Stories about News from January, 2011
Campus Free Speech: University of Massachusetts’ Policy Criticized
Free speech issue is a hot button issue on campuses in the United States, and a post at Huffington Post has re-ignited the debate once again. In 2009, we talked about Butler University and its handling of criticism by a student blogger Jess Zimmerman. Now it is about a policy...
Cyber “long war” continues in Iran
The past few weeks have seen attention focused on Tunisia and Egypt in hopes of understanding what role, if any, information and communications technologies (ICTs) are playing in the recent unrest in both countries. While experts and pundits continue to discuss and debate, Iran's efforts at silencing the Green Movement...
Iran: A blogger's life in danger
Hrana, human rights activists news agency, reports [fa] that Hossein Maleki Ronaghi ‘s life is in danger and he needs urgent medical care in prison. Hossein Maleki Ronaghi has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Hussein Rongah Melki (also known as “Babak Khoramdin”) was one of the key cyberactivists...
Iran's Cyber Police, Geography, and the Psychological Denial of Service
National Public Radio reports that Iran is planning on dispatching “cyber police” across the country with General Ahmadi Moghaddam stating that “There is no time to wait” in deploying the Islamic Republic's latest line of defense against its real and perceived enemies. This isn't the first time Moghaddam has claimed...
Iran: Blocking activity, email interception, and renewed pressure on the Green Movement
The Tor Project reports that the Iranian firewall is now blocking or throttling Tor, a number of other circumvention tools as well as SSL. They recommend using bridges that are not on port 443. Below are several graphs from the Tor Project demonstrating this: Within Iran there are further conflicting...
Saudi policy on blogging criticized
Saudi Arabia has for long faced criticism and scrutiny for not allowing the country's press and the people to express themselves without any fear of reprisal. The criticism is sure to get louder now that the government has decided to require bloggers and e-news sites to obtain a license before...
Taiwan restricting the press?
Reports suggest Taiwan is restricting the press and Freedom House has downgraded the island nation in its annual global free press report. According to The Christian Science Monitor, “Freedom of speech and press are among the most lauded achievements of Taiwan’s democratic transition since martial law was lifted more than two decades...
