Is Internet access a new kind of human rights issue?

An excellent and thought-provoking article about this topic from Technolog on MSNBC. I'll paste the first few paragraphs here:

Is Internet access a human right?
By Wilson Rothman

While most people, including most Egyptians, took Internet access for granted as a constant, the suddenness of Egypt's Internet shutdown raises the question: Is access to the Internet a human right?

The vast majority of urban Egyptians, 78 percent, feel that it is, according to a BBC World Service survey conducted in December 2009 in Egypt's largest cities. In fact, 55 percent responded that they "could not cope without it." Ironically, only 6 percent of the surveyed Egyptians felt that state censorship of Internet content was a chief concern — the same percentile as the U.S.

But when the Internet is taken away, as it has been in Egypt, people feel as though their rights have been stripped.

"It's freedom of expression that is a long-standing core right," Neil Hicks, international policy adviser for Human Rights First, told msnbc.com. "Restriction from the Internet is a violation of the right of free speech."

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