Stories about Freedom of Speech from July, 2010
Venezuela: Foundation for Urban Culture Shut Down
The Foundation for Urban Culture - a fund that promoted culture through books, photography, music and ideas - was recently shut down, allegedly due to financing from the brokerage firm Econoinvest which was raided by the government in May. Bloggers who support the Foundation, accuse the closing of being illegal and unrelated to the company.
Serbia: A Journalist Is Attacked on a Public Bus
Teofil Pancic, a well-known Serbian journalist, was beaten up on a public bus on Saturday. Sinisa Boljanovic translates some of the initial reactions by Serbian netizens.
Azerbaijan: Youth activism and social media
Ali Resh uses online video tools to interview Baku-based Ruslan Asadov, along with now imprisoned video blogger Adnan Hajizade also a co-founder and member of the OL! Azerbaijani youth movement, live from Tbilisi, Georgia. Resh and Asadov speak about the use of new and social media in youth activism in...
Iran:”The Persian Wikipedia got filtered”
Several bloggers including Sabz21baltarin reported[fa] that the Persian Wikipedia got filtered by Iranian authorities.
Jordan: Jailed for MSN Messages
A Jordanian computer science student has been sentenced to two years in prison by the State Security court for supposedly insulting HM King Abdullah during a chat with a friend on MSN Messenger. Naseem Tarawnah reacts.
Egypt: Niqab ban in France stirs controversy
The lower house of the Spanish Parliament is debating a proposal to prohibit the wearing of body-covering burqas and face-covering niqabs in all public spaces in Spain, and the French parliament just approved a ban on niqabs (face veils). Bloggers from across the Middle East react.
Death of the China Blog
Kaiser Kuo, Will Moss and Jeremy Goldkorn comment on the Chinese blog scene at Sinica podcast.
Russia: Anti-Religious Online Group Closed
“Antireligion” group in the social network “Vkontakte“, with more than 8000 members, had been closed and its content deleted, ru_antireligion reports [RUS]. Prosecutor's office, that was checking the group for extremism [RUS], recognized photos of t-shirts with slogans “Orthodoxy or Death” [EN] as “extremist” and obliged administration of “Vkontakte” to...
Rwanda: Tension Before The Presidential Election, Except for Kagame
The incumbent President of Rwanda Paul Kagame has officially launched his campaign for another term in office. The electoral campaign which ends on august 9th, has been marred with challenges for the political opposition, ranging from arrests to mysterious deaths.
Censorship in Singapore
Singapore authorities caused a major uproar when they banned a film of an ex-political prisoner and arrested a British author who wrote a book about the death penalty in Singapore. Bloggers react
Azerbaijan: Amnesty International campaign for convicted bloggers
Having already recently marked the first anniversary of their initial detention, Amnesty International urges supporters worldwide to lobby the government in Azerbaijan to ensure that imprisoned video blogging youth activists Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli receive a fair appeal hearing in the coming months.
Maldives: Romance with Democracy at Stake
On June 29, 2010, the whole Cabinet of the government of the Maldives submitted their resignation. Thus began a highly politicized drama in the Maldives; one that threatens the country’s romance with democracy, and poses serious questions about the political stability in the coming days.
Information Bridging on the Case of Tibetan Environmentalist Karma Samdrup
The case of Tibetan environmentalist, businessman and philanthropist Karma Samdrup, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison on June 24, 2010 by a court in Xinjiang, has been highly unusual in that those monitoring the case were able to see events unfolding almost in real time thanks to constant blog and Twitter updates by his wife and lawyer.
Russia: ‘Orthodoxy or Death’ to Degenerate Art?
"Orthodoxy or death!" is the war cry sounded in recent weeks as forces of religious reaction have entered into fierce battle with liberal arts, in an apparent Russian parallel to the Muhammad cartoon case. The cause of conflict is the trial and conviction of two art curators for a 2007 Moscow exhibition of contemporary art.
Lebanon: The Rule of Dinosaurs
Shortly after the recent cyber censorship incidents in Lebanon, the term "The Rule of Dinosaurs" started to be used by the e-activists in their campaign against this invasion of their cyberspace. Lebanese blogger Tony explains what it means.
Bangladesh: Freedom Of Speech And Book Ban
Bangladeshi singer, songwriter, poet and blogger Maqsoodul Haque at The Bangladesh Poet of Impropriety discusses the politics behind and effectiveness of the recent banning of book of a controversial religious leader.
Cuba: Free Expression & the Law
Laritza's Laws examines freedom of expression as it pertains to Cuban legislation.
Cuba: Future of “Las Damas”
Now that certain political prisoners are being released in Cuba, Along the Malecon wonders about the future of Las Damas de Blanco: “In what form will [the group] continue to exist? How many members…will drop out once their love ones are freed?”
China: Blogs, Democracy and China's Future
ESWN translated an interview with Zhang Wen at my1510.cn discussing the relation between blogging, democracy and China Future.
China: Me, Wang Hui, and Liberal Wishy-washy-ness
Peter Zarrow, a historian at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica (Taiwan), explains why he signed the joint letter supporting Wang Hui at China beat. Meanwhile, the mass mail calling for the joint signature has been leaked (see the comment section of the previous article).
China: Domestic Microblogs Cut Off from the Outside World
C. Custer from ChinaGeeks explains how Chinese microblogs cut their users off from the rest of the world by white listing the short links in the microblog message.
