Stories about Freedom of Speech from July, 2006
DRC: Can a Finger Free the Congo?
UDPS Liege posts pictures (Fr) of Didier Bongeya and the finger which was allegedly severed from his body during a recent march in the DRC. The blog post is titled “The finger that will free the Congo.”
China: cruel news
Zhao mu puts together a bunch of descriptions used by some mainstream newspapers reports to show the indifference and cruelity of news language (zh). For example, to describe the suicidal act of desperate worker with the term “highrise jumping show”, to describe car accident hitting the victim's head as “winning...
China: tell me what's wrong with China
Last week Danwei‘s Joel Martinsen translated an article from the New Century Weekly by Sun Yafei titled America through Chinese eyes – a columnist living abroad reports on ugly Americans. The post has attracted many comments, including Sun Yafei's own. Jeremy Goldkorn in Danwei puts Sun's invitation for debate, tell...
India: Blocking access to Blogs on Blogspot and Typepad in India
I have been exercising considerable restraint before posting on the issue of blocking of Blogspot.com, Typepad.com and Geocities.com in India. It all started around the 13th of July, when some people complained that they weren't able to access their blogspot blogs. Since the service is known to have been down...
China: reporter sentenced for two years
Glutter puts up the news concerning China government sentenced reporter Li Yuanlong to two years in jail earlier last week (July 13). ESWN translates an article “On Becoming an American Citizen in Spirit” written by Li so that westerners can make their own judgement whether his article is “inciting subversion”.
Belarus: Opposition Leader Kozulin Sentenced to 5 1/2 Years
Belarusian opposition leader Aleksandr Kozulin has been sentenced to five and a half years in jail for organizing protests in Minsk following the March presidential election. Vilhelm Konnander writes that “the now sentenced Kozulin remains somewhat of an enigma to most analysts.” Iryna of Belarus Blog posts Kozulin's final statement,...
China: Birthday wish comes true
Hu hao's sister writes in huhaofamily about her birthday and how her birthday wish came true (zh). Hu Hao is back and she thanks all the friends for their suppport.
Cuba, USA, UK: On Guantánamo, the democracy fund & nuclear power
More lively discussion between Trinidad blogger Jeremy Taylor and his American pal “Roger“, this time about Guantánamo, and Bush's $80 million fund to “boost democracy in Cuba”. And London-based “Kamla”, the recently arrived third blogger, confronts her feelings about nuclear power.
Iran: Blogger is Free
According to NasleFarda, Abed Tavanche, blogger and a student leader was released from prison (Persian). Tavanche was arrested during a student protest movement in AmirKabir University. He was in jail for 40 days.
DRC: Journalist Shot
According to (Fr) Le Blog du Congolais: “Bapuwa Mwamba, a noteworthy journalist at “Le Phare”(…) was recently grabbed from his family's affections as well as from freedom fighters in the night of the 7 to the 8th of July by a commando that shot him at close range. (…) Either...
Russia: Putin
On the eve of the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg, Edward Lucas, the Central and East European correspondent of The Economist, writes a lengthy critique of Vladimir Putin and the country he is turning Russia into: “Putin is trying to recreate an empire reminiscent of the Soviet Union – feared...
Russia: Human Rights Situation
David McDuff of A Step At A Time writes about the Other Russia conference and Lyudmila Alexeeva, a distinguished human rights activist.
Egypt: The Happy Ending for Journalism Law
Zeinobia sarcastically describe the latest news about the Egyptian president intervention to stop a law that was approved by majority of MBs (who were all members of the same party lead by the president). The controversial law was against the freedom of press. The more stranger is the changing attitude...
China: Wu Hao released
Following nearly five months in prison, blogger, documentary maker and American permanent resident Wu Hao has been released, as noted in a July 11 post on his sister Nina's blog: 刚刚得到家里电话, 被告知皓子出来了.谢谢大家的关心,但他需要清静一阵子. 如果还有什么消息,将更新在这个BLOG. Just got a call at home and informed that Wu Hao is out. Thank you everyone for...
China: Survival tips for female activists: how to get the cops off your tail
When veteran AIDS activist Hu Jia (胡佳) was kidnapped by Chinese police in February this year, his wife, Zeng Jinyan (曾金燕), found closed police station doors at every turn. No answers, explanations or even an admission that her husband was in police custody, Zeng set up a blog [zh] documenting...
Armenia: Hetq Online Threatened
Onnik Krikorian reports on threats against Hetq Online, the publication for which he works in Armenia.
Children in crises and the role of reporters – tell the media what you think
Where is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child? This is the question asked in a poll by AlertNet, the early warning network for humanitarian organisations, to highlight some of the world's forgotten crises. The results will be featured in a debate about the responsibility of...
Nigeria: Code Unread
Musings of a Naijaman meets London mayor Ken Livingstone at an anti-racism festival and comments on the banning of the movie The Da Vinci Code in Nigeria.
China: internet registration
William Long reports that the chongqing provincial government recently demanded that individual going online at home should set up a file at the police station or else the online service would be suspended for six months (zh). The blogger comments that such policy is like boiling frogs with warm water.
Iran: Top poetess support hunger strike
In Trebon we read that Mrs. Simin Behbahani, the most famous poetess in Iran, supported Akbar Ganji's, dissident journalist, hunger strike call to attract world-wide attention on Iranian political prisoners. According to the blog, Behbahani said we should do what we can to see all these innocent political prisoners out...
South Africa: Media strikes back
“It's good to see libel lawsuits aren't stopping some South Africa media outlets from continuing to take shots at former deputy president Jacob Zuma,” writes Yebo Gogo.
