Stories about Freedom of Speech from May, 2006
North Korea: Foreign bureau opens
International news agency Associated Press has opened a bureau in the North Korean capitol of Pyongyang, blogs Asiapundit‘s myrick, making it the third to do so after China's Xinhua and Russia's Tass: “It will be interesting to see what sort of copy the local staff will produce for AP. But...
Ethiopia: Building firewalls
Satisfy My Soul comments on the alleged blocking of blogspot by the Ethiopian government…”In any case, now that it’s official that bloggers (and now chatters) have been added to EPRDF’s long list of “enemies of the constitution”, what’s to stop them from rounding us up (of course, those of us...
China: Complainers’ blog birthday
One of China's hottest English-language blogs TalkTalkChina is now one year old.
China: Christians and democrats forced to take sides
A small decision in a complicated affair which sent ripples all throughout China's social activist community has now bounced back through the blogsphere (via BBS’ first, of course). The facts are being still hammered out, but when three Chinese Christians—one being prominent legal scholar and veteran blogger Wang Yi—in attendance...
Russia: Relations with Sweden
Vilhelm Konnander writes about a diplomatic dispute between Russia and Sweden, and the past and the future of the relationship between the two countries.
Iran: Licence for Blogs?
ITIran blogger talks about what he heard in a meeting in Ministry of Information concerning blogs. This blogger says it seems government is discussing a project to oblige people to ask licence from Ministry of Islamic Guidance before launching blog or site (Persian)!
China: Gays have it better
Laowiseass‘ Lalaoshi looks back on his former life as a columnist for China's English-language weekly 21st Century and being banned then from mentioning homosexuality. “Over the past year,” he writes, “other columns in the same paper have mentioned the topic. It looks like the letter writers and the columnists can...
Kyrgyzstan: Press Freedom
Yulia writes about freedom of the press in Kyrgyzstan and discusses ways to achieve journalistic independence for the media.
Cartoon, Insecurity & Media
According to news Iran's government has suspended a state-controlled newspaper after it published a cartoon that provoked riots among the country's minority Azeri community. The cartoon shows that a cockroach says in Azeri :” Namana” which means “What?” It is very interesting to see that even Turkish speaking ( Azeri)...
Arabisc: Update on Detained Egyptian Bloggers
The following is an abbreviated translation from some of the Egyptian Arabic-language blogsphere. It's been more than two weeks since the detention of Alaa along with many other bloggers and activists. Today we came to know about some good news related to some other detained Egyptian bloggers. Two bloggers were...
China: Rights news roundup
Celia in her China Activist Weekly news roundup this week looks at Kofi Annan's recent visit to China, the media ban on coverage of the fortieth anniversary of the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, another mine collapse trapping at least forty miners and...
Afghan Whispers: Parliament Talk & Media
According to Yadashtayi az Gharb (Persian) (notes from the West) Mrs. Malai Joya, deputy in Afghan Parliament, talked about Mujahedeens in negative way in front of Mujahedeens deputies and others in Afghan Parliament (Loya Jigra). According to the blogger: “She said there were people who sacrificed their lives when Afghanistan...
Belarus: On Trial for Text-Messaging
Iryna of TOL's Belarus Blog writes about an unprecedented (even for Belarus) trial: “We have become used to the fact that prominent academics and journalists are being sentenced to 15 days in prison for swearing or hooliganism, but last week a student was actually tried for sending a text message...
Syrian Blogsphere in a Week
This week the Syrian blogsphere was mostly busy discussing the latest developments in Syria. Last week the Syrian security forces initiated the largest crackdown on opposition figures and dissidents since President Bashar al-Assad came to power in 2000. Ammar Abdulhamid of Amarji has an interesting analysis of this escalation from...
Iran: War Zone & University
Abde Tavanche writes in his blog that AmirKabir University has become a war zone. Blogger says security forces & director of university want to stop students to choose their ( student) own council (Persian). According to blogger some people, who are not from university, started to chant slogans such as...
The First Internet Party ever Held in Cambodia
A decade ago Cambodia connected to the world. During those years, not many people could spell and capture the term and the meaning of ‘the Internet’ well, except expatriates working in Phnom Penh offices and a few Cambodian staff in aid organizations. It was until recent years that more competitions...
Brunei: Blog report from the Abode of Peace: Bloggers vs Borneo Bulletin
Aside from accounts of the impending exams, lunch and the random softball-related post? Nothing much really. For the past few years, the blogging scene in this oil-rich country has not really delved into current affairs beyond their personal sphere. This may be caused by a lot of factors, perhaps it...
Turkey is Typing….
Blogging is one of the ultimate expressions of free speech, although it has been questioned as one of the deadly sins (as it serves the writer's vanity): blogging and the conversation that it creates about free speech is paramount in our modern world. This week an event in Turkey occurred...
China: MSN users locked out, speak out
Things have definitely been getting worse for users of MSN services in China since Microsoft recently shifted its Passport login process to Live.com. Following Global Voices Online blogger Frank Dai's post on this problem two weeks ago, a number of MSN Messenger, Hotmail and MSN Spaces users have started speaking...
Arabisk – The Arabic Bloggers Ken
The following is an abbreviated translation from some of the Arabic-language blogsphere. Music… Amal, in her latest cartoon: “See my Wawa, kiss my Wawa.” The Wawa is the little tiny hurt “ouch”.. In this cartoon; a poor bleeding Palestinian child is begging from a wealthy Arabian man who seems not...
China: Catholics demand film ban
Journalist-blogger uleewang at Non-violent Resistance posts on the joining by mainland Chinese Catholics of the protest against the newly-released Hollywood film The Da Vinci Code and their demand it be banned: “[W]ho knows, common resistance against the movie may help bring up the flirtation already going on between the Chinese...
