Stories about Freedom of Speech from April, 2010
Iran: Hard-line blogs got filtered
The hard-line, pro-Ahmadinejad “Rajanews” website has protested against the filtering of hard-line blogs.
Iran: A ‘Green’ Labor Day (At Least Online)
The Iranian Green Movement is planning to make International Workers Day on May 1 a “green” day. The post-election opposition movement has not held any important demonstration since their last attempts were thwarted in February.
Azerbaijan: Dozens reported detained at anniversary commemoration
Twitter and Facebook users, as well as local news agencies, report that dozens of youth activists were today detained in Azerbaijan as they attempted to mark the first anniversary of shootings in Baku's Oil Academy which left 12 dead. Although not related to their online activity, among those detained were...
Bangladesh: Media In Despair
Maskwaith Ahsan at Voice Of Bangladeshi Bloggers discusses about the shutting down of a private TV channel in Bangladesh by the government and issues relating to it.
Russia: More Commentary on Sex Video Scandal
A Good Treaty comments – here and here – on the sex video scandals involving members of the Russian opposition, notes an increase in blog traffic (“nothing brings visitors to a website like the promise of nudity”), and responds to Julia Ioffe‘s Foreign Policy piece on the scandal.
China: The 42th anniversary of Lin Zhao's death
Lin Zhao (林昭）, a Peking University student, was arrested in 1960 during the Anti-Rightist Campaign launched by Mao Zedong in 1957 and sentenced to death on 29 of April (today) in 1968, 42 years ago at the age of 35. She could have exchanged for her freedom and life by...
Thailand: Online censorship amid protests
As Red Shirt protesters in Thailand continue to press their demand for the resignation of the Prime Minister, the government is also doing everything to weaken the protests, including the use of emergency powers to block TV stations, community radio stations, and websites that broadcast “subversive” stories.
Egypt: Saudi Arabia Blocks ElBaradei's Site
Bikya Masr quotes the Arabic Network of Human Rights information saying that Saudi Arabia has “blocked the Internet website promoting Egypt’s leading opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei’s National Coalition for Change.”
Tunisia: Killing the Web
Tunisian Rafik describes censorship in Tunisia as “webcide.” He tweets: “what is happening in Tunisia with massive censorship these last days is webcide : kill the web.”
Russia: Russian Authorities Want to Block 2,000 Web sites
Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs plans to make addition to the law “On Information” allowing Russian authorities to block an access to around 2,000 Web sites with extremist, pirated and pornographic content, Russian information agency “New region” reported.
Cuba: On Elections
Repeating Islands focuses on the Cuban elections here and here, while Generation Y explains why she has adopted “abstention as a form of protest.”
Sudan Vote Monitor website was blocked for six days
Election monitoring website, Sudan Vote Monitor, was blocked for six days last week. Reporters Without Borders called for a total unblocking of the site.
Cuba: Journalist Reportedly Detained
Human Rights Cuba says that “Dania Virgen García, independent journalist and member of the group who march in support of the Ladies in White, was detained and taken to the Police Station in Guanabacoa, accused of an arbitrary offense without probable cause.”
China: Tribute to the leader of 50 cent party
This afternoon (April 22) Wu Hao (伍皓), the deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of Yunnan Province had a talk in People's University. Before Wu started his talk, a 25-year-old netizen approached him and greeted him with a pile of 50-cent notes. According to online news...
Cuba: Reporting via Twitter
“It is true that we broadcast blindly and that we cannot read our readers’ replies or references, but at least we are reporting on the Island in 140 character fragments”: Generation Y says that the Cuban authorities “haven’t noticed that the technologies have turned every citizen into his or her...
Russia: Authorities Inspect Major Social Network
Russia authorities started inspection of the country's major social network Vkontakte.ru, rbcdaily.ru reported. The authorities claim the social network became popular with neo-Nazi, xenophobic and extremist groups. But the inspection can also be an attempt to extract users’ private data.
Azerbaijan: Nationalist propaganda
Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines recounts being verbally abused by a fellow countryman after co-presenting with Global Voices Online's Caucasus regional editor at a recent conference. The blogger notes that the reason for being cornered and harassed was her belief in tolerance and democracy in Azerbaijan as well as peace...
China: Shutting down of NGOCN's website
ngochina blogs about the shutting down of ngo.cn earlier in April. The website was established in 2005 and it offered capacity building training to NGOs, mainly those located in southwestern China (Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou).
Bangladesh: Let Language Be Free
The Bangla blogosphere and Bangladeshi Facebook users are angry with protests as 'Avro', a freeware and one of the popular and widely used Bangla input systems, was accused as a pirated version of another proprietary Bangla input system 'Bijoy' and the Avro team was mentioned as hackers.
Cuba: Hunger Strikers
El Cafe Cubano links to a story which claims that imprisoned hunger striker Guillermo Fariñas is close to death, while Uncommon Sense reports that yet another Cuban political prisoner has started a hunger strike.
Egypt: Let's Shoot those Protesters!
In a debate on recurrent demonstrations, Egyptian ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) members of Parliament lashed out during a verbal battle with Muslim Brotherhood MPs over protesters in the country and said Egyptian pro-democracy demonstrators “should be shot” by police. Bloggers react in this post by Marwa Rakha.
