Stories about Feature from February, 2009
Shiv Sena's Orkut Campaign: The Limits to Freedom of Expression in an Intolerant India
The Indian blogosphere is abuzz with discussions on freedom of expression after the Supreme Court refused to throw out Shiv Sena's defamation case against 19 year old computer science student Ajith D (TOI). However, the Indian blogosphere's reactions to the controversy are mostly based on reports on the incident in Indian media and the quality of this reporting has been very mediocre, with few details and little background information.
Announcing Herdict Web: Report Inaccessibility Now!
Global Voices Advocacy is proud to announce the launch of Herdict Web. Herdict Web is a natural extension of The OpenNet Initiative; but whereas ONI views Internet filtering through an academic lens, Herdict Web crowdsources reports from users to discover, in real time, what users around the world are experiencing...
China: Netizen Representatives or 50 Cents Rule!
The Xinhua News reported yesterday (Feb 23) that a conference had been held last weekend on Feb 16 by the Office of Nationwide anti-Smut campaign (全国整治互联网低俗之风专项行动办公室) and the Beijing Association of Online Media (北京网络媒体协会), in which representatives of netizen gave suggestion on cleaning up the internet. Rebecca MacKinnon gave some...
China: Beijing Blogger-Lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan Harassed by Authority
Beijing blogger-lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan has been harassed by authority due to his involvement in the call for direct election of the Beijing Lawyer Association. Lui's Law firm, Yitong, may have to close down for six months. According to Liu's blogpost yesterday (17 of Feb): two days ago, 16 of February,...
Brazil: The Cybercrimes Bill meets the “Cybercriminal” Camp
It's no surprise then that the controversy should grow further when this bill is brought into debate at a huge cyberculture meeting. Daniel Duende joined the crowds of bit-torrent-using p2p-addicted geeks who attended the debate at Campus Party.
China: Prominent Blogger Stabbed
About two hours ago, Zola from twitter reported that he got a phone call from Guo Jian-loong saying prominent blogger and novelist, Xu Lai at ProState in Flame was stabbed twice in a book store, One Way Street, at Beijing when he was about to have a finished a public...
German-Egyptian blogger is released after 5 Days of Mental Abuse
I was repeatedly questioned about everything and I was terrified. Although I was not abused physically, I was blind-folded all the time. Officers kept saying to me, and I was threatened with long term imprisonment. They asked me if I supported Hamas, was working for Israel, and, being Christian, if I was an evangelist. I was never informed of any charges against me.
Bahrain and Qatar: Disappearing the Internet
It would seem that another crackdown on Internet freedoms is occurring in the Middle East. Once thought to be the last bastion of free speech, the Internet has recently been subjected to a spate of blockings; and while censorship is no new thing to the region, the willingness of countries such as Bahrain and Qatar to adopt strict Internet policies akin to those in neighboring Saudi Arabia has created a sense of alarm amongst the online community.
Egyptian: Second blogger arrested in less than a week
In less than a week, two Egyptian bloggers were arrested. The recent arrest occurred yesterday, February 9th, 2009, when central security forces broke into Diaa Eddin Gad, the owner of Sawt Ghadib blog (An Angry Voice). So far, the police did not reveal the reason behind his arrest or where he was being detained.
China: E-group cleaning at Douban.com
Douban.com, one of the most popular Web 2.0 website in China, is forced to close some of its e-groups due to the recent anti-Smuts campaign. However, many of the deleted e-groups are social and political in nature rather than vulgar and indecent. Peter Guo from Amoiist wrote in his blog...
Egypt: Bloggers for Terrorism
Egyptian bloggers are posting their own photographs, posing with fake guns and pistols, on their blogs and Facebook groups as part of a new gimmick to draw attention to the plight of detained blogger Mohamed Adel. Find out more about Operation General Mait in this article by Lasto Adri.
Yemeni online journalist sends urgent appeal after death threats and hacking of his website
Mohamed Al-Jabali, the editor of Akhbaralasr news website is the latest casualty in a wave of intimidations targeting bloggers and online journalists in Yemen. In a statement made yesterday, Al-Jabali appealed for protection after receiving death threats in the capital Sanaa from the regime’s security apparatus. This comes just after his website was also hacked. The hackers, whom Al-Jabali said are elements of the regime, published a sarcastic entry on the front page with a picture of a monkey and an insult on the owner of the website Al-Jabali.
Shanzhai Spring Festival Gala blocked in China
In the evening of 25 of January 2009, most Chinese people in mainland China were at home, enjoying the year end dinner while waiting for the Lunar New Year. A usual entertainment for the night among family members was to watch the Spring Festival Gala broadcasted by CCTV. This year,...
Japan: Bloggers respond to new filtering measures
Over the past week, Japan's major mobile phone operators have commenced filtering web access on mobile phones contracted to minors (users under 18 years of age), following on legislation introduced in late 2007 and on developments over the last year toward the regulation of “harmful” content. On January 30th, NTT...
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) releases new legal circumvention tools
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) is pleased to announce two new, easy, legal tools for circumventing Internet censorship. Thailand's Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, the Official Censor of the Military Coup, has blocked at least 17,775 websites which, along with blocking by the Royal Thai Police, resulted in more than 50,000 websites blocked in Thailand. Public webboard discussions, circumvention tools, voices from Thailand's Muslim South and critical commentary of Thailand's monarchy were particularly targetted for censorship.
India: Blogger silenced
Chyetanya Kunte is an Indian blogger living in the Netherlands. On 27th of November, 2008 during the terror attacks in Mumbai he wrote a blog post (now available through Google cache) criticizing Indian private television channel New Delhi Television (NDTV) and particularly their group editor Barkha Dutt's coverage of the...
Cambodia: Internet censorship targets artists
The Cambodian Ministry of Women's Affairs has threatened to block a Web site that contains artistic illustrations of bare-breasted Apsara dancers and a Khmer Rouge soldier. This censorship targets Cambodian artists who are more recognized not in offline exhibitions but through their presence on the world wide web.
