theSun | WEDNESDAY JUNE 10 2009
news without borders
Web filtering raises
issues: Microsoft
WASHINGTON: Microsoft late
on Monday said a Chinese rule
that personal computers sold in
the country include web filter-
ing software raises issues of
freedom of expression, privacy,
and security which “need to be
properly addressed.”
The statement by the US
software giant came after a US
computer industry association
denounced the Chinese move
and the largest US personal
computer makers said they were
studying its ramifications.
The head of a software de-
veloper involved in devising the
Chinese filtering programme in
Beijing said that the move was
aimed at protecting people from
pornography.
Bryan Zhang, chief executive
of Jinhui Computer System En-
gineering Co, said “the software
will be provided to consumers
in new PCs and they have the
option to install or not to install
it.”
In a statement, a Microsoft
spokesperson said “Microsoft
believes that the availability of
appropriate parental control
tools is an important societal
consideration for industry and
governments around the world.
“At the same time, Microsoft
is committed to helping advance
the free flow of information and
to encouraging transparency,
deliberation and restraint with
respect to internet governance,”
the US software giant said.
“In this case, we agree with
others in industry and around
the world that important issues
such as freedom of expression,
privacy, system reliability and
security need to be properly
addressed,” the spokesperson
said.
Microsoft provides the Win-
dows software that runs most
of the world’s PCs.
Earlier on Monday, Ed Black,
president of the Computer
and Communications Industry
Association (CCIA), described
the Chinese move as a “very
unfortunate development.”
“This is clearly an escalation
of attempts to limit access and
the freedom of the internet,” he
said. “It has economic and trade
as well as cultural and social
ramifications.”
Black said the Chinese move
smacked of an attempt to “not
only control their own citizens
access to the internet but to
force everybody into being com-
plicit and participate in a level of
censorship.” – AFP
WORLD FAMOUS
MELT IN YOUR MOUTH DOUGHNUTS
Indians protest in Sydney
after new attack
SYDNEY: Hundreds of Indian ance” in apparent retaliation for an
students protested and launched earlier assault.
Indian
violent reprisals overnight in It was believed to be the first
students and
Australia’s biggest city, in the latest time Indian students had reacted
supporters
flare-up in racial tensions in recent violently to a series of attacks on
holding
weeks, police said yesterday. them in Australia which have
a rally to
Police said they had to call in caused outrage on the subconti-
protest
the dog squad to control the crowd nent and strained diplomatic ties
against
in west Sydney, where protesters between Canberra and New Delhi.
racially-
wielding sticks and baseball bats at- The student protesters gathered
targeted
tacked men of “Middle Eastern ap- after an Indian man in his early
violence in
pear- 20s was attacked by a group of
Sydney.
men of Middle Eastern descent,
according to police.
They then attacked a carload
of men who drove past and
pelted them with eggs, leaving
them with cuts and bruises,
said Pawan Luthra, the Sydney-
based publisher of a newspaper
called Indian Link.
Police superintendent
Robert Redfern denied reports
members of the crowd, which
finally dispersed at about 2am,
were armed with knives. But
he said: “There were certainly
EPAPIX
7
NOW OPEN !
AT BERJAYA TIMES SQUARE
suggestions people had either base-
ball bats or hockey sticks and the
like.”
Redfern said the violence in
Harris Park was not race-related
and stemmed from a series of “op-
portunistic” crimes against Indians
in the area. But NSW Lebanese
Community Council spokesman
Elie Nassif said there had been
tensions between small sections
of the Lebanese and Indian com-
munities.
“Whether we like it or not, it
is happening, but as community
leaders we should work together to
wipe all this (out),” he said.
Recent assaults on Indian stu-
dents have been dubbed “curry
bashings” in the Indian media and
prompted frantic diplomatic efforts
in Canberra to ease New Delhi’s
concerns about the issue.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd this
month called in the former head of
Australia’s elite Special Air Service
regiment to lead a task force exam-
ining the attacks. The issue came to
a head late last month when student
Sravan Kumar Theerthala was left
comatose after being stabbed with
a screwdriver by gatecrashers at
a party he was attending in Mel-
bourne. – AFP