EU-DIGEST - special edition

This is to inform you that EU-Digest at http://www.eu-digest.com is back on-line following a series of technical difficulties and interruptions experienced, as a result of FTP linkage problems with our service providers Google Blogger, and Globat.

To keep providing our readers with a daily stream of European related news while EU-Digest was off-line we launched EU-Digest - special edition .

We have decided to continue publishing EU-Digest-special edition at http://eu-digest.blogspirit.com/ as a weekend editorial supplement to the EU-Digest , In this format it will specifically focus on Europe's strengths and weaknesses as Europe seeks to assert itself on the world's economic and political stage. It will also continue to serve as a back-up to EU-Digest in case of renewed FTP publishing problems.

As a special service to our paying advertisers on EU-Digest their ads will also be included on EU-Digest - special edition.

We thank you for your forbearance during this time of technical difficulties and appreciate your continued interest in EU-Digest

For several years now EU-Digest has been one of the most widely read news blogs related to events impacting Europe. EU-Digest has used Google Blogger File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to publish EU-Digest on the Internet via its Europe House provider Globat. This publishing technology has not always been flawless, but acceptable. Unfortunately it has become steadily worse. Interruption of services lasting for over a week have become common practice, with limited recourse in the area of customer support.

Sharing information digitally, often in the form of documents, media files or data files, is critical in today's world. It relies on collaborative teams in the public and private sector to efficiently share information, so that the customer can eventually benefit. When this flow of information becomes one-sided or is broken, it constitutes a breach of article ten of the European Court of Human Rights. This article warrants the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas.

In the case of Google and Globat there seems to be a common feeling among customers that there is either incompetency in the technical support area, or not enough customer support staff. We dare not think that what might look like technical troubles, could in fact be indirect censorship from sources "higher up". In this case on the content of some of the copy published by blogs considered "unfriendly' to the Establishment.

For Google, censorship might not be of too great of a concern to its management. In China, Google recently said it will censor its search services there in order to gain greater access to China's fast-growing market. The company has set up a new site - Google.cn - in China, which it says will censor itself to satisfy the authorities in Beijing. Google has, however, resisted efforts by the US Department of Justice to make it disclose data on what people are searching for.

EU-Digest can also presently be accessed at http://eu-digest.blogspirit.com/ to continue providing readers an uninterrupted flow of information until the present technical difficulties at Google Blogger and Globat are resolved.