The following article by Linda Herrick appears today in the New Zealand Herald: A Sydney writer who describes himself as “an atheist Jewish-Australian political activist” is coming to Auckland in May as part of the international lineup for the Writers and Readers Festival. Antony Loewenstein is the author of My Israel Question, a highly critical…
Showing all posts tagged censorship
How Wikileaks and Iceland are creating a space for real journalism
Iceland may soon become a safe haven for investigative journalists and media in repressive states looking to protect sensitive information. Once again, the website Wikileaks is a trail-blazer. Al-Jazeera reports:
Is Hamas learning how to abuse journalists from Israel?
It’s very hard to judge this case except to say that Hamas should either charge the man or release him: A British journalist who has been held in Gaza for two weeks without charge faces a further fortnight in detention after a court ordered an extension to his arrest. Paul Martin, a 55-year-old film-maker who…
Never forget that Beijing doesn’t trust its own citizens
Yes, China is a police state: Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns the Chinese government latest attempt to tighten its grip on the Internet. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced today that anyone wanting to operate a website would have to meet with regulators in person and bring identity documents.
Iranian wants to remain independent (and critics may as well)
Any decent human being should be against the outrageous online censorship employed by the Islamic Republic but do dissidents in that country really want Washington giving them a hand? The State Department says it is working furiously to increase its capabilities to confront the kind of censorship promulgated by Iran last week, bringing major Silicon…
France soon to embrace internet censorship in all its misery
Is this move by Nicolas Sarkozy about protecting the children or cementing a base that loves the idea of the state intruding on our private business? The lower house of the French parliament has approved a draft bill that will allow the state unprecedented control over the Internet. Although the government says it will improve…
The animal kingdom used to question the Great Firewall of China
Who said Chinese bloggers are happy with the country’s insanely tight web censorship? Famous amateur film-maker, Hu Ge, has recently made a new satirical piece on the Internet censorship in China. The 7-minute piece, ”˜Animal World: the Home-living Animal’ is styled as an animal-planet type of documentary and has attracted hundreds of thousands of views…
Maybe Iceland will help investigative journalism
The campaigning website Wikileaks, recently out of action due to lack of funds, may soon have a new lease on life, thanks to the forward thinking of Iceland: In my role as WikiLeaks editor, I’ve been involved in fighting off more than 100 legal attacks over the past three years. To do that, and keep…
Blood, drama, chaos and defiance on the streets of Iran
The Islamic Republic is determined to crack down on any dissent on the 31st anniversary of the 1979 revolution: Iran’s telecommunications agency announced what it described as a permanent suspension of Google Inc.’s email services, saying instead that a national email service for Iranian citizens would soon be rolled out. It wasn’t clear late Wednesday…
Bombing Iran will only push people into the arms of the regime
Mohsen Sazegara, a founder of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in 1979 but now strong critic of Tehran, talks to Foreign Policy: I hope that the Obama administration and other democratic countries will be more supportive of the struggle of the people of Iran for democracy and human rights. I can summarize it in four items. First,…