Reporters Without Borders launches first online 'anti-censorship shelter'

The world’s first "anti-censorship shelter" was launched last Friday by press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

The shelter aims to provide an environment with secure electronic communications where journalists and bloggers can publish online while remaining anonymous.

RSF has allied itself with security firm XeroBank to form a "virtually untraceable high-speed anonymity network." Traffic is mixed with that of thousands of other internet users from country to country, making detection impossible.

The Paris-based organisation say that it aims to make "an active commitment to an internet that is unrestricted and accessible to all by providing the victims of censorship with the means of protecting their online information."

The shelter will also create a website for hosting forbidden material in order to combat censorship.

Censorship is not a new problem: RSF, and other organisations such as Amnesty International and Freedom House, have worked for years to end the breach of human rights and to allow freedom of the press worldwide.

"Never before have there been so many netizens in prison in countries such as China, Vietnam and Iran for expressing their views freely online," reads a statement on the RSF website.

"Anonymity is becoming more and more important for those who handle sensitive data."

Earlier this month, RSF marked the 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests by issuing a statement calling for the freedom of all journalists and 'netizens' (bloggers, internet users, and citizen journalists).

According to the press freedom organisation, 60 countries are currently subject to some form of online censorship, and about 120 'netizens' are currently in prison worldwide.

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