Stories about Freedom of Speech from May, 2006
China: Campaign targets Microsoft
Activism made easy at China Activist Weekly with a post from blogger Celia on an Amnesty International letter one can send to Microsoft regarding their behavior in China. Having it delivered is the hardest part: “Oddly enough, it's apparently not possible to email Microsoft. I have searched for a general...
DRC: Pastor Kutino's Detention
Rvd. Kutino Fernando, founder of Sauvons le Congo [Save the Congo], was recently taken from his church by policemen and his whereabouts are unknown, says (Fr) Tony Katombe at Le Blog du Congolais. The blogger is skeptical that Kutino was stocking weapons in his church or inciting violence as alleged...
Iran: From Hostage taking to Blogging
Abbas Abdi, reformist politician & a hostage taker in US embassy, has launched his blog. He says if human being does not communicate, he/she becomes weaker than animal. Blogger adds at present situation internet is a very good instrument which helps citizens to communicate (Persian).
Ethiopia: Blogspot blocked
Ethiopian Life reports that the Government has blocked all blogspot blogs….”Over the last two days, all blogspots blogs including http://www.seminawork.blogspot.com/ have been blocked in Ethiopia.”
Advocacy: Help protect global bloggers
Bloggers, like others at the forefront of activities promoting freedom of speech and information, can run into trouble with the authorities. At Global Voices we have had first hand experience of this with the illegal detention of one of our editors, Hao Wu. He has now been held for three...
Bermuda: “Hate speech” complaint rejected
Bermuda's Human Rights Commission has rejected a complaint against Senator David Burch, who used an offensive racial term in a radio broadcast last year. The HRC had no choice, says the Limey; “Burch's comment was disgusting. But unfortunately not illegal.” But Sean at IMHO.bm is “enraged”, especially because the HRC...
Belarus: Athletes and Fans For the White-Red-White Flag
TOL's Belarus Blog writes about Belarusian athletes speaking up for the outcast white-red-white flag – and Belarusian fans promoting it abroad: “There is one embarassment, though: Lukashenka cannot prevent waving of the banned flag abroad, and wave they do! Every away game, any hockey championship, etc. becomes an opportunity for...
Poland: Gay Activist and Homophobia
rod 2.0:beta writes about Krystian Legierski, “a Polish-born black gay activist. He is 27 years old and the owner of Le Madame, the influential Warsaw club that was recently shut down by the government.” The beatroot cites the U.S. State Department's annual human rights report, which places Poland as the...
Japan: Signs of nationalism?
Of prefect officials in Japan's Fukui city ordering one library to cease stocking a list of 150 books, Tokyo Times‘ Lee sees the move as “all in all a rather unsavoury affair, although as an isolated incident it’s hardly indicative of a return to ‘the bad old days.’ No, surely...
Banned White-Red-White Flag of Belarus Travels Abroad
This flag used to be the official state flag of Belarus from 1991 to 1995. Following the controversial referendum of May 14, 1995, president Aleksandr Lukashenko banned it and reintroduced a variation of the Soviet-time Belarusian flag. During their visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, in early May, Belarusian LJ users lysaye-dzyaucho...
Central Asia: Press Freedom
neweurasia rounds up the state of freedom of the press in Central Asia.
Belarus: Fake Dissident
TOL's Belarus Blog writes about Mikhail Vashkevitch, an impostor in the Belarusian opposition's ranks, about to lose his asylum in Bulgaria: “I wish we were back to the times when dissidents wrote books without asking for a $10,000 advance…”
Poland: Politics and Freedom of Speech
Our Man in Gdansk writes about how freedom of speech in Poland is sometimes affected by politics: “In the puling adolescent west the new boss of a TV station or newspaper might be expected to trot out some feelgood cliches about how he does not intend to interfere in anyway...
Hong Kong: China-sent spies?
EastSouthWestNorth‘s Roland Soong translates news stories on “what must be the first big internet-fueled political storm in Hong Kong” which comes down to whether or not the Hong Kong Democratic Party has been infiltrated by “spies” and whether or not they come from the Chinese mainland.
Ahmadinejad's Letter & Tehran Book Fair
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's letter to his US counterpart, George Bush, has attracted a lot of attention in international media. Several leading journals such as Washington Post or Le Monde, in France, published letter and tried to analyze that. This 18 pages letter has been a hot topic among Iranian...
China: Cultural Revolution turns forty
“There is no official commemoration or acknowledgment in the PRC today,” says The Useless Tree blogger of the fortieth anniversary of the beginning of China's Cultural Revolution. “The Party has ordered the media not to discuss it. Just another one of those major chunks of modern history, like the Great...
China: Cultural Revolution turns forty
One interesting aspect of blogging in China is that the strict controls on newspapers, magazines, television and news websites from time-to-time leaves many bloggers with the responsibility and freedom to determine and define coverage of major issues and stories while mainstream media, despite all their resources, have no choice but...
Ethiopia: Tell your stories
Weichegud!ET Politics calls on her fellow Ethiopians to “tell the story” of the Ethiopian elections and provides a list of sites supporting Ethiopia Day – 15th May
China: New political campaign shows sarcasm is alive and well
A strange custom of every Communist Party of China leader is for them to come up with their own theory or “ism”. Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping had their own respective variations of Socialist theory. Jiang Zemin has his Three Represents. And what about the current Chinese president Hu Jintao?...
Belarus: Ice Cream-Eating Flash-Mobbers Detained
EM of TOL's Belarus Blog thinks it'd be better for the Minsk flashmob community to move underground: “The problem with all of that is that KGB is reading those online communities as well, so there are usually security people present at the flashmobs even before they start. […] Or is...
Egypt: Alaa blogging from his Prison
Alaa wrote the post by hand, and his friends got it out and posted it for him, so yeah. He seems in high spirits, and they seem to have left him unharmed so far, so that's good to hear. That means the campaign has been successful so far, Sandmonkey said.
