Freedom of Expression
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 [...]
China: Blogger’s Account Canceled
Chinese authorities are making a push to censor netizens who publish ‘sensitive’ content. Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang have frozen the microblogging accounts of an independent journalist and prominent blogger because he published “uncivilized” content on them. Hangzhou-based veteran journalist and blogger Zan Aizong said his accounts on the popular Sina Weibo [...]
Freedom of Expression: Activists Jailed for Criticizing Government
The Supreme Court in the United Arab Emirates has sentenced five political activists to prison for publicly criticizing the country’s leaders. The defendants were arrested in April for making various comments, and they appeared in court several times, mostly behind closed doors. Prominent blogger Ahmed Mansour received the longest sentence – three years. He faced [...]
Free Speech: Occupy Wall Street Protesters’ Rights Violated By Police
Occupy Wall Street activists took their protest against social inequality and corporate greed to New York’s Financial District Thursday, as police kept demonstrators from Wall Street itself. Minor skirmishes reported between protesters and police. Police used barricades to shunt demonstrators around Wall Street, and to disperse what began as a march of several hundred people [...]
Censorship in America: SOPA Opposition Growing
Yesterday the internet was buzzing with protesters of the SOPA Internet Censorship Bill, largely due to the efforts of americancensorship.org, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Censorship in America, Free Software Foundation, Demand Progress, Fight For the Future, Creative Commons, Mozilla, and many others. Today, Time Magazine’s Techland blog posted an article about the bill and what it means [...]
American Censorship Day is this Wednesday (Nov 16) — And You Can Join In!
This Wednesday, November 16, the disastrous “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) heads to the House Judiciary committee. In case you need a refresher, SOPA could allow the U.S. government and private corporations to create a blacklist of censored websites, and cut many more off from their ad networks and payment providers. This bill is bad [...]
Media Censorship: Sri Lankan Government Criticized for Targeting Several News Websites
Sri Lankan authorities are facing strong criticism for restricting media freedom after blocking several websites and requiring all news websites to register with the government. The government is defending its actions, saying it is not targeting freedom of expression. The government says it blocked the websites because some of the reports they carried had damaged [...]
Government Control, Censorship: Tibetan Art Show Closed
Chinese authorities move to restrict expressions of Tibetan national culture. Chinese authorities in the Tibetan capital Lhasa have closed an exhibition of Tibetan art amid growing efforts by Tibetans to assert their cultural and national identity in a region increasingly dominated by Han Chinese. The exhibition, which was shut down two hours after it opened, [...]
Why Is OWS Blanketed With NYPD Cameras — And Are Police Breaking the Law?
Photo Credit: Nick Turse Written By Tana Ganeva | Sourced from AlterNet Why is an overwhelmingly peaceful protest under such heavy surveillance? On October 15, the day OWS solidarity protests broke out as far away as Australia and Japan, and thousands of people poured into Times Square, a line of NYPD TARU (Technical Assistance Response Unit) officers stood on [...]
Tunisia Testing Newfound Freedom of Expression
By Lisa Bryant | Tunis Tunisia’s revolution has exploded longstanding curbs to free expression. Media, civil society groups and political parties are flowering. Journalist and blogger Haythem el Mekki, 29, earns a living poking fun at politicians for Tunisia’s popular Radio Mosaique. It is the kind of free-wheeling satire that did not exist here a [...]
