Vietnam party set to tighten Internet controls
HANOI - The communist party in
southern Ho Chi Minh City has instructed local
authorities to establish a new body aimed at tightening
control over Internet access and management, municipal
officials said on Friday.
One official said the order was given after the local
party organisation had considered a report prepared by
the city People's Committee on Internet operations and
use in the former Saigon.
He added that it was unclear when the new control
body would be established.
City Communist Party officials were not immediately
available to comment.
The official Saigon Giai Phong (Saigon Liberation) daily
reported on Friday that the committee would be headed
by a people's committee deputy chairman together with
a senior city police officer.
The newspaper said the committee would regulate and
coordinate the management, establishment and
operation of the Internet in Ho Chi Minh City,
communist-ruled Vietnam's commercial hub.
``The city police will coordinate...building and
implementing a plan for the timely prevention and
settlement of bad information,'' the daily said without
giving details.
Vietnam officially hooked up to the Internet last
December but high charges -- in what is one of the
world's poorest countries -- have kept the number of
subscribers low.
By last month there were just 16,000 Internet
subscribers out of a population of 78 million, official
media said.
Access to many Web sites -- especially pages viewed
as having reactionary political content such as those
operated by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese
groups -- is blocked by means of ``firewall'' software.
Reuters - December 04, 1998.
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