Germany Joins Censoring Nations

CK - Washington.   A devisive issue splits German public opinion before the upcoming elections: To censor or not? The third step of censorship--after the ever-expanding identification requirement for Internet participants known as Impressumspflicht and logging requirements for Internet access providers of their customers' activities--targets trafficking in child-pornographic material. Despite the fact that there is no statutory basis for a censoring requqirement, many ISPs in Germany feel pressured by the government to apply censorship standards. A public list contains the IPS who implement new barrie…