Clinton urges Net freedom

[MarrickG]

WASHINGTON/BEIJING - US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday called for an unfettered worldwide Internet and urged global condemnation of those who conduct cyber attacks, as China sought to contain tension with the United States over the hacking and censorship of Google.

'A new information curtain is descending across much of the world,' she said, calling growing Internet curbs the modern equivalent of the Berlin Wall.

'We stand for a single Internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas,' said Mrs Clinton in a major address that cited China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt among countries that censored the Internet or harassed bloggers.

Countries that built electronic barriers to parts of the Internet or filtered search engine results contravened the UN's Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of information, she said.

Addressing concerns about cyber spying in China that have prompted Google Inc to threaten to quit that market, Mrs Clinton said 'countries or individuals that engage in cyber attacks should face consequences and international condemnation'. 'In an interconnected world, an attack on one nation's networks can be an attack on all,' Mrs Clinton said.

'We look to Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of the cyber intrusions that led Google to make this announcement,' she said. -- REUTERS