Internet spy exposure sparks regulation fears

UK free speech campaigners have warned against a "knee jerk" reaction to the publication of the names of 116 alleged MI6 agents on the Internet yesterday.

Since the discovery of the publication of the names, on a US website, Whitehall officials made an appeal to UK editors not to publish the address and contents of the website.

The government said that a damaging breach of national security had occurred and that the publication of the agents' names would put their lives at risk.

In the appeal, Rear Admiral David Pulvertafft, head of Whitehall's D Notice committee, said the incident "underlined the problem with the Internet, that it is unpredictable and uncontrollable."

However, Malcolm Hutty, director of the Campaign Against Internet Censorship In Britain said that the Internet was not to blame and warned the govenrment against rushing into any type of regulation.

"The man that published these names, could have just as easily been standing on Hyde Park Corner," he said.

"The Internet is not the issue. There will always be cases where it's misused. What other technological tool that man has invented hasn't been misused?"

Hutty warned that regulating the Internet is not the answer: "When people do something wrong the knee jerk response is how to stop them doing it. To try to attempt mass censorship of the Web would be highly damaging and has little support."

However, Hutty said that the events could cause the government to begin looking into taking more control over the Internet.

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