New state agency to monitor Internet

President Leonid Kuchma’s recent decree ordering the creation of a new agency to guard against unauthorized disclosure of confidential state information may be an attempt by the government to control the dissemination of information on the Internet, observers say.
The decree, signed in mid-April, set up the Department of Special Communications Systems and Defense of Information under the auspices of the State Security Service (SBU) and ordered it to draft the agency’s charter and submit it for government approval by May 10.
The presidential order required that all agencies and enterprises that process, transmit, gather or store confidential state information comply with instructions of the new security body.
SBU chief Leonid Derkach said April 26 that one of the new department’s primary functions would be to monitor and safeguard confidential state information circulated over the Internet.
“It is common practice for security services in all countries to monitor electronic communications,” Derkach said, adding that his agents will take the “necessary measures” as soon as they detect violations.
The new project came on the heels of a series of reports in Western media on Ukraine’s alleged misuse of International Monetary Fund aid, which Derkach had said was triggered by unauthorized disclosure of secret information.
At a March 24 press conference, Derkach said that a confidential parliamentary report on the Ukrainian National Bank’s operations with its reserves, which described the alleged aid misuse scheme, became available to Western media after it was posted in the Internet by a local news agency.
The latest presidential decree was the government’s second attempt in the past six months to monitor circulation of information on the Internet.
Last fall, parliament overwhelmingly rejected a government bill that would have required Internet providers to purchase and install – at their own expense – special equipment that would monitor information traffic.
The bill was voted down after Internet companies complained that the measure would effectively allow the SBU access to all information exchanged over the Internet in Ukraine.
Observers also expressed worry that such control would further limit Ukrainian media’s ability to express independent views.
“We don’t want to see Ukraine’s information space Belarussified,” said lawmaker Oleksandr Yemets, referring to widespread suppression of freedom of speech by government authorities in neighboring Belarus.
While international media watchdogs describe the state of freedom of speech in Ukraine as being on a par with that in Belarus, local analysts say the Internet has remained virtually the only reliable medium, which allows dissemination of opinions on economic and political developments in Ukraine that differ from the official viewpoint.
An estimated 100,000 to 200,000 Ukrainians presently have access to the Internet, and that number is expected to increase four-fold by the end of 2000. Presently, the .ua Internet domain includes more than 7,500 Web sites, with Kyiv accounting for about 35 percent of all Internet services provided in Ukraine.
Ukrainian legislation regarding media and communications does not mention the Internet. But analysts say that Kuchma’s latest decree would effectively allow the government to create regulations for the Internet without risking a new failure during their debate in parliament.
International organizations, which keep tabs on Internet development worldwide, have noted that restrictions on Internet access tend to occur in countries, whose governments have a poor record on freedom of speech. Last year, the Paris-based international press freedom group, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) issued a report naming 45 nations as Enemies of the Internet for the limitations on Internet access imposed by their governments.
“In line with their repressive approach toward other media, some governments do not allow their citizens to provide or use the Internet freely,” read the report.
RSF in particular mentioned attempts by Russian authorities last year to impose control over electronic communications in the country. The proposed measure, which would have allowed the Russian Federal Security Service to secretly hook up to Internet users under the pretext of carrying out unspecified “operational measures” was voted down by parliament.