· August, 2007

Stories about Freedom of Speech from August, 2007

Tunisia: A new Mohammed cartoon crisis ?

Tunisian blogger A.L.G.Y of Cos-maux-polis is wondering whether a new Mohammed cartoon crisis is brewing. She explains that drawings of a man with the body of a dog wearing a turban were published in a local Swedish newspaper on August, 18th. As protests are underway in Pakistan and Iran, she...

Turkey is Typing….WordPress Still Blocked

Last week Sami Ben Gharbia did an excellent posting about the blockage of the Wordpress blogging platform in Turkey, this week we will examine what Turkish bloggers have to say about it. There is anger, resentment, and sense of utter amazement at the absurdness of the situation. And yet, there is a powerful spirit of strength in combating this ban.

China: Feedburner Blocked Again

  30 August 2007

William Long reported: Feedburner, the most popular and powerful worldwide RSS service provider, is blocked by Chinese authorities. Last year, Feedburner had also been blocked temporarily.

China: Actor Not Martyr

  30 August 2007

Ge da-xia from Yaoblog commented on Zoula's citizen reporting practice and argued that citizen reporter should be social actor, not martyr; and that report should be about the incident to a tool for defending citizen interest (zh).

China: Websites Forced To Close By Police

  30 August 2007

Vapano from a data company D2EX reported that many Internet Data Centers have received notices from Gong-an (Police department) which forced them to close down thousands of websites. To prevent other clients service being affected, his company has to close down all BBS data storage (zh). The police's policy is...

Chinese cartoon cops patrolling websites

  29 August 2007

From September, 1st, Beijing’s new virtual cops will be active on 13 of China’s portals, including China’s biggest blog-hosting services, Sohu.com and Sina.com. By the end of the year, the virtual police’s patrols are expected to cover all websites registered with Beijing servers.

Tunisia: Inappropriate TV

Diana Magazine complains of inappropriate scenes being shown on Arab television stations like MBC and Dubai One. The blogger says, “I defend freedom of speech and media and press freedom, but these things are not of our societies.”

Russia: Novaya Gazeta in English

  28 August 2007

Robert Amsterdam and Sean's Russia Blog link to Novaya Gazeta's recently launched English-language site featuring translations of some of their investigative stories. Sean wrote in a reply to a reader: “The more Russian media accessible to English readers the better.”

Kuwait: Crazy Week for Bloggers

Kuwaiti bloggers had a crazy week, which started with an earthquake, or rather a small tremor, early on Saturday morning. The next day a blogger was arrested for a comment an anonymous reader left on his online forum. The week culminated with a fire at a local hospital and the resignation of Kuwait's first female minister.

Iran:A blogger was beaten up by mafia

Mojeh Sevom ,blogger and journalist,says[Fa] that Javid Asadzadeh an active blogger in Urmia in Azerbaijan province, was beaten up and got injured by local mafia.This blogger has written several times about corruption in real estate in Urmia in his blog and has collected a lot of information about it.

Afghanistan: Replacing a minister

  28 August 2007

From Afghanistan, Sanjar reports that he and his colleagues have launched a petition demanding the removal of the current Minister for Information and Culture. Rumours have it that a successor has already been chosen, and Sanjar voices his discontent over President Karzai's choice.

China: Temporary Reporter System

  28 August 2007

Because of the Fake Baozhi news, many mainstream media in China have fired temporary staffs. CCTV has fired up to 1,800 temporary workers, many are reporters. Zhao shilong has once been a temporary reporter in Southern Weekly magazine, even though he has finally got an office reporter status (with a...

Russia: Arrests in Politkovskaya's Murder Case

  27 August 2007

Ten unnamed people have been arrested in connection with last year's slaying of journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Sean's Russia Blog writes that she “as ‘political football’ has been dusted off and re-inflated just in time for a new season.” Robert Amsterdam doesn't think Russian prosecutors are capable of getting their jobs...