Estland und der Iran

Journalisten haben Einfluss darauf, aus welcher Perspektive wir das Zeitgeschehen betrachten. Cyrus Farivar, der in Bonn für die Deutsche Welle arbeitet, berichtet oft über die globaliserte Internetwelt. Die Cyberattacken auf estnische Webseiten 2007 waren ein Grund, sich im Land umzusehen. Sein familiärer Hintergrund ist der Iran, ein Land, das dem Internet die wohl engsten Grenzen setzt. In einer neuen Statistik wird Estland, was Internetfreiheit betrifft, an erster Stelle gesehen. Der Iran an letzter.

New Internet freedom report ranks Estonia first, Iran last

Und da Farivar aus den USA stammt, muss natürlich der Estland-USA-Deutschland-Vergleich folgen, Auszug aus einem Interview:

Deutsche Welle spoke with Robert Guerra, the director of the Internet Freedom project at Freedom House, and Sarah Cook, one of the report's editors.
How much of a qualitative difference is there really between Estonia and the US, that by your rubric, have only a difference of three points? And again, the difference between the US and Germany is three points as well.

Sarah Cook: One of the things with this methodology is that you can really see the different strengths and weaknesses of different countries. In the United States you have certain concerns about privacy and surveillance, particularly after the passage of the PATRIOT Act. You also have challenges, in terms of - given the size of the country - connecting everyone, particularly in rural areas, to broadband. So those are some of the differences say, between the United States and Estonia.

With Germany, similarly, there were more restrictions in terms of blocking certain content related to Nazism or hate speech that you perhaps wouldn't find in the United States, and also issues related to defamation, we see in a lot of European countries. And in places like Australia, compared to the United States, as well as several incidents related to surveillance. So those were some of the small differences between these countries, taken into consideration that overall, from a global perspective, the Internet is quite free, although there's always room for improvement.

Cyrus Farivar

freedomhouse.org
Der Report: Freedom on the Net 2011