Stories about Freedom of Speech from July, 2007
Russia: More on the Litvinenko Affair
Sean Guillory writes about new developments in the Litvinenko Affair – here, here, and here.
Malaysia: Detained Blogger now Free
Blogger Nathaniel Tan who was detained last Friday by the police is now back at home.
Hong Kong: GV Editor Oiwan Lam faces court battle over Flickr photo
On May 11th, Oiwan Lam, Global Voices Northeast Asia Editor, committed what she says was a deliberate act of civil disobedience. Writing on the citizen media website InMedia Hong Kong, Oiwan called on her readers to post links to erotic websites and also included an artsy photo of a topless woman that she found on Flickr, the photo sharing site owned by Yahoo!. The post was originally published here, but has now been removed from the InMedia site and posted on a Wordpress.com blog. As Boingboing and others reported earlier this week, Oiwan's post has been classified as "Class II indecent" by Hong Kong's Obscene Articles Tribunal.
Malaysia: Candlelight Vigil
Oon Yeoh has pictures from the candle light vigil that was organized in support of blogger Nathaniel Tan. Nathaniel was detained by police last Friday.
Iran:Three Iranian Scholars will “confess”
Kamangir reports that The Islamic Republic television has just aired short pieces of a program titled “In the name of democracy”. The program features “confessions” made by three Iranian academics and scholars about their anti Islamic Republic activities: Haleh Esfandiari, Kian Tajbakhsh and Ramin Jahanbegloo.Esfandiari and Tajbakhsh are still in...
Taiwan: Tales From The Martial Law Era
ESWN has collected and translated informations and details on banned books and songs from the martial law era in Taiwan 20 years ago.
Hong Kong: Selective Prosecution on Illegal Broadcasting
The Office of Telecommunication Authority had decided to prosecute guest speakers from a Civic radio channel which organized public broadcast illegally to protest against the government strict control over radio frequencies. Many politicians have spoken at the illegal channel as guest speakers, however, the OTA has selectively prosecuted two of...
Hong Kong: Signature Campaign Against Flickr Filtering
HKxforce launched a signature campaign against flickr filtering policy in Hong Kong. The petition demands Yahoo! to adjust the filtering policy in Hong Kong so that adult users are free to choose and view “unsafe” content. It also demands more transparency in categorizing the content, let the users know the...
El Salvador: What Bloggers are Saying About Protesters and Terrorism
A bloody street protest one year ago led to the passage of an Anti-Terrorism Law in El Salvador. The alleged cop-killer in the disturbances outside of the University of El Salvador has been arrested, and the Anti-Terrorism Law is being used — to prosecute protesters demonstrating against the government’s water policy. The Salvadoran blogosphere has had much to say about this turn of events.
Egypt: Two Bloggers Arrested
Egyptian Watchman blog is reporting that Ahmed El Geizawy of ana Bahebek ya Masr (I love you Egypt) blog and Moataz Adel of Manfa blog were arrested today. The two bloggers were on their way to cover a military court session for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
Malaysian blogger arrested for comment published on his blog
Malaysian blogger Nat Tan has been arrested for a comment published on one of his blog posts last year. His Laptop and desktop were seized. Tan has been remanded for four days, until Tuesday, to facilitate investigation under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).
Blog of a Tunisian journalist and blogger hacked
The blog of the Tunisian journalist and blogger Slim Boukhdhir has been hacked and deleted. The work seems to be done by the same group of hackers who are targeting Tunisian opposition websites and blogs. Last weeks, the website of the Progressive Democratic Party (a legal opposition political party) has...
Serbia's One and Only Science Blog: Help Save It!
Blogs would have been a great medium for interaction, publishing, communication and collaboration in science, a good place for showcasing Serbian scientific achievement, which has been in the shade lately, after years of sanctions, war and political disturbances. There is only one institutional science blog in Serbia, however - and it looks like it may soon disappear altogether. Please get involved and help save it!
Hindi Blogosphere: A brouhaha, customer service and blogger meets!
So it's after about one and a half month that we are looking at what has been going on in Hindi blogosphere. The dust had barely settled down when it rose again, this time on the issue of expulsion of a blog from the leading Hindi blog aggregator, Narad. For...
Iran:More Student Activists were Arrested
City Boy reports that the July 9, 1999 Tehran student rebellion was the single most important movement against the Islamic Republic government.The 8th anniversary of this event in Iran started by attack on the Advar-e Tahkim Vahdat (High Council of the Office for the Strengthening Unity) who had gathered outside...
Francophone Morocco: Development, Modernization, and Creation
"Un amour pour ce pays qui sent la pointe de la critique comme une blessure à son inconditionnalité," is how one blogger describes her feelings toward her country, Morocco. Hamza Daoui takes us on a tour of Francophone Moroccan blogs, showing us the country's recent developments.
Israel: the censorship bill unanimously approved
The censorship bill for internet porn and violence proposed by Amnon Cohen of the ultra-orthodox Shas party has been unanimously approved by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation and will be brought to the Israeli Knesset.
Egypt: Bedouins of Sinai Crisis, 11-year-old Mother and Blogger Say the Unsayable
This week’s round-up from Egypt highlights bloggers’ involvement in domestic issues like the rape of an 11-year-old girl and the Egyptian Bedouins of Sinai’s dilemma in Egypt and covers bloggers’ news.
Cuba: Blogging for Cuban Liberty
Uncommon Sense is proud to be part of Bloggers United for Cuban Liberty and hopes that the campaign will influence The Police to speak out for the cause of political prisoners in Cuba: “But I am not sure whether it really matters if we do. Already, success is ours —...
Japan: Internet regulation up for debate, but nobody is debating
While nobody was watching, an interim report drafted by a study group under the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has set down guidelines for regulation of the Internet in Japan which, according to one blogger, would extend as far as personal blogs and homepages. In the report, this...
Poland: Father Rydzyk and 330 Exorcists
The beatroot writes about Radio Maryja director, Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, who says that Poland's First Lady is a witch, and on a meeting of 330 exorcists from 29 countries taking place in Poland now.