As I cover extensively in my book The Blogging Revolution, web hosting firms are increasingly keen to censor websites if deemed too “controversial”: The fear is that web hosting providers may decide it’s simply less trouble to prohibit host blogs in countries where some individuals are sanctioned. Best to know a company’s terms of use…
Showing all posts tagged censorship
Our control is developing
A session at the Open Forum Institute in New York on February 10 about The Future of Freedom and Control in the Internet Age:
Standing up for a defamed reporter
I was recently asked to sign a petition regarding the case against East Timorese journalist Jose Belo: More than 80 prominent Australian, New Zealand and Pacific reporters, editors and media academics have protested over the controversial criminal defamation case against East Timorese journalist Jose Belo. Chief editor Belo has been charged followed publication of an…
A state with shameless censorship
On 11 January 2009, the English-language website of Israel’s Haaretz newspaper published an article by Amira Hass, entitled “Gaza residents: IDF troops posing as Hamas men.” The article was removed from the website hours after publication. Haaretz told Arab Media Watch via email that the reason for its removal was that “the IDF censor had…
Talking Palestine in Ubud
I’m currently in Ubud, Bali after being invited by the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival to conduct an event tonight. The following article appears in the current edition of the local paper, The Bali Advertiser: 2009 Ubud Writers and Readers Festival presents Antony Loewenstein author of “My Israel Question” and “The Blogging Revolution” Just as…
Simply more futile silencing
Just another shocking act by a friendly US ally (and dictatorship): A German-Egyptian activist has been detained north of Cairo during a rally in support of Palestinians in Gaza. Philip Rizk has been an outspoken activist on Palestinian issues and lived in Gaza for two years. He previously worked on aid projects with Canon Andrew…
Stifling the voices
My book, The Blogging Revolution, examines the Western corporates that assist the Chinese regime in its internet censorship program. According to yesterday’s New York Times, the Communists are cracking down ever-harder in the last months: It was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek alternative to the stultifying variety show beamed into hundreds of millions of living…
Let us see this Gaza ad
The US-based group End the Occupation has a problem we should know about: Thanks to a generous emergency grant from Cultures of Resistance, we produced a 30-second commercial about the U.S. role in Israel’s war on and siege of the Gaza Strip. We thought, “What better way to bring this important information to the attention…
What would baby Jesus do?
My recent book, The Blogging Revolution, discusses the role of internet censorship in so-called “repressive” regimes. I wrote an article for the Melbourne Age last November detailing the various reasons why Australia’s current plans to implement an online censorship program was practically, morally and ethically suspect. Now, early in 2009, supporters of this scheme are…