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The article "Police raid Net cafés under gambling law" (May 14) points to a worrying phenomenon that goes beyond Greek anti-gambling laws. In the name of the war on terror, we are facing a growing intrusion into personal privacy. This intrusion of big brother should be addressed swiftly and comprehensively.
Governments all over the word are adopting laws that intend to regulate the use of information technologies establishing a system of hyper-controls that bear serious consequences for individual rights, privacy and business opportunities of millions of people.
The police raids at Theodore Konstantinou's cybercafé resemble those happening in Iran, China, Vietnam and Tunisia against human rights advocates who are using the Internet as a megaphone to air their suffering.
The special and emergency laws and regulations adopted in the last years in the United States and throughout the European Union fly in the face of a free, open and accountable information society. Moreover, they allow undemocratic regimes to evolve into e-dictatorships dedicated to e-censorship and e-repression.
The European Parliament has been able to debate these issues and some concerns have been voiced and taken into account, but on the eve of the European elections all those timid developments have disappeared from the political horizon.
Big brother is bigger than ever before and back in business. We need to control his activities. In Athens one can be acquitted for such infractions, but the offenders in Tehran, Beijing, Hanoi and Tunis may not be so lucky.
Governments all over the word are adopting laws that intend to regulate the use of information technologies establishing a system of hyper-controls that bear serious consequences for individual rights, privacy and business opportunities of millions of people.
The police raids at Theodore Konstantinou's cybercafé resemble those happening in Iran, China, Vietnam and Tunisia against human rights advocates who are using the Internet as a megaphone to air their suffering.
The special and emergency laws and regulations adopted in the last years in the United States and throughout the European Union fly in the face of a free, open and accountable information society. Moreover, they allow undemocratic regimes to evolve into e-dictatorships dedicated to e-censorship and e-repression.
The European Parliament has been able to debate these issues and some concerns have been voiced and taken into account, but on the eve of the European elections all those timid developments have disappeared from the political horizon.
Big brother is bigger than ever before and back in business. We need to control his activities. In Athens one can be acquitted for such infractions, but the offenders in Tehran, Beijing, Hanoi and Tunis may not be so lucky.
