Living In Fear Of Information

Politicians and their advocates talk a lot about various freedoms that should be enjoyed by all citizens of which ever country they happen to be from. Yet, the Wikileaks disclosure of U.S. embassy cables has as is all too common proven that their words are as hollow as they are.
Thailand started blocking access to Wikileaks last August out of “security concerns.”

The order came from the government unit set up to oversee the response to political unrest that rocked the nation's capital earlier this year, a spokeswoman for the Information and Communication Technology Ministry said.
"Access to this website has been temporarily suspended under the 2005 emergency decree," she said.

Thailand isn’t the only country in Asia which blocks or restricts internet access out of “security concerns” or what excuse is used to prevent their citizens from being informed

South Korea blocks the KNCA website which the official news organ for North Korea under its National Security Law. The articles are straight out the old school Cold War propaganda and can be quite funny.

Pyongyang, November 29 (KCNA) -- The south Korean warmongers kicked off large-scale combined naval maneuvers targeted the DPRK together with the United States in waters of the West Sea of Korea on Nov. 28 in the wake of the serious armed provocation committed by them in the territorial waters of the DPRK side in the same sea recently. Involved in this saber-rattling which will last till December 1 are naval warships of the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces including their nuclear-powered carrier George Washington, cruisers and destroyers and huge puppet armed forces including destroyers, patrol craft, escort craft, logistic support ships and anti-submarine planes.

Singapore passed a law in 1996 allowing for restrictions on internet access.

Singapore has always been known as a ‘nanny state’ as mentioned in privacyinternational.org on its article “Silenced-singapore”. The laws of Singapore allow the government to curtail and control information and expression of personal views with freedom. This can be seen clearly in the case of internet restrictions in Singapore. The Internet Code of Practice introduced in 1996 (and amended in 1997) in Article 4 (1) defines prohibited material as “material that is objectionable on the grounds of public interest, public morality, public order, public security, national harmony, or is otherwise prohibited by applicable Singapore laws.” This applies to all means of information broadcasting, be it radio, television or the internet.

The three examples are all supposedly democratic nations yet they really don’t believe in these freedoms or their political leaders do not. Living in fear of the free and wide dissemination of information to their citizens provides a window on how these governments see the countries they rule.