World Day Against Cyber Censorship is an online event held each year on March 12 to draw attention to the ways that governments around the world are deterring and censoring free speech online. The day was first observed on 12 March 2008 at the request of

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

and

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

. A letter written by Jean-François Julliard, Secretary-General of Reporters Without Borders, and Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International, was sent to the Chief Executive Officers of Google, Yahoo!, Inc., and Microsoft Corporation to request observation of the day. The annual event is symbolized by a logo created by

consisting of a computer mouse breaking free from a chain.

Netizen Prize

On World Day Against Cyber Censorship, Reporters Without Borders awards an annual ''Netizen Prize'' that recognizes an Internet user,

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

ger,

cyber-dissident A cyber-dissident is a professional journalist, an activist or citizen journalist who posts news, information, or commentary on the internet that implies criticism of a government or regime. The practice of cyber-dissidence may have been inaugu ...

, or group who has made a notable contribution to the defense of online

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

."Reporters Without Borders : For Freedom of Information"
Brochure, Reporters Without Borders, 16 April 2012. Starting in 2010 the prize has been awarded to: * 2010: Iranian

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

activists of the

Change for Equality One Million Signatures for the Repeal of Discriminatory Laws (Persian: ), also known as Change for Equality, is a campaign by women in Iran to collect one million signatures in support of changing discriminatory laws against women in their coun ...

website, www.we-change.org. * 2011: the founders of a Tunisian blogging group named Nawaat.org. * 2012: Syrian

citizen journalists Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

and activists of the Media center of the Local Coordination Committees. * 2013: Vietnamese blogger Huynh Ngoc Chenh. * 2014: Saudi Arabian blogger

Raif Badawi Raif bin Muhammad Badawi ( ar, رائف بن محمد بدوي, also transcribed Raef bin Mohammed Badawi; born 13 January 1984) is a Saudi writer, dissident and activist, as well as the creator of the website ''Free Saudi Liberals''. Badawi wa ...

."Reporters Without Borders - TV5Monde Prize for Press Freedom"
Reporters Without Borders, 5 November 2014

Enemies of the Internet list

*Reddit (deletes comments, suspends, bans using 'hate speech' as cover) *The Guardian (deletes comments, suspends, bans using 'hate speech' as cover) *Wikipedia (opposing views are classified as vandalism, automatically reverts changes, censors, bans IP addresses) In conjunction with World Day Against Cyber Censorship, Reporters Without Borders updates its ''Enemies of the Internet'' and ''Countries Under Surveillance'' lists."Reporters Without Borders releases 'Enemies of the Internet' list"
France24 (France Médias Monde), 13 March 2014.

References

{{reflist , 30em

External links

"Privacy is for the powerless."

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...

, at

, March 2016 International observances Internet censorship Freedom of the press March observances 2008 introductions

Netizen Prize

Enemies of the Internet list

See also

References

External links