Stories about Feature from October, 2010
Azerbaijan: Free Expression under Attack
The report is the result of joint freedom of expression mission undertaken from 7 to 9 September, 2010. The mission representatives met with journalists and bloggers, collected testimonies from survivors of violent attacks, and family members of imprisoned journalists and bloggers, including Hikmet Hajizade, the father of imprisoned blogger Adnan Hajizade. The mission representatives also held meetings with civil society activists and government representatives.
Free Blogger Dieu Cay
Two and a half years ago, in April 2008, police in Vietnam arrested Nguyen Van Hai and detained him secretly for several weeks. Mr. Hai, now 58-years old, blogged under the nickname Dieu Cay which means “the peasant’s water pipe.” At the time, authorities denied targeting Dieu Cay for his writings even though he was then one of the country’s best known bloggers and government critics. Through his Yahoo 360 blog, Dieu Cay exposed government corruption, called for freedom of expression and was among the first Vietnamese to criticize a Chinese government decision to incorporate the Paracel and Spratly Islands—which are claimed by Vietnam and several other Asian countries— into an administrative unit under China’s Hainan island.
Hong Kong: Three activists harassed by Facebook
Last week, three Hong Kong activists’ accounts were suspended by Facebook. They were administrators of a group that advocates against the development of luxurious housing in a wetland by Henderson Land Development Company Ltd. According to the report by Apple Daily News, Ho Lok, a Chinese University Philosophy undergraduate opened...
Egypt: New Regulations to Monitor bulk SMS Content
The Egyptian National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) decided to set a new regulation in Egypt on 11 October forcing all companies sending bulk SMS Conten short text messages (SMS) to mobile phones to obtain a license from national bodies as well as getting an approval on the content of the message before sending it from special personages, whom will be appointed to monitor SMS services.
China: When the network was cut in Xinjiang…
After the riot in Urumqi in July 5 2009, the Internet and communication network in Xinjiang had been cut off for several months. So far, not much have been reported on the situation back then. Recently a netizen has written in detail what had happened between July 6 to December 25, 2009 in Xinjiang at daynew.net. This is a brief summary of the report.
Thailand’s Emergency: Who Killed the King?
David Streckfuss, a human rights expert on political and cultural history, finds that the heart of the longstanding and ongoing lèse majesté debate rests in the country’s defamation law. This truism concerns not only academics who are constrained from speaking freely but also ordinary citizens.
Our Guide “Mirroring a Censored WordPress Blog” now available in French
Global Voices Advocacy is pleased to release the French translation of our Mirroring a Censored WordPress Blog guide. The guide has been written by Sami Ben Gharbia (Global Voices Advocacy Director), with Rebekah Heacock (a research assistant for the OpenNet Initiative) and Jeremy Clarke (Global Voices web developer and Wordpress designer), and translated by our friend, blogger Anna Guèye.
Venezuela: WordPress reported inaccessible for three days
Since Sunday afternoon, September 26th, 2010, while Venezuelan elections for the National Assembly were still being held, several users started reporting that they were unable to access any blog hosted on the free blogging platform Wordpress.com from their internet connections within the country.
