· August, 2013

Stories about Freedom of Speech from August, 2013

South Korea: 4500 Catholic Leaders Protest Against the Spy Agency Scandal

  30 August 2013

Prominent citizen journalist Media Mongu posted a Youtube video of Catholic leaders denouncing the state spy agency's interference in the presidential election. His description read ‘an unprecedented number of 4502 clergy members have gathered at Sogang University, the alma mater of the current President Park, to release a manifesto that calls on President...

A Historian's Pessimistic Farewell to Macedonia

  29 August 2013

Historian, analyst and blogger Harald Schenker, who has lived in Macedonia since 1999 and is now moving to Switzerland, created social network buzz with his farewell post, addressed to a “failing Macedonia”, in which he provides a diagnosis for the country's demise and a plea for rebuilding Macedonian society. The...

China's Decision on Cultural Reform

  29 August 2013

China's current crackdown on online rumors is consistent with the official decision [zh] released after the Sixth Plenum of the 17th Party Congress in October 2011. Oxford scholar Rogier Creemers from China Copyright and Media blog translated this official document, titled Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Decision Concerning Deepening Cultural Structural...

Charges Dropped for South Korean Indicted for Retweeting North Korean Messages

  24 August 2013

Park Jeong-geun, a photographer/activist who was sentenced to 10 months jail term for satirically re-tweeting messages from a North Korean official account, was found not guilty [ko]. A flurry of tweets congratulating him were sent to Park's Twitter account (@seouldecadence), who tweeted after the verdict [ko] that there is a chance the prosecutor may...

Bradley Manning's Sentence Could Chill Investigate Journalism

  22 August 2013

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a statement after Army Private First Class Bradley Manning's sentence was handed down on August 21, saying that the harsh treatment Manning endured since he was accused of violating the Espionage Act sent a disturbing message to anyone thinking about becoming a whistleblower....

30 Years Ago: Remembering The Anti-Tamil Pogrom And Riots In Sri Lanka

  19 August 2013

To remember Black July, the anti-Tamil pogrom and riots in Sri Lanka during July 1983, citizen journalism website Groundviews launched a special online publication titled “30 Years Ago“. It consists of an array of contents, from mixed media triptych to info-graphics, audio podcasts to video, photography to compelling write-ups. According...

VIDEO: Father of Jailed Vietnamese Blogger Speaks About his Case

  18 August 2013

The 88 Project uploads a video interview of the father of Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, the Vietnamese blogger who is facing a 16-year jail term for allegedly spreading anti-government propaganda. …to claim innocence for him we have many times appealed to the top state leaders and related government agencies for...