Two US human rights groups said on Friday that they were working with Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Vodafone to protect civil liberties online.
The technology giants will help craft rules of engagement for Internet companies to follow when faced with "laws, regulations and policies that interfere with the achievement of human rights," the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington said.
Technology companies have played vital roles in economic growth and democratic reform in developing countries, but innovations are sometimes used as tools of oppression, said the center's director Leslie Harris.
"Many governments have found ways to turn technology against their citizens -- monitoring legitimate online activities and censoring democratic material," Harris said.
"It is vital that we identify solutions that preserve the enormous democratic value provided by technological development, while at the same time protecting the human rights and civil liberties of those who stand to benefit," Harris said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the spotlight had been put on Internet companies after arrests in China of Internet writers such as Shi Tao (師濤), who was jailed in 2005 and subsequently sentenced to 10 years for "leaking state secrets," a China often uses for activists only guilty of exercising freedom of speech.
After rights groups accused Yahoo of helping China trace Shi Tao's e-mail exchanges with a New York-based news Web site and the Chinese court verdict named Yahoo as the source of its information, Yahoo admitted to involvement in the case.
"Governments around the world are jailing Internet journalists at a growing pace, with 49 bloggers, online editors, and Web-based reporters behind bars at the end of 2006," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said.
"Protecting the rights of these journalists to express ideas and exchange information without fear of reprisal is one of the highest priorities for the press freedom community today," he said in a statement.
A CPJ census found that the number of journalists jailed worldwide hit a record last year with 134 in jail on Dec. 1, more than one-third of whom were Internet bloggers and online reporters.
Investors, academics, and groups such as Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, New York-based Human Rights in China, and the Electronic Freedom Foundation in San Francisco will take part in the project, which is to be completed this year.
A representative of the UN will be part of the group as an observer, according the center, which is coordinating the endeavor with the non-profit Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) in San Francisco.
The project builds on discussions started with the technology firms separately by the rights groups last year.
"We've already learned a great deal about the obstacles we face and the ways business and other stakeholders can join forces to address those challenges," BSR chief executive Aron Cramer said.
"This important dialogue reflects a shared commitment to maximize the information available via the internet on the basis of global principles protecting free expression and privacy.
The new combined group intends to establish a framework to implement the principles and hold signatories accountable, the center said.
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