Demonstration Against Internet Censorship

A demonstration against preventative Internet censorship was held in downtown Helsinki on Tuesday. Demonstrators protested a National Bureau of Investigation list aimed primarily at blocking access to child pornography websites.

The demonstration was organised by a network of citizens opposed to a law, in force since last year, allowing police to recommend to Internet operators to block access to websites containing child pornography. Compliance with the recommendation is voluntary.

Protestors are concerned that other types of sites will be included on the police list and argue that present filtering does not prevent child abuse or the spread of child pornography.

The groups behind the demonstration say that the law gives police authorities unreasonable powers that they should not have without court supervision. They also say that as the lists are not published, the secrecy of the censorship process is also contrary to the ideal of government transparency.

Demonstrators called for an end to the filtering of Internet traffic, and in its place, concrete measures by police to close down websites containing child pornography.

Organizers claim that the police have abused their authority by censoring sites that do not contain child pornography, including a Finnish site criticizing this specific implementation of censorship. The National Bureau of Investigation has conceded that some sites that do not contain child pornography may have been put on the block list.

The most recent debate around the issues of child pornography and freedom of speech has also aroused concern at the Ministry of Communications. Last month Communications Minister Suvi Lindén set up a working group to look at how children and teens can be shielded from harmful content on the Internet and in other electronic media.

YLE