Since the printing press, no technology has had a greater capacity than the Internet for individual empowerment, economic development, and human expression.
How telling then that, while countries around the world are devoting precious resources to expanding their citizens’ access to the Internet, Russia is doing the opposite.
Just yesterday, Russia’s Parliament passed a package of new restrictions on blogging and the Internet, a potent legislative cocktail of regression and repression.
It is part of a pattern. Russian-backed militias operating in Ukraine have been detaining legitimate journalists and knocking down television towers to block the truth from getting out. While the world celebrated the Internet’s potential for positive change at NETmundial, Russia isolated itself by objecting to the principles and ideals of Internet freedom.
Read more at http://blogs.state.gov/stories/2014/04/30/internet-iron-curtain
