Dharamsala, June 12 – A Chinese defense lawyer has submitted a request yesterday to Li Yizhong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, to hold a hearing on the ministry’s requirement that all computers sold in China – either manufactured in China or imported – be equipped with filtering software as of July 1, 2009.
Notice Regarding Requirements for Pre-installing Green Filtering Software on Computers, was issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on May 19, 2009, drawing intense reactions from foreign computer manufacturers and Chinese netizens, said Human Rights in China, a York based NGO monitoring human rights in China.
Lawyer Li Fangping challenges the legality of the directive, citing an October 2008 notice sent by the State Council – China’s legislature – to government agencies requesting them to “hold hearings for items subject to examination and approval which concern the major public interests or the vital interests of the people.”
Using regulations relevant to the Chinese government’s Open Government Information policy, Li also submitted an application to MIIT requesting the ministry to make public the legal basis for the new directive and information relating to the approval process for the funds to purchase the software, the impartiality of the bidding process, and how the software would affect the protection of individual privacy and information security, etc.
Li writes in his application which was translated by Human Rights in China that the government directive “impedes on the citizens’ right to choice by mandating that all computers must install the same software. This action might also violate Articles 32 and 37 of the Anti-Monopoly Law of the PRC.”
“The government departments have not publicly defined the criteria for harmful information and pornographic content, nor have they explained the function of the software, which could possibly pose a tremendous danger to citizens’ individual privacy and information security,” Li writes.
