· April, 2008

Stories about Freedom of Speech from April, 2008

Brazil: WordPress attorney blogs about the blocking

  30 April 2008

Marcel Leonardi [pt], the Brazilian attorney who is representing WordPress in the case of a possible ban on the platform in the country, blogs: “In the motion filled by the Automattic Inc. [on Monday], among other pieces of information, it has been highlighted the tremendous damage that the blanket ban...

Thailand: Boycott Tesco Lotus campaign

  30 April 2008

British company Tesco Lotus has sued three Thai journalists in just one month for writing about the “aggressive” operations of the global retailer in Thailand. As a protest, Fable supports a worldwide boycott campaign of Tesco Lotus.

Uganda: Mwenda, 3 others arrested in newspaper raid

  28 April 2008

(UPDATE: Andrew Mwenda has been freed on bond, see his letter to supporters on the TED blog.) Bloggers and independent media outlets in Uganda are reporting that three journalists and a photographer at The Independent, an opposition newspaper based in Kampala, have been arrested and that the paper's offices have...

Venezuela: Update on the Simpsons Controversy

  28 April 2008

Luis Carlos Díaz of Periodismo de Paz [es] provides an update on the controversy involving the Simpsons in Venezuela. Turns out that the show will be moved to “supervised” prime time slot in the evening, but would allow for more children to see it because most are in school during...

China: Carrefour Boycott Censored by GFW

  28 April 2008

Dupola reported that “Carrefour” becomes a “sensitive word” in GFW filter and Caodan reported that they got a notice to clear all discussion regarding Carrefour boycott [zh].

Hong Kong: Shame

  28 April 2008

Danish artist Jens Galschiot has been denied for entering Hong Kong as he is planning to attend a peaceful demonstration during the Olympic Torch relay. Galschiot has made a sculpture called “pillar of shame” after the June 4 incident. Kursk criticized that the HK government added one more shame to...

Japan: Nagano red for Olympic torch relay

  28 April 2008

The Japanese leg of the Olympic torch relay came to an end on Saturday without serious incident, but many Japanese bloggers who attended the event were left with lasting -- and often bitter -- impressions. With all the red flags, many bloggers pointed out how Nagano, for one day, seemed to transform into China.