| *This is an English translation of the original Finnish press release at*

| http://www.effi.org/julkaisut/tiedotteet/lehdistotiedote-2008-02-12.html

|

| Press release 12 February 2008

| Electronic Frontier Finland – Effi ry

|

Effi: Finnish police censors a critic of censorship

===================================================

Electronic Frontier Finland (Effi) demands the `National Bureau of

Investigation`__ (NBI) of Finland to explain why it has censored a net

site that criticises Internet censorship.

__ http://www.poliisi.fi/poliisi/krp/home.nsf/pages/indexeng

NBI maintains a secret blocking list of web sites allegedly containing

child pornography, pursuant to a law passed last year. *[Most of the major Finnish

Internet service providers use this list in a DNS based

filtering system under pressure from the government.]* The purpose of

the law is to prevent the access to the foreign sites that contain

child pornography.

Now the censorship list has been appended with a site called

`lapsiporno.info`__ *[translates to childpornography.info]* that is

maintained by a Finnish Internet activist Matti Nikki. The site does

not contain child pornography, but articles that criticise censorship

and a list of blocked IP addresses.

__ http://lapsiporno.info/

Leena Romppainen, a member of the Effi board wonders: “If the site

really had some illegal content, wouldn’t the correct solution

be to take the site down and take the site owner to the court? The site is

located on a Finnish server and the name of the site owner appears

visibly on the root page of the site.”

“The whole net censorship project is just a hat trick that is used to

sweep under the carpet the real problem, that is, the sexual abuse of

the children”, shoots Tero Tilus, a member of the board of Effi.

Most of the censored sites are located either in the United

States or EU countries.

“The local authorities have taken no action on these sites. Therefore,

either the sites do not contain child pornography or the NBI has not

informed the local authorities”, says Leena Romppainen. “Both of the

alternatives are equally scary.”

Major part of the censored sites are legal adult sites. From the

beginning, there have also been attempts to expand the censorship for

example to the net poker sites.

“Some faceless official decides which sites the Finns may not see, and

this decision cannot be appealed. Now he has apparently decided that

net filtering may not be criticised”, finishes Tero Tilus.

Additional information

———————-

| Tero Tilus

|

| Leena Romppainen

|

Links:

——

*[Added some links in English]*

| Finnish ISPs Must Voluntarily Block Access, EDRi 8 September 2005, of the draft law,

| http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.18/censorshipFinland

|

*[Mostly in Finnish.]*

| Nyt sensuroitu sivusto

| http://lapsiporno.info/

|

| Kopioita sensuroidusta sivustosta

| http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/mjrauhal/lapsiporno.info/

| http://je.org/id/internet/sensuuri/1202828335132704.html

|

| Kai Puolamäen blogikirjoitus “Sähköiset oikeudet kuriin” viimeaikaisista estolistojen laajentamishankkeista

| http://effi.org/blog/kai-2008-01-20.html

|

`Digitodayn uutinen listojen tehottomuudesta`__

__ http://www.digitoday.fi/tietoturva/2008/01/08/%22Lapsipornolistat+ovat+tehottomia+ja+laittomia%22/2008579/66

| Luettelo maista, joissa estolistalla olevat palvelimet ovat,

| http://je.org/id/internet/sensuuri/1202171746292110.html

|

| Tekniikka&Talous-lehden juttu 12.2.2008,

| http://www.tekniikkatalous.fi/ict/article59589.ece

|

| Laki lapsipornografian levittämisen estotoimista 1.1.2006/1068

| http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2006/20061068

|

| “Salainen” estolista,

| http://je.org/sensuurilista/

|

| Entinen ministeri Huovinen (sd) lupasi aikoinaan läpinäkyvyyttä estolistaan,

| http://www.tietokone.fi/uutta/uutinen.asp?news_id=28865&tyyppi=1

|

| Web-sensuuri nostaa päätään – äänite- ja elokuvateollisuuden lobbarit vaativat PirateBayn sensurointia,

| http://www.effi.org/blog/2008-02-08-Mikael-Storsjo.html

|

| Näin kierrät Internet-sensuurin,

| http://je.org/id/internet/1202414239038649.html

|

Electronic Frontier Finland ry (Effi) was founded in 2001 to defend

active users and citizens of the Finnish society in the electronic

frontier. Effi influences legislative proposals concerning

e.g. personal privacy, freedom of speech and user rights in copyright

law. We make statements, press releases and participate actively in

actual public policy and legal discussion. Effi also works in close

cooperation with organizations sharing same goals and values in the

Europe, United States and elsewhere. Effi is a founding member of the

European Digital Rights (EDRi). The members of the board and many

active members are experts in the fields of law and technology. Many

of us do University-level research on these matters. More information

from the web site of Effi at http://www.effi.org/