorship imposed by military dictators and civilian governments. Consider how the people of Balochistan, one of our largest provinces, took to the blogosphere to report illegal abductions and extra-judicial killings by state agencies. In turn, the authorities responded by blocking access to these sites. In the absence of mainstream media coverage, the Baloch people have no other medium to voice their protest against the human rights violations taking place. As mutilated dead bodies keep turning up on roadsides, their families continue to be silenced. Moreover, the censors are rampant and irrational. For one, a website selling handmade shoes was blocked and without legal recourse, small businesses had to suffer the most.

在过去一段时间，我们的政府已经运用各种理由，包括宗教和道德借口，限制和监控信息。在军事独裁者下的平民政府实施网络审查是一个非常糟糕的先例。例如在最大的俾路支省，在博客空间报道了非法的绑架和国家机构法外处决的暴行后，官方马上用封杀这些博客站点来响应。在主流媒体缺位的情况下，俾路支省的民众失去了让外界了解他们抗议人权遭受侵犯的媒介。被杀害的人们尸陈野路，家人却投告无门。更甚之，审查者缺少常识，粗暴无礼，连卖手工制作的鞋子的网站都加以封杀。（相信这与中国的某些情况类似）

But how does all this relate to you? For as long as we have known, our history books have taught us that China is our friend, our ally, and is considered an ideal model to follow for development and advancement in technology. While the authorities remain enamored by China’s fast growing economic model, they have also long been eyeing the China’s system of censorship and surveillance. When rights advocates, academics, policy makers and entrepreneurs speak to the government regarding the repercussions of blanket surveillance and censorship, the government authorities point to the China example citing it as an exemplary model. We know that is not entirely true, for we have witnessed mainland Chinese netizens seeking to bypass Internet filters and protesting against blanket surveillance – a complete space rather than a filtered version provided by the state. Where we hold hands in solidarity is the increasing absurd nature of censorship: from banning the word “shoe” in Pakistan, to filtering the words … “jasmine” “river crab” “18th congress” etc. in China

但是这些是否与你们有关呢？在很长时间，我们的历史课本上教导我们中国是我们朋友、盟友，是值得效仿的发展与进步典范。虽然我们的政府醉心于中国这种发展模式，他们也同时对中国的审查和监控系统崇拜有加。当这里的权利倡导者、学界、政策顾问以及企业家想政府陈述地毯式监控和审查的坏处，政府当局往往搬出中国的发展模式加以辩护。我们知道这并非全部，因为千千万万的中国大陆网民也在寻找穿越网络过滤的努力中，也在抗议地毯式网络监控带来的压制，希望获得一个完整的言论空间，而不是被政府意愿所左右。我们有足够理由团结一致，在这里“鞋子“这个词被封杀，正如在中国，”茉莉花“，“河蟹”，”十八大“，等文字被“和谐”一样。

Over the decades, our social spaces have shrunk, hubs of culture and art have been eradicated and human rights are now competing with ad hoc measures under the guise of counter-terrorism. For now the only space that allows many of us to remain anonymous or debate issues considered controversial is also shrinking.

过往几十年，我们的社会空间在萎缩，文化艺术的通路被挤压到窒息，人权保护被所谓的反恐外衣所钳制。就连那些网络所带来的匿名讨论空间也在不断消失中。。。。

Your solidarity will help save our voice.

我相信你们的支持会最大程度地帮助我们

Best,
Sana Saleem
Bolo Bhi “Speak Up”
Netizen from Pakistan

致敬
莎娜·萨利姆
巴基斯坦网友

Pakistan: Unpacking an Anti-Censorship Campaign

Sana Saleem — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:56:04 +0000

When the ICT R&D fund in Pakistan announced a call for proposals earlier this year for a “National URL Filtering and Blocking System” inviting companies, academia and research institutions to bid; my reaction was of shock and disbelief. Not because censorship is a new phenomenon in Pakistan — in fact it has been legitimized and often protected under the constitution camouflaged as an initiative to counter blasphemy, immorality and national security threats — but because of the audacity of making the bid publicly, and also involving institutions that are likely to be censorship’s biggest victims.

It is perhaps the first time that a government has announced its plans for censorship publicly. In the past years, Pakistan’s government has been involved in covertly censoring the Internet, the acquiring of a National URL Filtering and Blocking System would be the last nail in the coffin. In a security state where civil liberties repeatedly succumb to national security measures, it becomes increasingly difficult to fight for Internet freedom. Having been a part of anti-censorship campaigns before, two things were absolutely clear, the state will use its usual ploys — religion, morality and national security– for unquestionable authority; and for an anti-censorship campaign to be successful it must make use of the same tactics. An argument, which the state cannot refute.

