Date: Thu, 8 Feb 96 08:25 EST From: Maggie Heineman Subject: Critical Path Fights Censorship on Internet PRESS RELEASE February 9, 1996 CONTACT: Kiyoshi Kuromiya CRITICAL PATH AIDS PROJECT CHALLENGES CENSORSHIP OF AIDS INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET Philadelphia, PA,--Critical Path AIDS Project, and 19 other organizations (including the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Queer Resources Directory), will file a class action suit in Federal Court in Philadelphia today challenging certain amendments to the Communications Indecency Act which President Clinton signs this morning. Congressional Amendments to the telecom bill make it a felony to put "indecent" or "patently offensive" material on the Internet where it may be accessible to a person under 18. This law will effectively have a chilling effect on posting explicit AIDS prevention information to both adults and teenagers on the Internet even though identical printed materials will not be affected. Critical Path AIDS Project, according to its founder Kiyoshi Kuromiya, has been providing AIDS treatment and prevention information and referrals in Philadelphia since 1989 through a nationally distributed 96-page newsletter, a 24-hour telephone hotline, a computer bulletin board system (BBS) and a complex of Web pages on the Internet (http://www.critpath.org). Critical Path Project also offers both individuals and agencies free access to the Internet. Kuromiya says that, "Such a law will put a permanent damper on the world-wide dissemination of explicit AIDS prevention information. Over 300,000 persons have already died in this country alone and millions more will get sick and die without widespread, innovative, and explicit AIDS prevention measures. This law will stifle such efforts, subjecting AIDS service providers to frivolous threats of arrest, confiscation of equipment, and fines." The AIDS epidemic is currently threatening communities which lack access to even rudimentary AIDS information, such as the Asian-Pacific Islander communities in Philadelphia and elsewhere, an area of expertise for Kuromiya, who, as a person with AIDS, sits on several Federal research, clinical trials, and treatment panels. Kuromiya says: "Most Asians in the United States with AIDS are in their 20s and presumably many were infected while still teenagers. To deny teenagers and other underserved communities safer sex information would be a tragic public health mistake." Critical Path in collaboration with AIDS Services in Asian Communities (ASIAC) is currently constructing a large database of AIDS prevention and treatment literature in 8 or more Asian languages on its web page. Critical Path AIDS Project states that life-saving AIDS prevention information on its web site is currently utilized by teenagers as well as adults. The organization further states that it intends to continue to provide this life-saving service to the public and, with that in mind, has filed a complaint in Federal Court today challenging the constitutionality of the new law. +++ _____________________________________________________________ Kiyoshi Kuromiya Critical Path AIDS Project Address: 2062 Lombard St, Phila., PA 19146 Email: kiyoshi@critpath.org Hotline: (215) 545-2212 (24-hr) Fax: (215) 735-2762 or (215) 545-2212 Internet or BBS: (215) 463-7160 Web Home Page: http://www.critpath.org Beeper: (800) 973-8084 for toll-free call-back --------------end of press release ------------------------- Request for widespread distribution. Maggie-- I would appreciate it if you could relay it to any groups that you feel may be interested in the issues involved. I have not done a blanket circulation of the Press Release, only selected media and online AIDSLeads mailing list and FTR-pa. There was a press conference at the ACLU in Washington yesterday (with about five of the litigants presenting). There will be another press conference this morning at 10 AM at the Philadelphia ACLU and then we will proceed to the Federal Courthouse at 6th and Market to file on behalf of the 20 litigants: American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Journalism Education Association, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, national Writers Union, Clarinet, Institute for Global Communications, Stop Prisoner Rape, AIDS Education Global Information Service, Bibliobytes, Queer Resources Directory, Critical Path AIDS Project, Inc, Wildcat Press, Inc, Declan McCullagh dba Campus, Brock Meeks dba Cyberwire Dispatch, John Troyer dba The Safer Sex Web Page, Jonathan Wallace dba The Ethical Experience, and Planned Parenthood. --Kiyoshi forwarded by ======================================================================= Margaret Andrus Heineman [maggie@critpath.org] Philadelphia PFLAG -- http://www.critpath.org/~maggie/pflag/ Pennsylvania Alliance for Democracy -- (web page under construction) Fight the Right Network (Philadelphia) -- http://www.critpath.org/ftrn/ Interfaith Working Group -- http://www.libertynet.org/~iwg/iwg.html ========================================================================