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Communications Slashed In Pakistan
by Winter Casey
The martial law that President Pervez Musharraf imposed in Pakistan on Saturday includes a blackout of television networks and radio stations. Several Internet service providers also were asked to stop their services, cellular telephones were disconnected in the capital city of Islamabad, and cable operators were barred from relaying all news channels.
In imposing martial law, Musharraf suspended the country's constitution, sacked the chief justice and restricted the press. AP, The Hindustan Times, The Times of India, Global Voices Online, and Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet and Society noted the impact of Musharraf's action on the Internet and other media.
David Ardia, a fellow at the Berkman Center and the director of the Citizen Media Law Project, said Musharraf in 2002 created the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Ordinance to give the government some authority over the press. That move opened the door to possible government censorship of electronic media, he said.
On Saturday, Musharraf amended that authority to give regulators more power to block electronic media outlets, seize licenses and take equipment, Ardia said, and while Pakistan does not appear to have applied media rules to bloggers in the past, concern exists that it could do so in the future. Ardia added that the desire to block information is normal and happens in countries where new regimes are trying to take power or retain control. Musharraf came to power in 2000 in a military coup that toppled Pakistan's elected leader at the time, Nawaz Sharif.
Following news of Musharraf's emergency rules, leaders from around the world, including some members of the U.S. Congress, voiced concern.
"Anyone who has read recent news reports understands that Pakistan is dealing with real challenges, including a violent extremist challenge," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. "But by suspending the constitution, replacing the Supreme Court's chief justice and cutting communications in the capital, the government is likely to make matters worse, not better."
U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said, "U.S. aid to the Musharraf government should stop until constitutional order, civil liberties and judicial independence are restored, until political prisoners are released, and until free and fair elections are allowed."
Both U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier called on Musharraf to allow for fair elections in January. U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., who has said that instability in Pakistan poses a bigger foreign policy threat to the United States than Iran, said Musharraf should establish an independent commission to oversee those elections.
EU Commissioner Highlights Path To Innovation
The European Commission has taken many steps to support innovation, entrepreneurship and the success of small and medium-sized businesses in European Union nations, Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Charlie McCreevy said Tuesday.
In an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Day speech to The Lisbon Council, a think tank and policy network, McCreevy highlighted a proposal that would let EU nations exempt from value-added taxes companies with annual revenues of less than $146,000 (100,000 euros). By the end of the year, he added, a proposal will be adopted to introduce a system to simplify companies' obligations to the value-added tax, which is levied at each stage of production based on the value at that time.
McCreevy said the commission has an agenda of reducing by 25 percent the administrative burden that small businesses face in meeting certain regulations. He also said the time it takes for new companies to register to do business in many EU nations has been improved.
The commissioner said one particular EU directive seeks to address the high administrative barriers to service companies. "For small and medium-size enterprises -- which constitute 98 percent of all providers of services in Europe -- the cost and general off-putting nature of such red tape has meant that many abandon the idea of testing new markets or opening new branches in other member states," McCreevy said.
He also said EU nations will be banned from asking providers to prove there is an economic need of market demand for a service in order to obtain authorization, nationality or residence requirements. "Further, service providers will have to be able to complete all procedures and formalities by electronic means at a distance," McCreevy said. New public procurement directives also introduce the possibility of using electronic communications to aid small companies.
"In addition to replacing paper transactions, electronic means open up possibilities for new innovative purchasing techniques such as e-auctions or e-catalogues," he said. The commission, the EU's regulatory arm, has made "clear recommendations on how best to use electronic procedures in a secure and non-discriminatory way and how to give businesses the confidence to participate in these," McCreevy added.
Network Neutrality As Global Policy
The concept of network neutrality is a "globally applicable principle that can guide Internet governance" in countries besides the United States, where the debate has been focused, according to a November paper from the Internet Governance Project. The project is made up of academics with expertise in international governance and Internet policy.
The term net neutrality refers to efforts by the government to mandate equal treatment of high-speed Internet content. The proposed regulations would prevent broadband providers from creating tiered pricing for certain content. "Bandwidth-tiering has generated furious political opposition in the United States -- even though the debate is largely hypothetical," the report notes.
The paper holds that net neutrality can "be promoted as a global norm to guide Internet policies" and the term "neutrality" can be extended to the Internet's technical coordination functions.
"The coordination of Internet names and addresses, many believe, should be a neutral enabling function and not exploited for regulatory purposes," the report said. The concept of "nondiscriminatory access" also is "central to the concept of free trade in goods and services."
But Scott Cleland, president of the telecommunications research firm Precursor, questioned the report's conclusions. "[A] call for a global net neutrality policy is a recipe for disaster and the surest way to balkanize the Internet and ruin its universal value," he said.
Foreign Graduate Enrollments In U.S. Slows
First-time enrollments of international students in U.S. graduate institutions increased 4 percent between 2006 and 2007 but grew at a slower rate than the 12 percent the previous year, according to a report from the Council of Graduate Schools.
"The rebound in international enrollments still has not been large enough to reverse the declines that many institutions reported in 2004," the report states. The analysis found that most students entering U.S. graduate institutions from abroad hailed from China, India, and South Korea.
The report also found that the number of first-time foreign students studying engineering in U.S. institutions increased by 8 percent in 2007. It had jumped by 22 percent in 2006. "[T]otal enrollments of international students are still below their 2003 levels at a number of institutions," the report said.
"The decelerating rate of growth in international first-time enrollments and admits suggest that overall increases in the number of students from abroad seeking master's and doctoral degrees in the U.S. may slow in the future," the analysis found. The council also said graduate deans appear to be increasingly involved in overseas recruitment and outreach efforts.
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