DUSHANBE, March 12, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- An Online Expression Day is marked on March 12.

A statement released by Reporters Without Borders on March 12 says the fight for free access to information is being played out to an ever greater extent on the Internet. The emerging general trend is that a growing number of countries are attempting to tighten their control of the Net, but at the same time, increasingly inventive netizens (a netizen (a portmanteau of Internet and citizen) or cybercitizen is a person actively involved in online communities) demonstrate mutual solidarity by mobilizing when necessary.  The Internet: a space for information-sharing and mobilizing

In authoritarian countries in which the traditional media are state-controlled, the Internet offers a unique space for discussion and information-sharing, and has become an ever more important engine for protest and mobilization.  The Internet is the crucible in which repressed civil societies can revive and develop, the statement noted.

Netizens are being targeted at a growing rate.  For the first time since the creation of the Internet, a record number of close to 120 bloggers, Internet users and cyberdissidents are behind bars for having expressed themselves freely online.  The world’s largest netizen prison is in China, which is far out ahead of other countries with 72 detainees, followed by Vietnam and then by Iran, which have all launched waves of brutal attacks on websites in recent months, according to the statement.

The first Online Expression Day was launched on website of Reporters Without Borders on March 12, 2008.  UNESCO withdrew its patronage for Online Free Expression Day.

They now organize activities every March 12 to condemn cyber-censorship throughout the world.  A response of this kind is needed to the growing tendency to crack down on bloggers and to close websites, Reporters Without Borders said.

The organization also publishes the list of the “enemies of the Internet” and the countries “under surveillance.”   

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