Stories about Freedom of Speech from October, 2008
Croatia: Car Bomb Assassination of Journalists Ivo Pukanić & Niko Franjić
Zagreb, Croatia's capital, was stunned by a car bomb attack directed at newspaper publisher and editor-in-chief Ivo Pukanić, which killed both him and fellow journalist Niko Franjić on Thursday.
Nigeria: Blogger Arrested
Nigerian Curiosity writes about the arrested Nigerian blogger: “Jonathan Elendu, the writer at Elendu Reports, was arrested by Nigeria's SSS on Saturday evening upon arrival in Nigeria from the United States. Elendu was reportedly arrested to answer questions because his ‘activities’ have allegedly generated some national security issues.”
Egyptian Blogger Nora Younis Wins Human Rights First Award
Egyptian blogger and human rights activist Nora Younis was awarded the Annual Human Rights Award today.
Hong Kong: Creative Commons Launch
Rebecca Mackinnon blogs about the set of exciting events and happenings around the launch of Creative Commons Hong Kong licenses.
Cuba, Jamaica: Press Freedom Index
Diaspora bloggers from Cuba (Uncommon Sense) and Jamaica (My View of JamDown from Up So) talk about where their respective countries fall in the recently-released Reporters Without Borders 2008 press freedom index.
Egypt: Laila Echoes Reverberate in the Land of the Nile
In its third year, the Kolena Laila (We Are All Laila) campaign took a different turn, reaching out to women with no access to the Internet and giving them a chance to speak to the world. Nermeen Edrees reviews some of the voices which had a chance to be heard.
Russia, U.S.: LJ User Drugoi in NYC
LJ user drugoi, one of the most popular and prolific Russian bloggers, shares his wonderful photos of New York City - and his thoughts on some of the issues discussed on Oct. 17 at the Russian-language blogosphere conference at Columbia University School of Journalism - "Russia Online: Mapping the Russian-Language Blogosphere and Participatory Internet."
China: City Mayor Responds To Internet Rumor
ESWN translates a comment article on the different attitudes of government officials to Internet rumor; the Changzhou city mayor won public praise with his public responds online on a rumor against him.
China: Photographs and scanned ID cards at Internet Bar
The Beijing government has implemented new regulations requiring all first-time visitors to any of the city’s more than 1,500 internet bars to have their pictures taken and their ID cards scanned on site. – More from David Bandurski, China Media Project.
Bangladesh: Sculptures, Bigots and Bloggers
A new controversy rattled Bangladesh last week. Authorities in Bangladesh were forced to remove five sculptures of Bauls (mystic folk singers) including Fakir Lalon Shah in front of the Zia International Airport in the face of protests from an Islamist group. They formed a sculpture prevention committee which pressed that...
India: Intolerance against media
Sans Serif reports that a 138-year-old South Indian newspaper has become the target of pro-LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) groups. The paper’s offices have been attacked in Coimbatore and Erode.
China: Co-operation 2.0 on Beijing’s Black Jails
In cooperation with citizen reporter Zhou Shuguang (Zola) and other two journalists Chen Er (Doubleaf) and Guo Jiannong, Xu Zhiyong, who firstly blogged Beijing’s black jails in the end of September, went to visit one of the unlawful prisons again on Monday, attacked by a group of thugs who were allegedly hired by the authorities.
Philippines: Blog Action Day 2008
Filipino bloggers participated in the Blog Action Day 2008. The chosen topic was poverty.
Hungary: Outing the Informers
Hungarian Spectrum writes about an ongoing debate on whether the communist-era informers should be outed or not.
Serbia: Campaign Against Sonja Biserko
Greater Surbiton writes about smear campaign against the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia and the organization's head, Sonja Biserko.
UAE: Just Human Blog Blocked
Egyptian blogger Zeinobia says that Just human, a popular blog from the UAE, has been blocked.
Egypt: Epitah Blog Hacked, then Blocked
“Epitah is a famous successful dear blogress whose blog was hacked then it was blocked by Google,” writes Egyptian blogger Zeinobia.
Cuba: Imprisoned
Diaspora blogger Uncommon Sense calls Cuba the “concentration camp of the Caribbean”, while Havana-based Generation Y blogs about the rise of prices on the informal food market, saying: “These days, chanting ‘Eeee-eeeggs’ may be more dangerous than chanting anti-government slogans. OK, let’s not exaggerate, opinion has always been punished more.”
Barbados: Blogging Politics
Barbados Underground predicts that “the Internet ‘will’ have a greater impact on the next Barbados General Election than it did on the last.”
Macau: Netizen charged for reporting on Bank Run
A school teacher passed through a bank in Macau where a group of people were trying to withdraw all their money in fear of the financial crisis. At home, he wrote his brief reflections on what he saw in an online forum, only to be charged by the police for "fabricating dangerous information", and later to be sued by the bank for criminal libel.
Hong Kong: Yahoo falls to GFW?
Recently netizens found out the photo search function of HK Yahoo! has been filtered / re-indexed. Some netizens were worried that such practice is the beginning of political censorship. Ben Crox follows through the discussion in his blog post.
