· July, 2010

Stories about Freedom of Speech from July, 2010

Chile: Mapuche on Hunger Strike over Anti-terror Law

  30 July 2010

On July 12, 2010, fourteen Mapuche indigenous detainees began a hunger strike to denounce the Chilean State’s treatment of Mapuche communities in southern Chile. The strike is aimed mainly at ending the use of Chile’s Anti-terrorism Law against Mapuche prisoners, a Pinochet-era decree widely used during the seventeen years of the Pinochet dictatorship.

Bulgaria: Government's Pressure on the Media

Veni Markovski writes about the Bulgarian government's most recent attack on the independent media: “This latest pressure on the free media comes after a number of worrisome cases, involving journalists in the last years. […] Every government in the last 20 years has come to power at the promise of...

Russia: Prosecutor That Banned Youtube Gives Interview

Marker.ru publishes an interview with Vladimir Pakhomov, city prosecutor that obliged the local Internet provider to block Youtube, Web.archive.org and other websites [EN]. Pakhomov expressed Chinese-government-style philosophy on Internet-filtering: “Provider is obliged to filter the information that goes through its channels to the Worldwide Web”, and didn't exclude probable filtering...

China: Social media as political subversion tool

  29 July 2010

This past month has been an interesting one in the cat-and-mouse game between Chinese Internet censorship and its non-conformists. Microblogs in the People's Republic had begun to feel the weight of a heavier government crackdown, following the publication of a report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) claiming...

Russia: Reginal Court Blocks YouTube for Extremist Content

Komsomolosk-on-Amur [ENG] city court, at the Russian Far East, ordered local Internet provider “Rosnet” to block access to Youtube and four other websites (including web.archive.org), Cnews reported [RUS]. The decision was made due to a request by the city prosecutor's office. YouTube had been blocked because of the nationalist movie...

Cuba: July 26

  26 July 2010

Cuban bloggers have their say about the observance of the July 26th anniversary of the military action that began the Cuban Revolution.

Bermuda: Media Code

  26 July 2010

“I do believe that whether we like it or not, blogs are now part of the media. By definition we publish publicly and with that freedom comes responsibility” – which is why Breezeblog has voluntarily adopted the Media Council of Bermuda’s Code of Practice.

Côte d'Ivoire: Journalists accused of document theft are freed

  26 July 2010

The three journalists of Le Nouveau Courrier d'Abidjan arrested for refusing to reveal their sources have been finally released [Fr] this evening after a two-week ordeal. The journalists were found not guilty of theft but the newspaper is fined and suspended for 15 days for publishing information under legal consideration.