· March, 2006

Stories about Freedom of Speech from March, 2006

China: Democratic diaspora

  31 March 2006

“Who even knew that the [Chinese Democratic Party] existed?” asks Michael from The Opposite End of China, in the midst of a trip back home. “I returned to the Chinese consulate in New York today to pick up my visa. Somehow – during the hour or so that I was...

Belarus: Prison Journal

  30 March 2006

Ivan Lenin at Rush-Mush links to an English translation of a Belarusian protestor's jail journal. (Written by LJ user forion in Belarusian, translated by LJ user kapitan-tanaka.)

China: Yahoo! in China

  30 March 2006

Today is Pick On Yahoo! Day at Asiapundit with “one of the most-biting attacks on the company and co-founder Jerry Yang that I have yet read,” up first.

Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere

Mohsen Al-Awaji was freed after 11 days of detention, and Aya thinks this action by the government is a tangible lesson for Saudis: “Don’t you dare to criticize the government because we are capable, at any time, of stripping you from your freedom and dignity.” Riyadhwai seemed happy about the...

Belarus: Anti-TV Flash Mob

  30 March 2006

LJ user litota_ posts photos from a flash mob that took place at Oktyabrskaya Sq. in Minsk yesterday: to protest the lies of Belarusian state TV, a group of young people put scarves over their eyes and pretended to watch the news broadcast on a huge screen above.

Belarus: Ex-Ambassador Maszkiewicz Hospitalized

  30 March 2006

19. People's Blog on Presidential Election reports (RUS) that Mariusz Maszkiewicz, former Polish ambassador to Belarus, has been moved from prison to a hospital, possibly for emergency treatment of a heart attack. Maszkiewicz was jailed for his participation in the March 25 protest rally in Minsk and subjected to harsh...

DRC: A Chat with Blogger Tony Katombe

  29 March 2006

Anthony Mica Katombe (Tony for short) is a blogger from the DRC who’ll “turn 39 April 13”. He has a degree in English and African Cultural Studies Education from a Congolese University. He owns Le Blog du Congolais and co-edits Le Prince du Fleuve Congo, a group blog. On the...

Belarus: Election Fraud Video

  28 March 2006

German-language Media-Ocean switches into English to write about a short video from a polling station in Belarus, which conveys repressive atmosphere during the count and shows how one observer, despite being barred from the table with stacks of bulletins on it, catches a violation that could've benefited Aleksandr Lukashenko, the...

China: Detained Activist Released

  28 March 2006

Zeng Jinyan, wife of AIDS activist Hu Jia—detained last month during a nation-wide hunger strike in protest at the government's alleged hiring of thugs in February to beat up a civil rights campaigner in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong—posts on her blog Searching for Hu Jia that after forty...

China: Checking communist vernacular

  28 March 2006

China Confidential‘s Confidential Reporter notices an increasing intolerance of left-wing language on the internet in China. “From Marx to Mao, communist keywords constitute potential red flags in the eyes of the hyper-sensitive e-police—thousands of trained analysts armed with the latest (American made) censor- and spy-ware,” the post says.

Tourism, Islamic Vietnam & Blogs

IranMehr (Persian) talks about tourism industry problems in Iran. He writes despite country’s attractiveness such as historical monuments, ancient villages, ecosystems…He talks also about government’s politics to attract 20 million tourists to Iran whose share of global tourism revenue has been less that 1 percent. According to him: “How Iranian...