Yemenis’ emails and calls monitored, report says [Archives:2007/1013/Front Page]
Mohammed Al-Jabri
SANA'A, Jan. 1 ) The Yemeni government still monopolizes internet services, censors and blocks web sites and violates its citizens' privacy, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information has reported.
Entitled, “Implacable Adversaries: Arab Governments and the Internet,” the report examines policies and tactics adopted by 18 Arab nations in dealing with the internet, criticizing such Arab governments for blocking web sites and arresting online activists. It added that Arab governments traditionally restrict freedom of expression, but with the “War on Terror” as a ready-made excuse, they've imposed even further restrictions.
Government cyber-terrorism
The report points out that the Yemeni Constitution prohibits interference in private life, but in practice, this prohibition is ignored in numerous situations. “Political security forces and the Ministry of Interior routinely search homes and private offices, monitor telephone calls and read emails.
“Additionally, there's widespread interference in numerous other personal matters, all of which allegedly are based on security intelligence. It's important to note that such practices are implemented without legal orders, nor are they done with judicial supervision,” the report remarks.
The report clarifies that the Yemeni government censors and blocks those web sites regarding sensitive political issues or those that contradict it [the government]. “Unlike many other Arab countries, the [Yemeni] government doesn't impose general blocking of web sites; it only prohibits access to certain web sites.” But this, according to the report, leads to problems suffered by users in Yemen.
Another way it monopolizes internet services is by increasing prices for the service, which many people can't afford. Both the number of users and the growth rate of the internet in Yemen are much lower than in other countries in the region, the report notes, regretting that Yemen's social and economic situations don't allow massive increases in the number of customers.
At the beginning of 2006, there were 110,000 internet subscriptions, of which less than 2,000 were ADSL subscribers, while the majority use a lower service such as dial-up or ISDN. “In October 2005, the state raised tariffs on telephone land lines and internet services by 50 percent. Such a price increase contradicts official government statements claiming to be promoting the spread of communication means in order to power Yemen's economic growth,” the report notes.
State-owned Yemeni internet service providers TeleYemen and Yemen Net announced their web site blocking policy, which is to block whatever contradicts beliefs and traditions or national dominance. However, the report observes, “This statement clearly is open to an overwhelming number of definitions and may be used to include thousands of different web sites.”
Additionally, the report cites several examples of web sites that have been blocked or censored, which runs counter to government's insistence that it doesn't censor or block web sites.
According to the report, Open Net Initiative mentioned in a special report (http://www.openarab.net/en/reports/net2006/yemen.shtml) that Yemen's two internet service providers use a U.S. blocking technique called “Websense” and that Yemen Net holds only 10,000 licenses for the technique, although it has 65,000 subscribers. Therefore, blocking is applied to the first 10,000 web sites accessing the internet simultaneously. Any additional user who accesses at the same moment is exempt from the blocking mechanism.
The report voiced concern over the practices of security authorities against internet cafes. Since this past March, security forces have issued general instructions to internet cafe owners, urging them to note the data of those who browse the internet, those who call them by phone and those who send faxes via such cafes, the report alleges.
It cited one example wherein Hodeidah governorate security authorities launched a wide-ranging campaign on internet cafes early last May, arresting large numbers of internet cafe and telecommunication shop owners. The official reason for the crackdown was the owners' failure to comply with the minute instructions of registering their customers' names and identification card numbers.
The report concludes that the state makes numerous provisions to regulate the inner workings of internet cafes to limit users' freedoms, including banning side barriers separating users, thereby ensuring that all computer screens are visible from various positions.
“Applying such conditions violates internet users' privacy. Many internet cafe owners consider such actions and provisions as interference into their customers' personal lives and that users feel censored in internet cafes, even when browsing or writing personal email,” the report concluded.
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