Tech Shout!

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates on Wednesday announced that efforts by governments to censor Web site contents were condemned, because banned information could leak out despite official sanctions.

In a government forum on the internet gates said, “The ability to really withhold information no longer exists.

Gates said his company must abide by the legal requirements in the countries where it operates.

However the spread of free, private e-mail enabled users to disseminate information anyway, Gates said.

Through e-mail Gates said, “You may be able to take a very visible Web site and say that something shouldn’t be there, but if there’s a desire by the population to know something … it’s going to get out very broadly.”

Some of Microsoft’s rivals, including Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., also have hit problems with censorship in foreign countries.

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s top lawyer, on Tuesday said that the company was tightening its policies regarding blocking Web journals.

The software company operates a popular blogging technology called MSN Spaces. Smith said the changes would include efforts to make the banned content available to users elsewhere in the world even if Microsoft decided it had a legal duty to block it in a particular country.

Gates was in the Portuguese capital for a two-day Microsoft-sponsored forum for government leaders to scrutinise ways of binding Internet technology to make the public sector more competent.