With all the furore over China and Iran’s censorship of Internet sites, it’s gone largely unnoticed that the UK censors web sites too.
A Home Office representative confirmed to us that certain types of web sites are blocked to citizens browsing from the UK.
She said that sites that are blocked include terrorist related sites and certain race hatred sites too.
The Home Office did not give us any specific examples of sites that come under scrutiny and are subsequently banned.
The representative did say, however, that the proscription on the sites came about as a result of collaboration between the Home Office and British Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Nor did she say who decided which particular sites should be blocked or not. Germany is believed to be considering taking similar steps to the UK.
Earlier this week, Conservative party leader David Cameron said that if he was returned to power in the next general election, he would act to remove a number of supervisory powers given to local councils and other authorities since the Labour Party came to power in 1997.
