Media Censorship
Censorship in America: Hate Speech Overview
Hate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic. In law, hate speech is any speech, gesture or conduct, writing, or display which is forbidden because it may incite [...]
Media Censorship: Vietnam Journalist Held For ‘Graft’
Vietnamese authorities have arrested a journalist who wrote a series of exposes on corruption for allegedly bribing a traffic cop, according to a state media report. The official Thanh Nien newspaper said Hoang Khuong, 37, whose real name is Nguyen Van Khuong and who writes for the Tuoi Tre newspaper, was detained on Monday. He [...]
Media Censorship: Vietnam Writer, Priest Handed Jail Sentences
A court in central Vietnam sentenced a female writer to five years in prison and ordered an activist priest jailed for two years for “activities undermining the state,” official media said Friday. Ho Thi Bich Khuong, 44, was handed three years under house arrest in addition to her five-year sentence, while Pastor Nguyen Trung Ton, [...]
Media Censorship: Unrest Spreads In Southern China
Residents protest a power plant they say is polluting their village in China’s Guangdong province. Thousands of angry residents surrounded government buildings and blocked roads in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong on Tuesday in protest at a coal-fired power plant they say is polluting the environment, officials and protesters said. Police clashed with large [...]
Internet Censorship: Chinese Netizens Jailed for Wedding Video
Chinese authorities move quickly to discourage ‘negative’ postings online. Two men who posted a video of columns of police they said were a guard of honor at a wedding party in the central province of Hunan have been sentenced to five days’ administrative detention for using the Internet to spread rumors and “disturb public order.” [...]
Free Speech: Mass Anti-Government Rallies Spike Across Syria
Large crowds of anti-government protesters poured into the streets of many Syrian towns and cities Friday, heeding calls by opposition leaders to make a show of strength, as Arab League observers pursue their mission. Government forces fired on protesters causing a number of casualties. Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the northern Syrian [...]
Censorship: Hong Kong Silent on Editor Visa
Delay raises fears of growing Chinese control of Hong Kong press freedoms. An overseas rights group has called on the Hong Kong government to explain why a cutting-edge Chinese journalist has not been issued with a visa to work in the former British colony. The delay comes after a decision by the territory’s Special Administrative [...]
Censorship Easing In Burma
By Tyler Chapman In a reporter’s notebook, Tyler Chapman writes that journalists are pleased, but they know that restrictions can be reimposed at any time. The editor of True News, one of Rangoon’s weekly newspapers, decided recently to test the limits and patience of the government censorship apparatus. Thaung Htike has a long record of [...]
Even Though SOPA / PIPA Are Hot Topics, Remember DMCA Already Has Significant Problems
A number of folks on both sides of the SOPA/PIPA debates have noted the seeming “irony” that the anti-SOPA/PIPA folks keep pointing to the DMCA and complaining about how SOPA/PIPA will undermine the DMCA. After all, many in the tech industry were quite worried about the DMCA when it first showed up and have continued [...]
Media Censorship: Popular Talk Show Hosts Axed
Two popular television hosts are fired in Hong Kong, raising fears that Chinese censors are exerting undue influence over the island. An elderly man reads a newspaper in a workshop in Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s government broadcaster has said it won’t renew the contracts of two popular current-affairs talk show hosts in 2012, sparking fears [...]
China: Editor Jailed Amid Graft Probe
The case highlights widespread corruption in the Chinese official media. A newspaper vendor at his stall in Beijing. Authorities in the Chinese capital have handed down a 13-year jail term to a former top editor convicted of bribery. Liu Chongzhou, a former editor-in-chief of the China Land and Resources newspaper, was sentenced on Wednesday by [...]
Media Censorship: South Sudan Releases Journalists Held for Criticizing President
The Deputy Editor of the Destiny newspaper, Dengdit Ayok, after being released from custody in Juba, November 19, 2011. Two journalists, detained for two weeks by government security in the new nation of South Sudan, have been released. The two were arrested for publishing an article critical of President Salva Kiir’s daughter. The editor of [...]
