In the UK we take freedom of speech and access to information for granted but, in some places, people who use the internet can be arrested. CHRIS STEEL looks at the Amnesty International website ...

IT IS common to hear the internet described as a great liberating force, but, in many places around the globe, people who surf the web are taking their lives in their hands.

We're all used to surfing the web with impunity. The level of our access to information has taken a giant leap forward as more and more previously unobtainable information is posted on the web.

This may be the diary of a Tibetan yak farmer, or classified information governments would rather was kept secret.

Unfortunately, the tolerance of the West to our raking through the search engines to find what we are looking for is juxtaposed by the "zero tolerance" policy of many Eastern authorities to web-surfing.

Amnesty International claims at least 33 people have been detained in China for "internet subversion" and two prisoners held under the charges have died after alleged torture or ill-treatment.

As the number of domestic web users doubles every six months, Amnesty is campaigning for the attitude of the communist state towards the new technology to change and for the "prisoners of conscience" to be released.

Four Beijing students who set up a discussion forum called The New Youth Study Group have all fallen foul of the government's paranoia over the web.

Jin Hake, Xu Wei, Yang Zili and Zhang Honhai were all charged with "subverting the state power" last year. Though none of the four were convicted, they are still being held at an unknown jail in The People's Republic.

The four were all punished for their use of the internet to research political issues for debate at the group's meetings.

The two prisoners who died in hospital were both members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, banned by authorities in Beijing, which have labelled the group "an evil cult".

A spokesman for Amnesty said: "Everyone detained purely for peacefully publishing information on the internet, or for accessing certain websites, is prisoners of conscience.

"They should be released immediately and unconditionally".

Visit www.amnesty.org