Editorial: Access to information necessary for freedom

Pretend you could go online but you couldn’t access most
major news sites or search engines, many major education sites or
even Wikipedia. For many of us, this would seem similar to life
before the Internet, when information wasn’t free and
learning was more work than it is now.

For people in China, this situation is an everyday reality.
After briefly allowing access to Wikipedia, the government once
again cut the nation off late last week. Tens of thousands of sites
across the Internet are blocked in China, according to a Harvard
study from 2002.

Once again China has proved it has no real intentions to support
freedom of speech or opposition to the government. This can only
lead to despotism and a continual disregard for the well-being of
Chinese citizens.

Meanwhile, companies such as Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have
been criticized for complying with the government’s request
to selectively censor their content.

If China is to become a respected international power, it must
open up its government to scrutiny, both from inside and outside
the country. And if Chinese citizens are to safeguard their rights,
they must have freedom of information.

Pretend you felt your rights were being violated by your
government, but you couldn’t find any information about
government opposition, international law or independent news.

What would you do? Without the proper access to knowledge, not
much.