Call for proposals for national filtering and blocking system

When a state embroils its citizens in an ‘either you are with us or against us’ argument every dissent is at risk of being equated to treason– or in an Islamic country, blasphemy. Therefore the most important key player in anti-censorship strategy is to steer the argument away from contentious issues. That’s not to say that civil rights should be surrendered but the narrative needs to more coherent, logical than it is defensive. The first response was to demand answers from the government, on what had provoked such a decision, if stakeholders were taken on board, if they are aware of the repercussions of such a system and a demand to take all stakeholders on board before any decision is made on the proposal.

Coordinating local and global action

As expected the calls for accountability from civil society were met with silence. Nevertheless, setting up the tone for the campaign; actively resisting the impending firewall. The call for accountability also made it easier for us to approach political figures in power, who otherwise refrain from engaging with civil society campaigns that target the government proactively as their initial reaction.

The announcement also alarmed the global community to respond to Pakistan’s government. I believe this was and remains one of the most crucial part of the campaign. However, as international pressure was building up it was important to consider that advocacy campaigns do not exist in a vacuum, and take into account the cultural and geopolitical context. For example, countering a ban on blasphemous content with an argument on freedom of expression in a country like Pakistan is not only counterproductive but life threatening. Therefore, it was important to have a coordinated, global and local action.

Before the global community could be involved a few questions needed to be considered. When the government is using national security as an argument, is involving international community to demand an end to the decision a wise step? Especially, organizations based in the United States? Will a call to uphold democratic values by international organizations be discarded in the usual ‘we do not believe in you version of democracy’ fashion? Will international organizations shouting at the government uphold democracy, or help or make it easy for the state to curtail dissent by deeming them as western ploys?

Nevertheless, a global campaign, if organized and strategic, maximizes impact. The campaign needed to be simple, effective and widespread, giving priority to issues that would most concern the government:

Economic: Impact of censorship on businesses, entrepreneurs and innovation.
Academic: academic paralysis, with a rigorous filtering system, the Web sphere will be limited, hence it would mean less content accessible for carrying out research (example: UAE where in trying to censor porn, students could no longer access research papers on breast cancer).
Democratic culture: In a country where public discourse is limited, shrinking the public sphere will be damaging. With elections nearing, this could greatly impact the government’s claim to advance democracy.

For users:

Security & Privacy: It would permit authorities to sniff into your conversations. Blanket surveillance.
Social networks will not only be prone to surveillance but could be blocked just because another user has put up content that authorities consider ‘objectionable’.

Public discourse:

During the 2007 emergency imposed by Musharraf, the media crackdown resulted in an outpouring of information on social networks. These were actively used to mobilize people, spread information regarding police brutality on journalists and protesters and work as a news portal in the absence of mainstream media. Authorities recognize that this could be crucial in the future, hence complete control would enable them to censor political dissent.
A huge number of Baloch websites have already been blocked, and we have no reassurances or reasons to believe that a ‘flip flop’ switch for the Internet will not be used to silence mainstream voices. Imagine mainstream media websites being banned under the same pretext.

While it is important to build pressure on the government it is also crucial to pressure international surveillance companies not to sell surveillance technology to authoritarian regimes. Civil society in Pakistan, urged international organizations to call for surveillance companies to not bid for the proposal, five out of eight companies responded with a commitment.

This, I believe has paved way for activists living under Internet crackdown and surveillance to pressure the companies to stop aiding authoritarian regimes. Similar letters were issued to academic institutes to commit not to consider the government’s initiative and inform them of the repercussions it will have on academia.

When international organizations wrote to the government informing them about the impact this could have on economy, academia, trade and democracy — highlighting democracy and freedom of expression only after the economy factor– the authorities had little choice but to respond. The tone had to be set through the mainstream media as well; hence a press kit with simply worded FAQs helped in getting the issue significant coverage in local press. Proactively approaching journalists resulted in the issue being covered even in the Urdu press, again the pertinent point here was informing the media how this could impact them and hence ‘owing the campaign’.

Current status

A few weeks ago, the Secretary of IT, made a verbal commitment to Bushra Gohar, Member National Assembly, that the plans for the filtering system have been shelved. Thus far there has been no official statement. However, the Ministry has made verbal commitments over the week, shifting the blame on the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. There’s both a positive and negative aspect of the situation at present: the negative being that the authorities are most likely to continue censoring covertly, and that the verbal commitment is a delaying tactic. It's positive because of the apparent rift between government sectors and the reluctance to take the blame can only work in our favor.

I strongly feel that the campaign was a success because of consistent pressure from organizations globally. Even though we have still only received verbal commitments, I believe that the success lies in how we planned the campaign to focus on issues such as businesses, trade, academia and economy, steering the debate away from the more controversial issues of blasphemy.

Religion and morality are often used for unquestionable authority and have thus far been a successful tool. Rather than reacting to state's use of these issues and creating an ‘either you are with us or against us situation’ we focused on things that really matter. When international organizations wrote to the government speaking about how it impacts academia, businesses, user privacy and democratic culture, the authorities had little choice but to reconsider the repercussions of such a system. There is no doubt that the success and power lies in coordinated, strategic and consistent efforts enabling us to truly respond as a global community resisting censorship.