PARIS - The international human rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is urging 14 major Internet and computer firms not to supply the Chinese government with the technology to monitor Internet activity more tightly than it already does.

The Paris-based organization wrote to the CEOs of major computer and Internet infrastructure suppliers and encouraged them “to take a stand against the government’s repression of the Internet.”

The firms are based in Japan, North America, Europe and South Korea. They include US-based Cisco Systems, Microsoft,
Yahoo!, Hewlett Packard, IBM and others.

The organization included a copy of the first issue of its Internet Repression News with the letters, a monthly newsletter that documents the latest government efforts to stifle freedom of expression online.

“We are asking them to bear in mind the contents of the newsletter when making their business decisions,” said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard.
The group points out that through international computer technology suppliers, China acquires “very sophisticated technical means to spy on the Internet, its users and the messages they send.”

According to a statement on the advocacy group’s web site, each company has a different relationship with the Chinese government.

“Cisco Systems supplies special online spying systems while Intel just sells its standard products. Yahoo! agreed to change its portal and search-engine to facilitate censorship in exchange for access to the Chinese market, while South Korea's Samsung is simply selling its goods to a neighboring country.”

The Chinese government has been widely criticized for monitoring and censoring hundreds of web sites, including those of western media.

Last year, officials shut down the wildly popular search engine Google, causing a huge outcry from Internet users. The government ultimately relented and allowed access to the site once again.