ADVISORY for coffee buyers travelling to Ethiopia - Wondwossen
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A new law makes it a crime to engage in audio
or video communications over the Internet
By
Christine Roberts
June
17, 2012
The
country's government has passed a new law that makes it a crime to engage in
audio or video communications using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
services such as Skype, Google Talk and most other video chat platforms, according
to Al Jazeera.
Anyone
who makes a phone call over the Internet reportedly faces a three to eight year
prison sentence and heavy fines thanks to the May 24 legislation.
The
punishment for using an official Internet calling service such as Skype is even
stronger, with violators facing a potential 15 years in jail, the
African Review reports.
The
government claims the law was passed in order to strengthen national
security, according
to Reporters Without Borders.
Ambroise
Pierre, head of the non-profit organization’s Africa Desk, said the measure is
really intended to restrict the flow of communication in and out of the
country.
"The
Ethiopian government is trying to attack every means of information
exchange," Pierre said.
Former
BBC Ethiopia correspondent Elizabeth Blunt says that law may be intended to
protect the state's sole telecommunications provider, Ethio Teleco.
"Internet
cafes may be allowing people to make calls for far less than the cost of
Ethiopia telecom, the state's telecommunications provider that has the monopoly
and charges very high prices — and doesn't want to have its service
undermined," Blunt told BBC.
The new
legislation also gives the government permission to inspect any imported voice
communication equipment, Al
Jazeera reports.
Internet
access in Ethiopia is already relatively limited.
Only
360,000 Ethiopians, or .04% of the country’s population, had access to the Web
in 2009, PCMag
reports.
Access
in the country’s capital, Addis Ababa, is also unreliable.
Several
people have taken to Twitter to express anger over the new law.
"#Ethiopia
- #Skype, not allowed please use smoke signals," Coldtusker wrote.
“Cant
foster an environment of innovation w so much strangulation of the pipes. Guess
they have a strategy out of it,” TMS Ruge tweeted.
Ethiopia
has a long history of restricting new technology and later accepting it.
Owning
a satellite dish in Ethiopia was illegal 15 years ago, according
to the blog “Transforming Ethiopia.”
Credit
cards were also outlawed at a time.
"Both
examples show the distrust that the Ethiopian state has always had towards
technological advancement," the blog says.
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Contact Christine Roberts at
croberts@nydailynews.com