December, 2010

Stories from December, 2010

Hungary introduces press censorship

  30 December 2010

Press censorship is a common occurrence in many parts of the world, but one does not associate a democratic nation in middle of Europe to go this route. Well, Hungary wants to change that. According to The Raw Story, “Hungary's recently elected right-wing government has introduced a law demanding —...

Human Rights Organizations Worldwide Decry Attacks on Freedom of Expression

  16 December 2010

It has been almost two weeks since cablegate.wikileaks.org, the website hosting leaked US diplomatic cables, was taken down, and the right of Wikileaks to publish truthful information was immediately besieged. Since then, human rights organizations around the world have condemned the attacks on WikiLeaks and have raised their voices to protect freedom of expression online.

Venezuela: Internet law moves forward, albeit with changes

  16 December 2010

In a first round of discussion, on December 14th, the Venezuelan National Assembly approved the reform to the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio, Television and Electronic Media and differed for today the Law for Telecommunications. However, the texts that were discussed yesterday were different to the ones that were published on the Assembly website, and several points were eliminated

China: No empty chair allowed online

  11 December 2010

Yesterday Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia could not attend the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway. The Nobel Prize committee reserved an empty chair to symbolize Liu's presence. In order to show their support for Liu and deliver the information about the Nobel Peace Prize across...

Iran: “A website developer was sentenced to death”

  9 December 2010

Saeed Malekpour,website developer, is facing the death penalty in Iran for allegedly designing “adult” websites. A few Iranian sites wrote Malekpour was the main manager of hard porn Avizoon site and he is not a political prisoner.

Iran:Derakhshan Released On $1.5 Million Bail

  9 December 2010

An informed source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that Hossein Derakhshan was released last night on the unprecedented bail amount of $1.5 million. Derakhshan had requested a prison furlough after a lower court sentenced him to 19.5 years in prison in September.

Net Neutrality, Spain and Wikileaks

  9 December 2010

Previously, we’ve touched on the the topic of net neutrality , especially neutrality in Spain. Since last September, when Telefonica proposed to Spain’s Telecommunications Market Comission, to eliminate their flat fee and establish 3 tiers of service varying from quality and user’s data usage, things have been moving along.

Tunisia: Censorship Continues as Wikileaks Cables Make the Rounds

  7 December 2010

Tunisian activists pounced on the latest Wikileaks US Embassy Cables, dedicating a new website to republish and discuss the revelations related to their country. Tunileaks, was launched by Nawaat one hour after the whistle-blowing site unleashed the cables on Sunday, November 28th.

Actions to silence Cablegate and Wikileaks, threats against Assange

  5 December 2010

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is in danger and his project Wikileaks is under attack. A week after the release of the largest number of classified information, the CableGate, prominent politicians even expressed their wish to “hunt him” or see him “executed“. The reactions are beautifully summarized by OpenDemocracy: As international...

YouTube adds HTTPS; Syrians, Tunisians gain access, but…!

  1 December 2010

HTTPS has been in the news quite a bit lately; first, because of Firesheep, a program that allows users on open WiFi networks to sniff cookies and effectively hijack users’ social networking connections if they're not using HTTPS.  As a result, a campaign has emerged to call on companies to...