Stories about Freedom of Speech from January, 2008
Bloggers discuss the sacking of the Governor of Bank of Tanzania
Tanzanian Swahili bloggers are discussing the sacking of the Governor of the Bank of Tanzania and the brutal attack on two investigative journalists.
Brazil: Violent games have been banned or censored?
Sérgio Amadeu [pt] criticizes a court decision that banned computer games “EverQuest” and “Counter-Strike” because of the alleged violence. “Japan is one of the countries in which violent games are more widespread, Korea is another. The statistics for violence there do not even get close to the numbers in the...
Madagascar: Popular Radio Broadcast supsended by the Government
Jentilisa reports that the popular radio program “karajia” (discussion in Malagasy) braodcasted by the Roman Catholic Church Radio called Radio Don Bosco was suspended by the government. This suspension was also reported on a popular broadcast called ” kidoana maraina” on Radio Television Analamanga (RTA). Jentilisa explains that the reason...
Iran:Open letter to Chavez from Iranian labour activists
Militant has published an open letter to President Hugo Chavez from Iranian labour and student activists. Chavez was asked to use his close relation with Iranian president,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,to help more than 40 jailed students and labour activists,to be released from prison.
China: Shanghai Subway Video
mirenyige uploaded a short video in youtube showing a young couple's good-bye kiss in a shanghai subway station. From the angles of the video, netizens suspected (zh) that it was taken from the CCTV inside the station by subway staffs.
Russia: “Not Free”
Sean's Russia Blog writes about the Freedom House's recent verdict on Russia: “not free.”
Russia, UK: View From BC's Former Employee
Interesting insight into the British Council scandal from Dmitri Minaev of De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis – in this post's comments section at Siberian Light: “These attacks never really stopped, but the British embassy managed to keep the offices running till in 2007 Russia finally demanded that some offices be...
Russia, U.K.: More on the British Council
Ongoing coverage of the British Council row – at A Step At A Time: “An interesting feature of the present crisis, which was obviously prepared in advance by the Russian authorities, is the flooding of British media comments boards (the Mail and Telegraph are the two leading examples at present)...
Israel: Law for Censorship of Web Comments Passes Initial Knesset Voting
Israeli web culture is known for having an active talkback (web commenting) scene. Every major news site allows users to submit comments for every single one of its stories. Israeli culture at its best and worst thrives through discussions held within these spaces; discussions which are planned to fall under future censorship, according to the Talkback Law, proposed by Knesset member Israel Hasson. The proposal passed initial voting in the Knesset yesterday, January 16th.
Barbados: Blogs and the Elections
“Welcome to the future. Most of us newly-active Bajan voters are young and idealistic… and we are online”: Barbados Free Press is not impressed that blogs and new media are not being given their due in influencing the outcome of the Barbados election, adding: “The old Barbados news media can...
Iran: A leftist student released,more got arrested
Azady-Brabary blog informs [Fa]that Arash Pakzad, a leftist student,was recently released after being in prison for 45 days.The blog adds that more leftist students were arrested this week.
Free Fouad: Arab Bloggers Speak Up!
The dean of Saudi bloggers Fouad Al Farhan (Ar) is still being detained - a month after he was handcuffed from his office in Jeddah and taken to an undisclosed location. Bloggers from Saudi Arabia to Tunisia are rallying behind Al Farhan and calling for his immediate release.
China: Internet Mop Culture
Joel Martinsen from DANWEI translated a Tianya article on the Internet Mop culture behind the “Very yellow, very violent” affair.
China: Real Name SNS
Tangos pointed out that the different between facebook and HaiNei (another Chinese version of facebook) is that the former stresses network effect, while the latter stresses real name and identity (zh) and it is an incomplete version of facebook.
China: Inside the Wall Social Network
Kblogs introduces a new social network site in China, called Qiangne.com, which means inside the (great fire) wall. The blogger said that such kind of social network platform would manifest the “harmonious society” to its extreme (zh).
Ukraine: Akhmetov and Alcoholism
Ukrainiana writes about the connection between alcoholism in Ukraine and the country's richest man.
Russia, UK: British Council
Robert Amsterdam writes on the UK-Russia conflict over the British Council.
Poland: “Fear” in Polish
A Polish translation of Jan Gross’ Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland is selling well and causing debates in Poland, the beatroot reports.
China: This week's mass incidents
Still several months to go until the Olympics, yet just the past few days have seen a number of unrelated mass incidents take place around the country, from the large protest at the Tianmen Party headquarters and a taxi driver strike in solidarity following the the recent beating to death...
Russia: Xenophobia Blogging
There seems to be more and more posts on xenophobia in the Russian blogosphere. Many are written by xenophobes, while some are written about them. Below are two recent examples of xenophobia blogging.
Russia: Extremism Charges Against “Voice of Beslan”
Robert Amsterdam and Siberian Light report on the plight of Voice of Beslan, a group of Beslan survivors and their relatives, who are now being accused of breaking the law on extremism.
