The Government of Finland is breaking new ground with a new policy that hopefully will be adopted around the world: Finland is the first nation in the world to bring in a law that turns access to broadband into a basic legal right, as important as access to water and electricity.
The BBC reports that from this month, every Finn will have the right to access to a 1Mbps (megabit per second) broadband connection. Still, the new law might not be that seismic for Finnish society. The Beeb reports that 96% of Finnish homes are already online so it will only affect about 4000 households. But then, that's not the point.
ZDNet blogger David Gerwitz goes over the top when he asks: "Will the world be a better place if every citizen could watch little Charlie bite little Harry's finger (205.8 million views) at least one more time? Will we get world piece if every person could just watch the horrid Shakira Parody (33 million views) in the privacy of their own home?"
He misses the point. The Finnish government is the first in the world to recognise that access to information is as important as the right to vote. It doesn't really matter what sites people access, what's important is that they have choice. In the interests of democracy and a fairer society, other countries should follow suit.
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