· March, 2008

Stories about Freedom of Speech from March, 2008

China: Open Media Market

  31 March 2008

In response to the anti-CNN campaign, Huge argued that the solution was to open the media market and protect press freedom [zh].

Japan: Views on Yasukuni, the movie

  31 March 2008

A documentary film about the controversial Yasukuni shrine, shot by a Chinese filmmaker through funding by a Japanese government agency, has sparked debate and discussion after a group within the ruling LDP party convened a screening to assess its "neutrality". Bloggers offer differing views on the move and on the idea of their government subsidizing what some see as a "political" film.

China: Zeng Jinyan

  31 March 2008

Zeng Jinyan is back to internet communication [zh] after three months house arrest. As for Hu Jia, he will be on trial again in April 7.

Brazil: Blogs banned from the 2008 elections

  30 March 2008

Brazil is warming up for local elections later this year, but the Supreme Electoral Court has just passed regulations that have raised eye-brows throughout the blogosphere: only candidates' purpose-built web pages will be allowed. Blogs and 'social web' facilities have not been subjected to a more comprehensive legislation and as a result these are now left in limbo. Will the netizen be silenced?

Belarus: Freedom Day Protest

  30 March 2008

On Tuesday, March 25, police broke up an opposition rally in the capital of Belarus, beating protesters with truncheons and detaining dozens of people. Veronica Khokhlova translates two bloggers' first-hand accounts and a foreign political analyst's view on the Belarusian opposition's strategy.

Qatar: Some Facebook Applications Banned

Ngourlay announces that Qatar Telecoms has blocked some of Facebook's applications. The blogger also lists five reasons the telecom provider censors sites: pornography, political criticism of Gulf countries and anti-Islamic sites; some sites are also blocked ‘by mistake’ and others are banned because they may be offensive to some people.

China: Responses to the Dalai Lama's appeal

  28 March 2008

As Lhasa has supposedly quieted down, the anti-CNN.com crowd has gone off the deep end, that might be worth exploring more. The death threats they've been making towards Western media representatives stationed in China certainly haven't gone unnoticed. On Mutant Palm blogger Davesgonechina's list of links chosen in a move...

Morocco: Journalist Fined $857,000 for Slander

“Rachid Nini, a popular Moroccan columnist and director of the daily Arabophone newspaper Almassae, was fined by a court in Rabat about $857000 for alleged defamation and slander of 4 prosecutors in the northern town of Ksar Kbir, said Almassae newspaper. The amount of the fine is exorbitant and unprecedented...

Cuba, Venezuela: Safety of Journalists

  28 March 2008

Both Uncommon Sense and Child of the Revolution share their opinions on the President of the Cuban Union of Journalists telling a conference “of left-wing ‘media workers’ in Caracas that there is ‘absolute respect’ for the personal safety of journalists under the Castro regime.”

Blogger's opinion about “Nsima” angers Malawians

  28 March 2008

A recent post on Malawi's staple food nsima has raised debate on how much freedom one can have in expressing themselves in blogs. The reactions by mostly Malawian readers have demonstrated that some restraint, responsibility and sensitivity is needed especially if one is writing about something that others may consider very dear to them.