Stories about Freedom of Speech from July, 2006
Latvia: More on Gay Pride/No Pride
All About Latvia exposes nopride.lv, a homophobic Latvian group that claims to be not responsible for Saturday's attacks. Stefan of Dykun provides links and comment on “Riga's Gay Pride and Latvia's Shame.”
Belarus: Youth Activists Attacked
TOL's Belarus Blog writes about what seems like the beginning of a wave of attacks on youth activists.
Zimbabwe: Big Brother plan
The Bearded Man commens on an article in the Washington Post about plans being mooted by the Zimbabwean government to monitor e-mail and other electronic communication. He writes: “It would take a sizeable army to sift through emails, SMS and telephone calls – yes, I know that much of it...
Latvia: Violence Instead of Riga Gay Pride
All About Latvia and Stefan of Dykun discuss the gay pride parade that failed to take place in Riga.
China: alliance of banned blog
One man band width is going to start an alliance of banned blogs: “The purpose of the group is to bring to International awareness the need for cohesion among bloggers to fight oppression and build a free Internet.”
Hong Kong: youth Ambassador Against Internet Piracy
Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department has been recruiting 9-25 years old youths to become “youth ambassador against internet privacy” against BT activities. The project is initially launched in Feburary 2006 and until now 1200 BT websites have been closed and 99 persons have been arrested (zh). Ben Ng has...
Barbados: Deputy PM and free speech
Barbados Free Press comes out strongly against Barbados Deputy Prime Minister Mia Mottley's call for “the curtailment of free speech” on radio call-in shows and blogs.
Latvia: Riga Gay Pride
Vilhelm Konnander writes about the 2006 Gay Pride in Riga, which “seems to become a repetition of last year's chaos and homophobic protests in the Latvian capital.”
Romania: “Spy Kids”
Doug Muir of A Fistful of Euros writes about “spy kids,” one of the legacies of Romania's Communist past: “Huge flap in Romania this week, as it’s been revealed that the Communist-era secret police recruited children to spy on parents and classmates.”
Iran: Internet & national security
Alireza Shirazi founder of fast growing Blogfa, an Iranian provider for blogs says Parliament Research Center in Iran considered internet as a dangerous instrument for national security and for people. According to this blogger Research Center talks about internet users who put national security in danger and want to overthrow...
Ganji's Hunger Strike & Lebanon Conflict
Dissident journalist Akbar Ganji and his supporters called for a three days hunger strike to attract attention on Iranian political prisoners. Several bloggers have talked about this hunger strike movement and some discussed Ganji’s regime change idea. Bring Iranians closer to each other MardomIranema thinks that Ganji’s call for hunger...
DRC: Police Repression at July 11th Demo
Le Blog du Congolais writes (Fr):” Kinshasa, June 3oth Boulevard, Tuesday July 11th 2006. The Congolese police, trained and equipped by the European Union, unleashed itself against the 19 presidential candidates to the July 30 elections and the demonstrators of the Front to Defend the Congo (FDC) led by UDPS....
Iran: Speculations about Ganji
Majid Mohammadi, a US based scholar says new wave of imaginative speculations about Ganji's agenda outside Iran reminded me of the literature and approach of Iranian security agents who connect and interrelate everything and everyone, without any evidence or empirical support, to disqualify whoever they do not like or reject...
Captive Nations Week
Edward Lucas, the Central and East European correspondent of The Economist, writes about the Captive Nations Week and its relevance today.
Ethiopia: Call to action
Weichegud! calls for action urging the U.S. Congress to vote for the H.R. 5680 bill, “To encourage and facilitate the consolidation of security, human rights, democracy, and economic freedom in Ethiopia.”
Barbados: The government on blogs
Titlayo sees a Barbados government minister's call for blogs to have a “framework of accountability”, as a sign that blogs are beginning to be taken seriously by “people in high places”.
Russia: Youth Activism
Sean's Russia Blog writes about two trends in the Russian youth political activism.
Haiti: Reporter Jacques Roche Killed a Year Ago
Collectif Haiti de Provence points to an article stating (Fr): “To commemorate the first anniversary of the killing of poet and journalist Jacques Roche this July 14, the organization SOS Journaliste organized a forum at Le Plaza Hotel on the theme Security of journalists, impunity and disarmament.”
Iran: What democracy!
Tayebeh Beheshti, a teenage Hezbollah writes she does not understand why some Hezbollah members like to say we have democracy in Iran and we can say what we want! The blogger says it is clear that we do not have a western democracy in Iran and we can not say...
Belarus: Music and Censorship
TOL's Belarus Blog writes about music and censorship in Belarus, and about an upcoming Belarusian music event – to be held in Poland, “not so far from the border, in ethnically Belarusian territory.”
Voices from Zimbabwe and the Great Lakes
Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's blogosphere has virtually been deflated by threats of new legislation allowing government to surreptitiously spy on people's cyber activities. Their numerous voices have been silenced leaving a marked void in the chronicling of the one the world's worst crises. Please keep this troubled nation's valiant bloggers in your...
