Governments shouldn't cut Internet--UN telecoms chief

Agence France-Presse GENEVA--UN telecommunications agency chief Hamadoun Toure said Friday that no government had the right to cut their citizens off from the Internet, following recent incidents in Myanmar.

Toure, who heads the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), underlined that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had recently described safe access to the Internet as a basic human right.

"Yes, I believe no government has a right to cut off its citizens from cyberspace," Toure told journalists in response to a question about a temporary cut in Internet services in Myanmar during recent unrest there.

"The right to communication is a basic freedom and a basic human right that needs to be preserved, no matter what," the ITU Secretary General added.

An Internet blockage in Myanmar late last week severely reduced the flow of video, photos and first-hand reports of the violence there that had helped galvanise an outcry against the ruling generals.

The cut was widely blamed on security forces there. A telecom official in Myanmar confirmed that the nation's main link to the Internet was down, but blamed the problem on a damaged undersea cable.