censorship

Freedom House urges the parliament and president of Kazakhstan to prevent the passage of a bill that would give the government almost unlimited authority to censor domestic and international websites. Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor sent a letter to President Nazarbayev yesterday stating that, if passed, the law would restrict the constitutional right of Kazakhstani citizens to freely access information and violate the country’s international commitments to liberalize working conditions for the media.

Freedom House strongly supports the Global Online Freedom Act, a new bill to prevent U.S. technology companies from assisting repressive regimes in their efforts to identify, silence and punish democracy and human rights activists on the internet. The GOFA bill is critical to combating the growth of internet censorship and Congress should move it quickly through the committee stage and onto the floor of the House for a vote.