Is free speech a human right?

Google says no.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says yes.

“Yahoo just happens to have transformed this abstract ethical dilemma into real human suffering by helping the government of China identify and imprison four writers and journalists for crimes against the state,” says The Los Angeles Times.

Human vs. Civil Rights

According to philosopher Thomas Paine in the Rights of Man (1791), human or "natural rights" are inherent to every living being -- and not contingent upon law.

Keeping with this logic, Internet censorship is a civil rights violation; the government infringes on the civil liberties of its people. And top technology and Internet companies use this argument to justify “offering a product or service that could help any repressive government sustain its regime at the public's expense,” The Times says.

Censorship becomes a human rights violation when free speech elicits torture, abduction, and/or murder.

Syrian blogger Tariq Baisi is a case in point. "Syrian authorities have held Baiasi, 22, in incommunicado detention since June 2007 for expressing online views that are critical of the government,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

“Even worse, Syrian intelligence has the nasty habit of not telling families where their loved ones are being detained – in effect, disappearing them for periods of time.”

Baisi was held in jail, without trial, for over six months – his whereabouts unknown.

“The UNGA Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance states that enforced disappearance violates the right not to be subjected to torture, and constitutes a grave threat to the right to life.”

On May 11, the State Security Court in Damascus sentenced Baisi to three years for “dwindling the national feeling” and “weakening the national ethos.”

Partners in crime

Internet repression is reported in countries like China, Vietnam, Tunisia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Online chats monitored. Sites blocked. Bloggers detained. Search engines restricted.

Top technology and Internet companies design and develop communications networks that maximize government surveillance capabilities.

“Google launched a Chinese version of its search engine that filters out sites and topics at the government's request. And Cisco supplies data communications equipment and training directly to the Chinese government, giving it the tools to limit the flow of information online,” says the Los Angeles Times.

Yahoo received “ congressional lashing and made a financial settlement with the families of dissidents who were jailed in China after Yahoo turned over private user information to the government,” The Times says. And the Global Online Freedom Act passed unanimously in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

“Google’s partnership with China will not win the Mountain View search giant many fans in the human rights movement,” TechCrunch says.

Bottom line, what’s the monetary value of social capital?

Add irrepressible content to your blog

Irrepressible.info, an Amnesty International campaign, is undermining “unwarranted censorship by publishing censored material from our database directly onto your site.”

Bloggers Unite for Human Rights

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations. Bloggers Unite For Human Rights challenges bloggers everywhere to help elevate human rights by drawing attention to the challenges and successes of human rights issues on May 15.