Stories about Freedom of Speech from August, 2006
China: more on Foxconn
Bingfeng is now translating comments from present and ex-foxconn workers on the working conditions in Foxconn from the two First Financial Daily workers’ blog. According to Bingfeng, the newspapers company has a meeting last night to collect evidences to prepare for the libel case.
Kenya: Blogger says he suspects intelligence people hacked into his site
You Missed This draws attention to the threat of censorship, where those who are unhappy with what bloggers are doing may choose to ruin their site by hacking into it. “One blogger reveals that he has already been targeted before and somebody even hacked into his site,” he reveals.
Iran: Jahanbegloo free on bail
Shahram Kholdi, UK based blogger & academic reports that Ramin Jahanbegloo, researcher & philosopher, was released on bail. According to the blogger, Ramin Jahanbegloo visited ISNA's (Iranian Students National Agency) office immediately after he was released. The source said he looked much thinner than the last time he had seen...
China: Foxconn court case con't
Bingfeng updates that Shenzhen court has unfreezed the personal assets of the journalists, foxconn now sues BOTH the newspaper AND the two journalists and seeks only 1 RMB instead of 3 million RMB in damages. Roland continues his media analysis and for the first time describes his life as an...
Kurdistance…
The most horrible of things has just happened to me….my RSS feed for the Kurdish blogs, well for lack of a better term..hiccupped…and all of my feeds are gone. So in dealing with this crisis, today's post probably will leave a few people out. Thankfully all of my work is...
Iranian Women's campaign demands changes to discriminatory laws
Iranian women continue their struggle for equal rights beyond all governmental obstacles. A few days ago, a group of tireless Iranian women activists launched another campaign against discrimination entitled “One Million Signatures Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws.” This demonstration was backed by personalities such as Nasser Zaarafshan, writer and human...
Poland: Suing the Homophobes
The beatroot writes that Polish gay rights activists are taking the wrong cases to court: “But going to courts over the two pieces of infantile nonsense […] is not the right way to go about challenging officially sponsored homophobia in Poland.”
South Korea: media worker union
Cho Jun Sang, president of the labour union of the South Korean newspaper ‘Hankyoreh’ talks about the background and concern of South Korea media workers union in Asia Media Forum.
China: Foxconn's PR strategy
Joel Martinsen in DANWEI gathers some different (sympathetic) views on Foxconn's court case against mainland journalists. ESWN analyses the case from a PR war point of view. Imaginethief writes a very long post explaining Foxconn's rationality, and how its failure in PR has risk its relation with foreign customers.
Russian-Language Blogs: Miscellanea (3)
Israeli blogger pilka writes (RUS) about a surreal experience of eating next to three clowns at a hospital in the wartime Haifa: […] I had breakfast with clowns today. I work at the children's department, okay? So strange, a clown on the right, a clown on the left, a vegetable...
China: chain effect on ipod maker's legal action against journalists
In less than a week's time, Ipod subcontractor Foxconn's legal action against Mainland journalists turns into a global news story. The story was first appeared in Donews BBS, picked up by mindmeters, then GVO's roundups. On the same date (Aug 24), Chinese citizen journalist websites inmediahk.net (from Hong Kong)(zh) and...
Ukraine: Maidan Now
Robert Mayer of Publius Pundit visits Kyiv's Maidan, takes pictures and talks to its current inhabitants, nearly two years after the Orange Revolution.
Brazil: Blogs Censored in the Electoral Process
The Brazilian blogosphere is protesting that a blog from Amapá state was inexplicably brought down by its ISP (uol.com.br) even after it complied with an order from the Electoral Justice system. The blog ‘Repiquete no Meio do Mundo‘ was forced to take off the picture of a wall painted with...
Hong Kong: Chinese wikimedia conference
Last weekend (August 26-27), the Chinese wikimedia conference was held in Hong Kong. The two-day conference included a keynote address by Mr Jimmy Wales, founder and chairman of the Board of Trustees of Wikemedia Foundation, and other panels and sessions by noted speakers from the region. Topics included the content,...
Iran: Nuclear Crisis, Broken Satellite Dishes & Jailed Students
According to the media, Iran has delivered its formal response to the demand by world powers that it suspend uranium enrichment in exchange for a package of incentives. World media and bloggers, once more, are talking about the Iranian nuclear crisis and its outcome. Let's look at a few Iranian...
Iran: Firing journalists
Yasavoli, blogger & journalist talks about how in the State run Iran newspaper, journalists who are not supporters of Ahmadinejad, loosing their jobs. The blogger considers this firing of journalists as a quiet military coup in this newspaper [Fa].
China: Patron saint of activist-bloggers?
How to describe twenty two-year old MSN Spaces blogger Zeng Jinyan? A threat to national security? An AIDS activist who brings support, joy and hope to countless AIDS orphans? A young wife radicalized after her husband was kidnapped by the state for over a month? Patron spokesblogger for otherwise voiceless...
Mongolia: Eagle TV & the Dalai Lama
Tom Terry, who runs Eagle TV, a television station in Mongolia owned by a Christian organization, writes about why he felt the station's news division had an obligation to cover the visit of the Dalai Lama to Mongolia from both philosophical and religious perspectives.
Russian-Language Blogs: Miscellanea (2)
Victoria Shcherbina (LJ user saint-autere) reacts to the news of the August 22 TU-154 crash in eastern Ukraine, which killed all 170 people on board, by writing (RUS) about the death of her father – IL-86 navigator Valeriy Shcherbina – in a crash at Moscow's Sheremetyevo four years earlier, on...
Belarus: What Is Tyranny?
Robert Mayer of Publius Pundit returns from a trip to Ukraine and Belarus and launches a discussion on the “varying degrees and intensities of tyranny.”
Brunei Times's take on blogging in Brunei
- The Brunei Times (22nd August, 2006) Some very lucky bloggers got a mention in the new English newspaper, The Brunei Times, in an article written by Amirul Azuan. The few blogs mentioned came from a myriad of genres ranging from the serious to the more trivial. The more important...
