Hypocrisy as foreign secretary denounces Internet censorship on the same day BT is forced to censor Newzbin2.

View this release as a PDF

Speaking at the London Cyber conference today, the Foreign Minister William Hague denounced web censorship, calling it an infringement of human rights: "the exploitation of digital networks by a minority of criminals or terrorists be a justification for states to censor their citizens"[1]

On this same day, web censorship in the UK began in earnest, as the first reports came in of BT implementing the web blocking of the Newzbin2 website.[2]

Loz Kaye, Party Leader:
"William Hague is either ignorant of his own government's policy or he is a hypocrite. In the week where web blocking has hit the UK he is no position to lecture other countries on Internet freedom."

[1] http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/11/02/u-k-s-hague-cultural-differences-no-excuse-to-dilute-online-rights/

[2] https://torrentfreak.com/newzbin2-bt-have-started-to-censor-us-111103/

Pirate Party UK
Contact: press@pirateparty.org.uk
+44 (0) 161 987 7880