Stories about Freedom of Speech from October, 2007
Russia: Dubrovka Investigation
David McDuff of A Step At A Time translates an article on the investigation into the 2002 Dubrovka hostage crisis in Moscow.
Tunisia: Solidarity Visit Blocked
Mohammed Abbou, the legendary dissident who sewed his own mouth shut in jail to protest censorship, is once again harassed by the Tunisian authorities, who have banned him from travelling to Egypt to attend the trial of Egyptian editor Ibrahim Issa, reports ..Or Does it Explode?
Algeria: Journalists Under Attack
..Or Does it Explode? – a site dedicated to the struggle for Civil Rights in the Middle East – points to the wave of recent attacks on journalists in Algeria.
Slovenia: Media Business
Sleeping With Pengovsky writes about recent developments in Slovenian media business.
Russia: Bloggers Discuss James Watson
James Watson, an American Nobel Prize-winning geneticist, provoked international outrage when The Sunday Times quoted him on race issues on Oct. 14. The news of the controversy produced a certain stir in the Russian-language blogosphere, too.
Armenia: Opposition Activists Detained
The Armenia 2008 Election Monitor comments on media reports that opposition activists are being detained just days before Friday's rally during which the first president of Armenia, Levon Ter Petrosian, is expected to appear prior to his likely nomination for the presidential election to be held early next year.
Tunisia: Breaking Censorship
Tunisian blogger Sami ben Gharbia decides to beat the censors in their own game. He tells us how, in this post (Ar) I am translating from Arabic today.
Trinidad & Tobago: Music in Politics
“If religion is the opiate of the masses then music must be the amphetamine”: Blogging from Trinidad and Tobago, Shivonne Du Barry examines the phenomenon of political parties using local music to appeal to voters.
Cuba: Election Scrutiny
According to this post at Babalu Blog, “scrutiny is not part of the plan” when it comes to the municipal elections in Cuba.
China: More on DNS Hijacking
Rebecca from Rconversation tries to clarify what exactly had happened concerning the temporarily redirecting of western search engines to Baidu and government anti-porn site.
China: Sex-Related Advertisements
Earlier in September, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced the ban on sex-related advertisements, however, sex-related advertisements are still running amok in China. ESWN translated an article from Southern Weekend to explain why.
Armenia: Media Concerns
As the presidential election due to be held early next year draws closer, the Armenian Election Monitor examines press reports that not only are media associations and journalists raising concerns about limited access to the broadcast media, but also that one regional TV station already alleges attempts at censorship. The...
Uganda: What Press Freedom?
Uganda Scarlett Lion discusses Press Freedom in Uganda: “While it appears that Uganda has improved in Press Freedom Rankings from 116 to 96 (a big jump), things are without problems in the Ugandan media.”
China: Search Engine DNS Hijack
The issue about Baidu hijacking Google traffic remained a mystery. Although internet media Sohu has denied the accusation, they didn't provide an explanation to the redirection of traffic from western search engine to Baidu on Oct 18. William Long pointed out that rumour couldn't be stopped without explaination (zh).
Syria: Stop Internet Censorship!
Following a recent post on Global Voices Advocacy, Syrian bloggers are ready to discuss internet censorship in their country, including the arrests of several forum users and the censure of Blogspot.
Afghanistan:Freedom of press in danger
Baktash Syavash,blogger and journalist has interviewd[Fa]Tavab Nyazi, an Afghan journalist who was jailed for seven months.Yavab Nyazi was accused of collaborating with Taliban.The blogger writes that Nyazi was jailed illegally and no document was presented by officials to prove his links with Taliban.
Saudi Arabia: English Press Freer
“I observed .. that some of the English-language press here do a better job when it comes to reporting important and controversial local stories. Part of this has to do with the fact that they are in English so they are not under the radar of the censorship, but more...
Syria: Internet Censorship
Syrian Golaniya discusses Internet censorship in her country in this post.
Latvia: Protest Rallies
All About Latvia writes about the rallies taking place in Riga and about the imminent end of the current government: “Foreigners here observed that to make Latvians come out in such large numbers, you have to really piss them off. And people are pissed.”
Egypt: My Different Feelings Towards Blogging
You consciously decide to blog about your life and go into personal details. Then you realise that all your relatives and friends have been reading your blog. Now that you are exposed, are you as free as you thought you were? Egyptian blogger Mohamed El Tohamy (Aka 2-Hamy) tackles this issuehere (Ar) and writes about his new feelings towards blogging.
China: Should I Shut Up?
Liu Xiao-yuan wondered if he should shut up (zh) in his Sinablog after Sina has deleted 4 of his posts including 1. an article on the clapping culture of 17th Party Congress (via sohu); 2. an article on the pace of political reform (via sohu); 3. Sina's crazy delete policy;...
