Stories about Digital Activism from April, 2006
Belarus: Flash-Mobbing in Minsk
White Boats – by Andrei Hrachou On April 4, a small group of young people gathered at the Svisloch River embankment in Minsk, folded origami paper boats, let them out into the water, and left. Most boats were white, but a few were painted the colors of the banned Belarusian...
China: Great firewall undermined
The end to China's Cultural Revolution thirty years ago took with it the need to censor one's self in order to survive. While people in China can now speak freely—a right protected in the Chinese constitution—there still exists an unwritten set of rules and standards for when and if an...
Trinidad & Tobago: Activist blog
The Rights Action Group T&T blog is aggregating material on the subject of the controversial aluminium smelter to be established by Alcoa in southern Trinidad.
China: Legal reform
Chen Yongmiao posts on his Constitution Blog a letter he sent recently to lawyer John Wei Chien-feng, former president of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, on behalf of some of China's leading democracy activists and legal experts in which he states the need for democratic reforms, suggests some practical...
China: Media censorship
A message on the front page of alternative news website Zheteng says the site was forced to close on March 31 due to “illegal” content, but was allowed to reopen the next day once the content concerned had been erased. Zheteng was the only mainland media outlet in attendance at...
China: Blog service providers
uleewang at Non-violent Resistance blogs on Chinese blog service provider BlogBus’ new blog moving service: “It's pretty obvious what this could mean to the domestic blogsphere. If you are not happy with your current BSP, you can move house with the least hassle — in a matter of 20 minutes...
Iran: BlogNews
BlogNews is a collective blog in Persian which covers news and blogs in different fields including technology, politics and media. It is a fascinating place to discover new blogs. The collaborators are from around the world and editor is Asdolah Alimohamadi, a Denmark based blogger.
Awards, death and birthdays in the Moroccan blogosphere
Last week was a happy one for M.S Hjiouj(Arabic) who not only celebrated his birthday(Arabic), April the first, but also won the 4 Arabs Internet sites Award for March. It is our decision that your site does indeed stand above others in its graphic quality, site design, and overall attractiveness....
Ukraine: Fundraising For Project Empty Orphanage
Cristin of AmericanExpat, a blog on Ukrainian adoptions, is fundraising for Project Empty Orphanage: “Currently there are approximately 125,000 children in Ukrainian orphanages. Many of these kids are “stuck” there because of inaccurate or missing paperwork. This project was designed to help kids’ paperwork problems that stand between them and...
Hungary: Blogging Cop Missing
Henrik of Hungarian Accent reports on a possible case of censorship directed at a blogger – a policeman-blogger. Paul at Further Ramblings of a N.Irish Magyar writes on the sometimes dangerous conditions in which Hungarian bloggers work.
China: Media laws
Chen Yongmiao on his Constitution Blog gives mention to an open letter signed by more than two dozen Chinese websites calling for (podcast) China's National People's Congress to examine and abolish the country's provision on internet news and information management, which requires all media to have at least ten million...
Iran: Asscoiated Press Article
Lara Sukhtian, Associated Press journalist, has written an article about Iranian blogs & bloggers: “Iran hard line regime cracks down on blogs.”
Belarus: Political Jokes
Post-Soviet bloggers continue a good old Soviet tradition of coping with reality and expressing dissent through political jokes (politicheskiye anekdoty) – seemingly innocent stuff that's not really fit to print in a repressive society and is unlikely to make it to state-owned TV in a country like Belarus. Below are...
Wives and sisters against the Chinese Communist Party's war on free speech
AIDS activist Hu Jia and documentarian/Beijing or Bust blogger Wu Hao were both arrested in Beijing earlier this year on charges that have yet to be specified. While Hu—who went missing on February 16th—was released last week, Global Voices Online editor Wu nears his seventh week in detention. What's significant...
