Is blocking child pornography censorship?

The judiciary and Internet service providers in the Netherlands have agreed to block access to certain websites containing child pornography. The business newspaper NRC Handelsblad writes that this is tantamount to censorship: "The most important argument, however, is that blocking websites without a court ruling is tantamount to exercising censorship. Such measures could also lead to further actions such as the blocking of websites that contain terrorist ideas or sites which in all likelihood violate other laws. It could even lead to access to sites that contain information that damages the commercial interests of the provider being blocked or made more difficult. ... Naturally there is no problem with Internet users setting up their own filters to regulate information. ... But in the end it must be the user who decides what he wants to see and what he doesn't, rather than the government or the provider."

» more information (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » Online media, » Netherlands
All available articles from » Rob van den Hoeven van Genderen, » Arno Lodder

» To the complete press review of Thursday, October 16, 2008