StrawberryNet
StrawberryNet is a Romanian NGO network aimed at promoting "the protection of the environment, sustainable development, democracy and human rights" in Romania, using electronic telecommunication and ICT.
It is organized as a self-coordination body of NGOs providing or using information and communication services. It is, in legal terms, a foundation.
In the recent past, StrawberryNet has been involved in supporting a website that gave a voice to mining-affected residents in a historic and picturesque Romanian village, some 400 km north of Bucharest.
Canada-headquartered Roșia Montană Gold Corporation was then planning to take to court the Alburnus Maior non-profit organisation, to prevent it from publishing its website.
Roșia Montană Gold Corporation had anticipated carrying out Europe's largest open-cast mining development in the area, even though it would mean the involuntary resettlement of over 2,000 persons, and the potential destruction of a unique archaeological and natural site.
For the villagers, the website gave a voice to tell the world about their opposition to mining. StrawberryNet took cover of an internet rights charter, to establish that the Canadian-Romanian mining corporation was violating the right to communicate and the freedom of expression and information exchange, by their act of suing the promoter of the site . Roșia Montană Gold Corporation is a joint-venture between Minvest, a Romanian, state-owned company and Gabriel Resources, a company registered in Toronto and, offshore, in Barbados and Jersey
