[June 05, 2009]
Jun 05, 2009 (Congressional Documents and Publications/ContentWorks via
COMTEX) -- image002 Thursday, June 4, 2009 Contact: Ken Lundberg
(Martinez) - (202) 228-5957 Dan McLaughlin (Nelson) - (202) 224-1679
Afshin Mohamadi (Menendez) - (202) 224-4744 DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: DON'T
ALLOW CENSORSHIP Obama Administration writing new rules for
telecommunications links with Cuba WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Mel
Martinez (R-FL), along with Florida colleague Bill Nelson (D-FL),
Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT), and Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) this
week sent a letter to President Obama asking him to clearly stipulate
that U.S. telecommunications firms cannot engage in any activities that
would suppress or violate the human rights of the Cuban people.
"Unfiltered information and privacy are fundamental components of
freedom," said Senator Martinez. "We have already seen complicity
between U.S. companies and the Chinese government in restricting Web
access and identifying Internet-using government critics. Let's lay the
groundwork now so that the same can't happen in Cuba." "History has
taught us that repressive governments have used new technology to
suppress freedoms," said U.S. Senator Bill Nelson. "We need to make
certain Cuba's officials won't monitor and police the Cuban people when
they use the Internet, for example." "In any new telecommunications
regulations related to Cuba, the administration must make it clear that
profiting off the continued oppression of others cannot be allowed,"
said Senator Menendez. "Compliance by telecommunications firms in
censorship or suppression of information merely tightens the Castro
regime's iron stranglehold on basic human rights that the Cuban people
deserve." The letter to President Obama notes that on August 8, 2006, a
Human Rights Watch report detailed how U.S. telecommunications companies
have provided the identity of Internet users to Chinese authorities,
resulting in the imprisonment of four Chinese government critics.
The Administration is currently writing new regulations pursuant to the
1992 Cuba Democracy Act. The senators request that regulations
authorizing telecommunications links with Cuba include a list of
prohibited activities including providing the Cuban government with data
or IP-address information that could reveal the identity of individual
users, creating a separate infrastructure for tourists, and providing
any equipment, software, or technical expertise that would enable the
Cuban government to block Internet applications or content.
DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: DON'T ALLOW CENSORSHIP (5 June 2009)
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