Viva online freedom: Thousands of people are taking part in “virtual protests” against countries accused of censoring the internet. For its first Online Free Expression Day, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has created virtual versions of nine public spaces. These areas where protests are not normally possible include Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and Kim Il-Sung…
Showing all posts tagged censorship
Jews who can’t handle debate
Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery placed the following statement in Haaretz on March 14: I am shocked by the silence of the Israeli media after the government’s decision to boycott the Aljazeera network as punishment for its coverage of the bloody events in Gaza. As journalists and citizens of the “Only Democracy in the Middle…
The censorship danger
First a judge temporarily blocked the Wikileaks website, and now a craven hosting company does this: A new web service that lets users rate and comment on the uniformed police officers in their community is scrambling to restore service Tuesday, after hosting company GoDaddy unceremonious pulled-the-plug on the site in the wake of outrage from…
The web “threat”
A great blog by American human rights lawyer Jonathan Turley is well worth a read. Two recent highlights: – YouTube has again attracted controversy by pulling a video. This time it has removed the video of Marine David Motari throwing a puppy off a cliff as shown below in a different link. The company appears…
The right to say whatever
Recently we discovered that leading investigative website Wikileaks was deemed too controversial by a Californian judge and made temporarily unavailable (though not any more.) Now, another case that challenges the idea of free speech online. A reader explains: sott.net is one of my favourite alternative news sites, and some sleazy sex cult guy is suing…
Censorship at the source
Welcome to the internet future in the Middle East and North Africa: In addition to blocking blogs and arresting bloggers, a new form of censorship has started to emerge in the Middle East and North Africa: blog-hosting services removing blogs from their servers. Arab bloggers complain that the major blog-hosting services, Maktoob Blog and Jeeran…
Not in an online hurry
The steadily decreasing speed of the internet, brought to you by the friendly web censors in the Chinese Communist Party.
Just another reliable US ally
Imprisoned Saudi blogger and democracy activist Fouad Al Farhan – an inspiring person with whom I spent time in his country last year – has been allowed to make contact with the outside world. Saudi Jeans explains: Detained Saudi blogger Fouad al-Farhan has been allowed to make a phone call to his wife yesterday, FreeFouad.com…
Spielberg…from Shanghai
The Chinese blogosphere speaks: After Steven Spielberg withdrew as artistic director for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, it is not surprising to read angry words towards him in the Chinese press, both on- and off-line. But are there other Chinese who think differently on this issue? Shanghai-based scholar and cultural critic Wang Xiaoyu (王晓渔) published the…