Stories about Freedom of Speech from October, 2007
Ukraine: Svyatoslav Vakarchuk
Ukrainian Musical Matters writes about Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, lead singer of Okean Elzy band, his political views and political involvement.
China: Facebook
Kenneth Tan from Shanghaiist reports on facebook's plan to enter China and sums up bloggers’ comments on the move.
China: Online Discussion Control
Josie Liu from China in Transition reports on the tightening up of online discussion control.
Egypt: Roukana Hamour's Plight
Egyptian blogger Zeinobia sheds light on the plight of Syrian blogger Roukana Hamour, who is being harassed by authorities.
Egypt: Jail for Journalists
Eleven Egyptian journalists have received jail sentences since September, writes The Skeptic from Egypt.
Russia: Remembering Victims of 1937; Podcasting Their Names
Seventy years since Stalin's Great Terror of 1937, many Russians are ignorant of their country's horrible past, Windows on Eurasia reports. Nevertheless, hundreds of people came to Lubyanka yesterday to read out the names of thousands of victims – and PODstantsiya, a podcasting project of the Moscow-based Foundation for Independent...
Russia: Chessbase on Kasparov
Siberian Light notes the reaction of Chessbase to the angry readers protesting coverage of Garry Kasparov's political involvement.
Burkina Faso: Blogs Help Burkinabe Skirt Censorship
In Burkina Faso, blogging is more than a pastime. It is the eyes and ears of thousands of net users. That's why from October 11th to the 17th, during the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso's internet connection was cut in order to prevent those commemorating...
Uzbekistan: Requiem to Slain Journalist
Bboyd's post in memoriam to Alisher Saipov, an Uzbek journalist brutally murdered in Osh (Kyrgyzstan), says that Saipov was a strong critic of Uzbek regime and published an independent newspaper in the Uzbek language, which was printed in Kyrgyzstan and smuggled over the border.
China and Hong Kong: Netizens Criticize Arrogant CCTV Reporter
A CCTV reporter, Zhou Tao, had the company van scratched in a minor car accident in the Hong Kong airport. He called the police and the investigation took 4 hours. He then wrote a blog post (zh) to criticize Hong Kong police for being slow and ineffective; he claimed that...
Russia: Artists for Khodorkovsky, Against Putin
Robert Amsterdam reports on a classical music concert in Paris in support of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other political prisoners, and on the anti-Putin part of the Russian community of “cultural figures.”
Poland: Roman Giertych's Out of Politics
The beatroot is wondering who he is going to “write about for the next two years,” now that Roman Giertych has been forced out of politics, along with his party, the League of Polish Families, which “got a miserable 1.3 percent in Sunday’s election.”
Morocco: Stop Internet Censorship!
In March of 2006, Livejournal, the popular blogging site, was blocked by the state-controlled telecommunications provider Maroc Telecom (a subsidiary of Vivendi International), depriving Moroccan citizens of access to the roughly 2 million blogs the service hosts. On May 25, 2007, Maroc Telecom blocked access to YouTube for few days. In August 2006, Google Earth was added to the list of major websites being blocked. And as expected, Maroc Telecom didn’t give any justification for this instance of censorship.
Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados: Song for Burma
The Bajan Reporter discovers a wonderful new song recorded by Trinidad and Tobago calypsonian David Rudder in support of the people of Burma.
Uzbekistan: Another Voice Silenced
Beaudi's Blog reflects on the brutal murder of the 26-year-old Uzbek journalist in the town of Osh in the neighboring Kyrgyzstan. He was remarkably well known and respected around Central Asia and openly questioned the policies and human rights violations of the Uzbek government.
China: Chinese Nominees for the BoBs
This year the Best of Blogs voting has started in Oct 22, 2007. You can cast your vote online for the best weblogs, videoblogs and podcasts. According to Deutsche Welle, there were 7,000 nominations around the world this year. 15 Chinese weblogs are in the nominee list. Among which three...
Russia: Bloggers On George W. Bush and “Russian DNA”
The U.S. president's recent comments about "Russian DNA" did not cause as much of an uproar as did race comments by James Watson, a co-discoverer of the structure of DNA - but, they did not go completely unnoticed. Below is a selection of comments made by Russian bloggers and forum dwellers.
Syrian blogger Roukana Hamour has been Kidnapped
Update: Last night (October 26), we've received a call from Rokana Hamour. She is fine. She has been interrogated by the Syrian Security Services about a comment left on her blog. Rokana was released three hours later. We've received an email that appeared to come from someone who witnessed the...
Barbados, Dominica: Journalist Sued
“It all started when The Times published an article asking how it was that the Prime Minister acquired a million dollars worth of real estate on his politician’s salary”: Barbados Free Press reports that the editor of a Dominica newspaper is being sued by the island's Prime Minister.
China: Official excess met with humor, scorn, death threats
Bloggers for some reason kept mostly or dead quiet about the 17th Party Congress while it was being held during the third week of this month, and now that it's over, blog posts on the subject are being deleted even before they get published [zh]. A chance for bloggers to...
Kazakhstan blocks opposition websites
On October 18, 2007, Kazakhstan has blocked access to a number of independent websites switching off main opposition outlets including kub.kz, geo.kz, zonakz.net and inkar.info [more on GV Advocacy…]
