Stories about Freedom of Speech from October, 2006
China: Where my Nobels at?
When one of the best writers in the country flees, is asked not to come back and then wins a Nobel prize in literature while in exile, would it be a bit disingenuous to accuse the Swedish Academy of bias against awarding Nobel prizes to mainland Chinese? Perhaps not, judging...
Rumblings at the Iraqi Blogodrome
There is a huge argument going on between Iraqi bloggers this week. Much of it in private emails but some spilling out in public blogs. It started with a number. But more on that in a moment. Condolences First, my heartfelt condolences goes out to Zeyad who lost a close...
Russia: Treatment of Georgians
Blogger Sukhumi has been following the coverage of the persecution of Georgians in Russia (previous Global Voices posts are here and here). He writes (RUS): On the TV channel “Imedi” I saw a demonstration in St. Petersburg against the persecution of Georgians. To my delight, I caught sight of my...
South Africa: blacklisting of TV commentators and analysts
Black Star Journal writes about the blacklisting of analysts and commentators by the South African Broadcasting Corporation, “The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) recently conducted an internal inquiry on allegations that the state broadcaster was blacklisting commentators and analysts who said unfavorable things about the government.”
China: incestuous ad?
Joel Martinsen in DANWEI puts together some discussions about a recent skin-care adverstisment with the actress’ son saying that he wants to marry his mother when he gets old. It results in a debate whether the ad has crossed the line of social standard. Joel also translated a post from...
China: wikipedia access chart
Andrew Lih shows the distribution of wikipedia's access in China in a chart form.
South Korea: independent journalists intimidated
Days in Daechuri has the latest update on the anti US military base in Pyongtaek, independent journalists were intimidated by local thugs.
Russia: Politkovskaya Podcast
Vilhelm Konnander reports on his participation in the Open Source Radio's Politkovskaya Podcast. http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/ros/open_source_061010.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS
Russia: Farewell Letter to Politkovskaya
“Anna, I see things differently with you on one score. I don’t think Putin is the problem. He symbolizes the illness afflicting this beautiful land. As one human rights activist and friend of mine said back in 2000, ‘Putin is inside all of us. He is our mirror image’,” writes...
Russia: Yelena Bonner on Politkovskaya
A Step At A Time re-posts a note by the widow of Andrei Sakharov on Anna Politkovskaya's death.
Belarus: News Roundup
The latest TOL's Belarus Blog posts cover these topics: population divided over mere symbols; the release of a young political activist; a hunger strike by members of a Minsk protestant church “New Life.”
China: blogging for justice
7 years ago, the girl friend of ken's friend died in the hospital probably because of the misjudgement of the doctor. All these years, he had been contacting lawyers, mainstream media and pursuing in court in order to expose the case to the public. Ken then suggested to him, why...
Hong Kong: campaign for citizen radio bandwith
An underground citizen radio was raided last weekend, Hong Kong In-Media launched a signature campaign to urge the government to release citizen radio bandwith. The english version of the campaign statement is at interlocals while chinese version is at inmediahk.
China: Let your photos do the talking
While dealing with blocked pages and filter-trigger keywords can get pretty annoying on the wrong side of the internet, for bloggers in China who want some discussion on, say, the highest-level corruption crackdown in ten years, there are always ways to beat the system. This time it just happens that...
Turkey is Typing…
Two things have been the subject of debate this week in the Turkish blogosphere…Orhan Pamuk being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and the passing of a Armenian genocide law in France. The issue of the Armenian Genocide has always been a hot-topic discussion, with the claims of whether what...
The Week That Was in Bahrain
It's showtime in Bahrain where bloggers are preoccupied with a new craze – a campaign to wipe out sectarianism started by no other than the kingdom's most illustrious blogger Mahmood Al Yousif. In response to a scandal which shook the country, Mahmood decided to fight fire with fire and launch...
Armenia: Genocide Bill Fallout
Blogrel outlines some of the impacts and consequences of the passage of France's law against denying the Armenian genocide. While the author is happy the bill passed, he hopes that it ultimately fails in the interests of free speech.
Azerbaijan: Media Crackdown
Denise reports at neweurasia on a media crackdown in Azerbaijan that has resulted in the closure of a popular newspaper and an order to cease broadcasting news prepared outside of the country.
Zimbabwe: Smuggled DVD brings union protest beatings to light
This video reached me late last night via Ethan Zuckerman. At nearly ten minutes, it's longer than the other videos we've put up, but I strongly recommend you watch this. It includes footage of the Zimbabwean police and security intelligence services breaking up a peaceful demonstration by members of the...
Poland: Freedom of Speech
Traveling Life writes about the freedom of speech in Poland.
Russia: “Bashing Anna's Critics”
Edward Lucas responds to Anna Politkovskaya's critics.
