Stories about Freedom of Speech from December, 2010
China: The short life of GFW father's microblog
China digital times explains why Fang Binxing's Sina microblog was shut down in three hours. Fang is the President of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications who is known as the “father of the Great Firewall.”
South Africa: Bloggers’ take on Wikileaks
Like much of the world of late, everyone has been affected by the revelations contained in WikiLeaks cables. South Africa is no exception. Here's South African bloggers' take on WikiLeaks.
Hal Roberts’ Commentary on Internet Censorship in Belarus
Hal Roberts, Berkman Center censorship expert, comments on recent messages of extensive Internet censorship in Belarus. Besides, DNS-hijacking and filtering, Roberts also reports DDOS attacks on opposition websites.
Belarus: Tweets and Pictures of Another Post-Election Rallies
Despite Twitter has been blocked in Belarus, the Twitter hashtag #electby is updated every second. Lots of photos of the Belarus events available at picfog at the same hashtag.
Belarus: Users Are Redirected to Fake Opposition Websites
Habrahabr-user webdew reports that Belarus users are being redirected to fake opposition websites: gazetaby.in, nnby.in, charter97.in, bchdd.in, belaruspartisan.in, euroradio.in, ucpb.in, svaboda.in. The design of all these websites is the same but the content is completely different from the original. All domains belong to “Belpak”, Belarus state-owned Internet provider.
Belarus: Presidential Election Day Ends in Protests and Crackdown
December 19, the 2010 presidential election day in Belarus, ended in mass protests, arrests and violent clashes with the riot police in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Below is a small selection of citizen media reports on what happened.
Belarus: Gmail, Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook and other Sites Blocked
Belarus government blocked all major social media (Gmail, Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook) as well as opposition media outlets “Charter 97“, “Belarus Partizan“, and “Solidarity“, Lenta.ru reported [RUS]. The government decided to block social media in order to prevent mass mobilization after today's elections and following protests.
Iran:Goudarzi, jailed human rights activist was released
Aftab News [fa] ,an Iranian site, reported Kouhyar Goudarzi, jailed blogger and human rights activist was released last week, after being in prison for one year.
Thailand: ‘Cyber Scout’ training
Saksith Saiyasombut reviews Thailand's ‘Cyber Scout’ training programme which aims to form a network of volunteers to monitor any “threat to national security” in the internet and “to defend and protect the royal institution.”
Cuba: Top 10 Cubans
Uncommon Sense begins his Top Ten List of Cubans who made a difference in 2010.
Brazil: Newspaper Folha de São Paulo censors satirical blog
The blog "Falha de Sao Paulo", created by brothers Lino and Mario Bocchini, as a parody of Brazil’s biggest newspaper company - Folha de Sao Paulo - was removed from the web by an injunction in the Brazilian courts at the end of September. Dozens of blogs came out in defense of the website and its authors to freedom of expression.
Guinea: Clarification from Reporters Without Borders
The blog banabananews.org published [fr] a press release from Paris by the NGO Reporters Without Borders, dated 8th December 2010 in which it states: “‘Reporter Sans Frontière Section Guinée’ has absolutely nothing to do with the campaign for freedom of the press, has no link whatsoever with our organisation, and is...
Côte d'Ivoire: Citizens Marching towards another “Orange Revolution”?
Although the atmosphere was already quite worrisome in Côte d'Ivoire, the tension level climbed up a few notches in the past few days. After a skirmish on December 12 between the two opposite camps and the prolongation of the cease-fire by Laurent Gbagbo, Alassane Ouattara and his partisans are now calling on the population to "engage in a pacific and democratic mass protest in order to install the legitimate and legal administration". Bloggers react before the potentially explosive event:
Blogger.com Removes Two Blogs by Same Author for More than 12 Hours
Blogger Carlos Quiroz writes, “On Monday, December 13, 2010 around by at 11:00 AM. my blog Carlos in DC was deleted by Blogger.com after I tried posting a video of the WikiLeaks anonymous activists. Blogger also deleted my blog Peruanista without any explanation. Both blogs were removed for more than 12 hour.”
Russia: Police Intensifies Surveillance ‘to Prevent Calls to Violence’
Special services are monitoring social networks and track IP-addresses of those who spread calls to violence, rian.ru reports [RUS]. Vkontakte.ru, Russian social network, increased removal of the groups with xenophobia content after the events at Manezh square. “600 moderators work on removal of groups inciting hate-crime”, rian.ru adds [RUS].
China: The World of Guarantee
You have to guarantee that the content of your website be clean, or else you will be penalized by “DNS suspension” or “web-maintenance”. Lee Chi-leung from interlocals.net translates an excerpt of a local investigative report on the “Guarantee system” adopted by the Chinese government.
Czech Republic: Present and Future of the Far-Right
Dr. Sean's Diary analyzes the present and the future of the Czech far-right.
Belarus: More Insight on Upcoming Election
More insight on this coming Sunday's presidential election in Belarus – at OpenDemocracy.net (here and here), and at Democratist.
Russia: “WikiFakes”
FP's Passport writes about the possibly fake WikiLeaks’ “scoops” published by Russkiy Reporter magazine.
Russia: Commentary on Dec. 11 Moscow Rioting
Reactions to the Dec. 11 xenophobic riots in downtown Moscow – by Vadim Nikitin, Miriam Elder, Natalia Antonova, Robert Amsterdam's blog, and The Power Vertical.
Russia: Kashin on Spartak Fans and Nov. 6 Beating, in English
Russian journalist Oleg Kashin writes for OpenDemocracy.net about the authorities’ inadequate response to a rally by Spartak football fans, and, for the New York Times, about the Nov. 6 attack on him in Moscow (both texts are in English).
