· August, 2007

Stories about Freedom of Speech from August, 2007

Russia: Xenophobia and Violence

  21 August 2007

There are 48 comments so far to a post on xenophobia and violence in Russia, over at Sean's Russia Blog. One commenter writes: “It seems to me that the Kremlin gave a green light to the ‘ultra-nationlist’ tendencies of some ethnic Russians by the way it dealt with Georgia and...

Turkey: wordpress.com ban inspires firestorm of criticism

Matthew Mullenweg, founding developer of the popular WordPress blogging platform, has received a letter from the lawyers acting on behalf of a Turkish Islamic-creationist, Adnan Oktar, aka Harun Yahya, claiming to be responsible for the blanket ban on blogs hosted on the wordpress.com blogging platform in Turkey. On August 17th, 2007, the Turkish Fatih Second Civil Court of First Instance blocked access to all wordpress.com blogs in response to a suit filed by Adnan Oktar’s lawyers on the grounds that blogs hosted on the platform published allegedly defamatory and “unlawful” statements about their client.

Barbados: What Blogging is About

  21 August 2007

“Blogs tend to respond quite fast to events as they develop…they seem to…fill a number of gaps in supplying information. I was fascinated to see what has happened to this site over the past week, as the hurricane season got a full head of steam.” Dennis Jones at Living in...

Tajikistan: New legislation

  21 August 2007

At neweurasia, Madina lists several of the new laws and regulations that were stipulated by the Tajik government recently. Many of them are absurd and remind Madina of an 18th-century caliphate.

China: Bridge Disaster News Report Banned

  20 August 2007

The collapse of bridge near Phoenix (Fenghuang) town (a touristic site in Southern China) has leaded to the death of 47 rural workers. It is believed that the disaster was deal to the corruption of local authority. News report has been banned. AHQ Weekly is spoofing the story to protest...

Let Hoder Speak!

Following the suspension of Hossein Derakhshan’s blog (aka Hoder) by the U.S. based hosting company, Hosting Matters, an online petition has been launched by The Eyeranian in support of Hoder’s right to freedom of speech: “Hoder, like all of us, has a right to express his opinion. Opinions expressed in...

Iran:Award winner writer in trouble

Khabgard reminds[Fa] us that Yaghoub Yadali, an award winner writer, is going to be judged in court because of his novel “The behavior of unrest”. This story was published two years ago with permission of Iranian authorities and won a couple of awards.It seems some people complained against some sentences...

Russia: Neo-Nazi Execution Video

  18 August 2007

One of the most discussed topics in the Russian blogosphere last week was a graphic video of what appeared to be the execution of two ethnically non-Russian men by masked figures claiming to be members of a Russian neo-Nazi group. Anton Nossik, a representative of the company that oversees LiveJournal's Russian segment, blogs about the Russian authorities' irrational reaction to the video.

Iran: Government celebrates Journalist Day

The Iranian government celebrated Journalist Day on August 8, in spite of having arrested several journalists and banned many newspapers in recent months. The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said: “The work of journalists is of the same essence of that of the prophets: informing.” According to Reporters without Borders at...

China: Blogs deleted, barred and officially backed

  18 August 2007

An eventful week on the backside of the Chinese blogsphere with an entire blogging website desisted, one high-profile blog deleted and another put on the unmentionable list; two web 2.0 companies battle it out in the courts and one novice blogger tries to gain readers the nouveau-riche way.

Vietnam: Web Censorship

  18 August 2007

When I began considering posting on Global Voices from Vietnam, the first thought that came to mind was what exactly was I allowed to post? What topics could I cover, and which ones should I avoid? The media in communist Vietnam is state controlled, and although the internet isn’t as...

Turkey blocks popular blogging platform WordPress.com

The popular, and free, blogging platform WordPress.com has been blocked in Turkey and those who are trying to visit it are seeing this message: “Access to this site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2007/195 of T.C. Fatih 2.Civil Court of First Instance.” “I didn’t realize Turkey had...

Russia: Racism

  17 August 2007

Mark MacKinnon writes about violence against non-Russians in Russia and the Kremlin's “strategy” of making Putin look like “a least-bad option” by not discouraging more radical political views: “…the monsters it created are now out of even the Kremlin's control.”