Welcome to BASE21

Q: What's the meaning of the Asia Internet Rights International Conference?
A: The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) has been involved in communication since 1999, when it started the Internet Rights Project in 1999 in order to protect people's internet rights from crackdown or interference from the government or commercial companies. Because the social environment is very different in each nation, there are European, African, Latin American and Asian Interenet monitoring groups in APC. This conference we are planning is a part of APC's IR Project and we hope to evaluate and to make clear what kind of issues there are in Asian countries, how Asians have been fighting against those issues. Perhaps, we will discuss how to make international solidarity against the oppression that might endanger our rights to communication on the web.

Q: How is the JCA-Net, these days?
A: Unfortunately, we have had very hard financial problems and a lack of activists related to the internet rights movements in Japan. However, we are radically fighting against various issues such as the control of the Internet by the government and/or commercialism. The infrastructure of the Internet is not good yet in Japan compared to Korea. Recently, the Japanese government made an "E-Japan" policy, which means that the government will try to make Japan an ICT-advanced country. The importance of the Internet is gradually increasing. Because of this, a lot of problems are emerging in cyberspace. This makes our existence more important, I believe:

Q: What is the main role of JCA-NET?
A: Like Jinbonet, we provide communication tools and a place for communication/information exchange for Japanese NGOs and unions. We don't, as JCA-NET, directly deal with general social issues like the right-wing revision of history textbooks or the anti globalization movements. Our mission are the rights to communication, the fairness of access and such. Of course, we are cooperating with progressive groups in Japan.

Q: What do you want to have accomplished at this conference?
A: I hope to know what is occurring in other Asian countries. I think many Asian countries are confronting the same kind of difficulties like censorship, blocking and crackdowns. I hope to find out how to overcome these difficulties through international solidarity.