Originally published December 3 2005
Investment group alliance aims to promote freedom of expression on the internet
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Twenty-five investment groups from Europe, Australia and the U.S. have responded to criticism from Reporters Without Borders leveled at companies that cooperated with governments that oppress free expression on the web, and the powerful group of investors and researchers signed a statement that emphasizes the responsibility that companies share in the censorship that governments enact.
The statement comes after several instances in which technology companies have been criticized for cooperating with governments, notably China, in order to secure strong market positions.
"As shareholders, we need to feel confident that our companies are not complicit in human rights abuses, directly or indirectly, and that they're not collaborating to effectively quell internet traffic, to harm their own good reputations and to reduce their long-term growth opportunities," said Dawn Wolfe, social research and advocacy analyst for Boston Common Asset Management, one of the participating investment funds.
Although China and other countries have come under fire for limiting what their citizens can see or post on the web, China also is a particularly sought-after market, for the potential its vast population offers.
Microsoft and Google have been accused of helping the government there censor news sites and blogs.
And in a recent case, Reporters Without Borders criticized Yahoo for allegedly helping the Chinese government trace the private e-mail account of a Chinese journalist who was later imprisoned for providing state secrets to foreigners.
Julien Pain, head of the internet freedom desk for the watchdog group, said Reporters Without Borders had tried to enter into dialogue with technology companies, without much success.
He said he hoped bringing in some of the companies' shareholders would encourage them to do more.
At a news conference Monday, Wolfe and Adam Kanzer, director of shareholder advocacy for Domini Social Investments, discussed a shareholder resolution calling on Cisco Systems to report on what the company was doing to develop a human rights policy, which Wolfe said she would present at the company's annual meeting next week.
Cisco, the world's biggest maker of computer networking equipment, was the main equipment provider for ChinaNet, which serves the vast majority of China's internet users.
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