· March, 2006

Stories about Freedom of Speech from March, 2006

Arabisc: Moderate Muslim Voices

It’s not only the English language bloggers from Middle East who are continuously trying to bridge the cultural gaps, but Arabic language bloggers are facing similar tough battle at home, within the Arabic blogsphere itself. Muslim moderates are criticizing some of the taboos of their system. One of them simply...

Belarus: Arrests, Courts and Anti-Media Flash Mob

  24 March 2006

French journalist writing for Liberation has just been arrested in Minsk; actually so many people have been arrested that, unprecedentally, Minsk courts will be working on Saturday, reports br23 blog. Andrei Khrapavitski posts a picture from today's flash mob event that took place in Minsk to criticize the performance of...

Belarus: Post-Crackdown Belarus

  24 March 2006

Ivan Lenin – formerly of Minsk, now of New York – translates a post by LJ user lipski, a Minsk resident, on who benefits from the Oktyabrskaya Sq. crackdown, and shares his thoughts on the country's future: “If anything, the West should engage Belarus as much as possible. Isolation would...

Belarus: Tent Camp Demolished, Protesters Arrested

  24 March 2006

Riot police began their operation at 3 am Minsk time and after 15 minutes the camp was demolished and the protesters arrested. br23 blog and Rush-Mush have updates on the aftermath: the amazingly slanted coverage on the Russian-language EuroNews; Minsk residents’ approval of the regime's actions; a sample leaflet distributed...

Belarus: Fewer Foreign Journalists at the Square

  23 March 2006

br23 blog writes about the arrests of the opposition activists and an alarming news – that the number of foreign journalists present at the square has diminished: “And protesters are concerned about it. They view this presence of foreign correspondents as a guarantee that police won’t storm and destroy the...

China: Democracy of food

  23 March 2006

Shanghaiist reviews a new phenomenon in Chinese cyberspace; a good food guide called Dianping (ZH). Four stars, but only in the Web site version, which is written by the restaurant-going public. The book, Jay Sheng reports, is rather bland.

Fouad Al-Farhan: We Have to Move On

If you have been following Global Voices for more than six months, then you probably have read the name of Fouad Al-Farhan in this space several times before this one. Actually, one of my posts here back in October 2005 featured a post by Al-Farhan, when he left a meeting...

Cambodian Weblogs in the Spotlight

  23 March 2006

When it comes to quality, expatriate s’ Weblogs are unbeatable. And to learn what's going on around town and in the country, locals’ Weblogs are noteworthy. It is all about what Webloggers must learn to come up with things to give the world a good read. However, they also learn...

Belarus: Protest Stories and Conversations

  23 March 2006

For the past four evenings, thousands of people have been gathering at Kastrychnitskaya (Oktyabrskaya) Square in Minsk, Belarus, to protest the fraudulent presidential election, demand a new vote and support the opposition. The crowd thins as the night arrives, but a few hundred young activists stay on in a small...

Belarus: The Purpose of the Protest in Minsk

  22 March 2006

Ivan Lenin at Rush-Mush translates a Belarusian LJ user's eloquent explanation of what the protest in Minsk is about: “The current resistance is a note of protest. A revolution probably won't happen. But there is a hope that the authorities will remember the tents on the square, next time they...

Ukraine: Anti-Lukashenko Rally in Kyiv

  22 March 2006

LJ user samuel_smith posts photos from a rally (RUS) that took place in front of the Belarusian embassy in Kyiv today. The protesters mocked the recent election in Belarus by casting ballots that had no alternative candidates on them, thus giving Aleksandr Lukashenko 183% of the vote. They also went...

Vietnam: Ban on Overseas Films

  22 March 2006

Vietnam's Ministry of Culture and Information is considering banning overseas Vietnamese filmmakers from releasing films within Vietnam. Diacritic.org has more here.

Iran: Sufis under Pressure

Akhbar Sufi (Sufi news) is a new blog which is talking about Iranian Sufis’ problems with Iranian government. Akhbar Sufi (Persian) says in Semenan decision has already been taken to destroy Sufis’ worshiping building as it was done in Qom.

Hong Kong: Glutter on Hao Wu

  22 March 2006

Glutter is in shock over the detention of Beijing or Bust blogger and documentary film-maker Hao Wu (Wu Hao in Chinese), with whom she took part in a BBC World Service panel discussion on censorship in China. She posts a transcript of the discussion.