Censorship
14 November 2007
Yahoo forced to apologise to Chinese dissidents over crackdown on journalists The Guardian
Yahoo forced to apologise to Chinese dissidents over crackdown on journalists
The internet giant Yahoo settled a lawsuit yesterday in relation to allegations that it helped China in a crackdown on two journalists. Yahoo's decision to settle came a week after the company was criticised in Congress, with one congressman accusing the company of being moral pygmies. Also includes links to BBC, ComputerWorld and E-Commerce Times articles.
07 November 2007
Turkey moves to change speech law BBC
The Turkish government says it will change a controversial law restricting freedom of expression. Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin said a new bill would be put before the Turkish parliament in the coming days.
US rebukes Yahoo over China case BBC
A US congressional panel has criticised internet firm Yahoo for not giving full details to a probe into the jailing of a reporter by Chinese authorities. Yahoo had been "at best inexcusably negligent" and at worst "deceptive" in evidence given to the House Foreign Affairs Committee last year, it said. Also includes links to stories from The Guardian, E-Commerce Times, Financial Times, Associated Press and an Amnesty news release.
06 November 2007
EDITORIAL: Your right to know - censorship of Australian media The Australian
A new report by Irene Moss AO has found that Australia ranks behind New Zealand, Britain and Canada when it comes to freedom of the press, and the information citizens can get from government. This is shameful. Australia is a young and robust democracy. When it comes to media freedom, it should be second to none.
Australian free speech being whittled away The Age
Free speech in Australia is being whittled away by legal restrictions and a secretive culture among public officials, according to a new report on press freedom. Author of the report, former NSW ombudsman Irene Moss, says there are grounds for concern about the state of free speech in Australia. Her audit, commissioned by a coalition of major media groups, says there are 500 pieces of legislation and at least 1,000 court suppression orders still in force that restrict media reporting in Australia.
04 November 2007
Another "technical incident" shuts down Internet again Reporters sans frontières
Reporters Without Borders condemns the resumption of Internet censorship by the Burmese military government. Internet connections have been cut again since yesterday. One of the main ISPs, the state-controlled Myanmar Teleport (BaganNet), has again referred to a "technical incident."
25 October 2007
Kazakhstan shuts down opposition Web sites Reuters
Kazakhstan has blocked access to a number of opposition Web sites in a move Internet users condemned on Wednesday as a crackdown on freedom of speech.
US Congress To Google: Don't Sell Out To Censors Forbes
For global tech companies like Google and Yahoo!, cooperating with repressive states like China has been a public relations nightmare. Now that ethical dilemma may be slowly widening into a legal morass.
24 October 2007
Brutality on show as Burma lifts ban The Australian
Graphic digital photos of the Burmese regime's brutal crackdown on monks and democracy activists have started to appear in the West, after the junta restored access to the internet last week. Also includes links to a photographic coverage on Burma today.
22 October 2007
Internet ban is clue to China’s new leaders The Times
Chinese people who want to know the identity of the man who will be their leader into the next decade should log on to the internet. But in a country where politics are opaque and the media is banned from reporting such state secrets as the lineup of the new Politburo Standing Committee, the clues to their identities lie in what is prohibited. In the past few days it has become impossible in China to include the names Xi Jinping or Li Keqiang in a blog.
20 October 2007
China Blocks YouTube, Restores Flickr and Blogspot PC World
China's Web viewers can no longer access YouTube, but Blogspot.com and Flickr photos are now available. China watchers, get your scorecards out: Google Inc.'s YouTube is blocked, Wikipedia is still blocked, but, for the moment, Google blog site Blogspot.com is available and some pictures from Yahoo Inc.'s Flickr photos can once again be viewed. Also includes news release from Reporters sans frontières.
18 October 2007
Malaysia cracks down on bloggers BBC
The Malaysian government has warned it could use tough anti-terrorism laws against bloggers who insult Islam or the country's king. The move comes as one of Malaysia's leading online commentators has been questioned by police following a complaint by the main governing party.
When US-made 'censorware' ends up in iron fists Christian Science Monitor
Despite Burma's record of repression, it's probably legal for American companies to sell Internet filters there, export lawyers say. But is it ethical?
17 October 2007
A "Journey to the Heart of Internet censorship" on eve of Chinese party congress Reporters sans frontières
In partnership with Reporters Without Borders and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a Chinese Internet expert working in IT industry has produced an exclusive study on the key mechanism of the Chinese official system of online censorship, surveillance and propaganda. The author prefers to remain anonymous. Also includes BBC coverage, "Report highlights blog censorship".
16 October 2007
Broadband Big Brothers - online censorship around the world Forbes
Few images capture the ugliness of Myanmar's recent military crackdown quite like the photos of a Buddhist monk's mud-covered corpse displayed in a slide show on the Web site of the Democratic Voice of Burma, a Burmese advocacy group based in Norway. The outraged messages posted in response show the Web's power to connect supporters around the world with the long-suffering citizens of an isolated and repressed country.
13 October 2007
China's Internet controls tightened ahead of sensitive political congress The Age
At first, Liu Xiaoyuan just fumed when his online journal postings disappeared with no explanation. Then he decided to do something few if any of China's censored bloggers had tried. He sued his service provider. "Each time I would see one of my entries blocked, I'd feel so furious and indignant," said Liu, a 43-year-old Beijing lawyer. "It was just so disrespectful."
12 October 2007
China tightens control of net The Guardian
Censorship of the internet in China is becoming more draconian, according to new details of Beijing's online restrictions published by human rights organisations. The claims come in a report from international journalism watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres and the China Human Rights Defenders group, which examines the way the Chinese government reacts to free speech on the internet.
08 October 2007
Downloading the Burma uprising: Did it help? Christian Science Monitor
When protesters took to the streets of Burma two decades ago, activists relied on fax machines to tell the world what was going on. In last month's uprising in the isolated police state, they photographed and uploaded the demonstrations via cellphone. Images and videos bounced from Internet cafes to foreign blogs and international media, then sometimes back again to Burma (also known as Myanmar) by satellite TV and shortwave radio.
07 October 2007
Monks Are Silenced, and for Now, Internet Is, Too New York Times
It was about as simple and uncomplicated as shooting demonstrators in the streets. Embarrassed by smuggled video and photographs that showed their people rising up against them, the generals who run Myanmar simply switched off the Internet. ... The efficiency of this latest, technological, crackdown raises the question whether the vaunted role of the Internet in undermining repression can stand up to a determined and ruthless government -- or whether Myanmar, already isolated from the world, can ride out a prolonged shutdown more easily than most countries.
Burma's Net Curtain Begins To Lift Forbes
After a week-long Internet blackout intended to block all communication about the government's brutal political repression, Myanmar's Net users are regaining limited access to the outside world. Researchers at the OpenNet Initiative reported Friday that the country's only Internet service provider, Myanmar Infotech, had begun relaying data again sometime Thursday, raising hopes that political dissidents will manage to smuggle out more information about the recent violence.
05 October 2007
Monks Are Silenced, and for Now, Internet Is, Too New York Times
... The efficiency of this latest, technological, crackdown raises the question whether the vaunted role of the Internet in undermining repression can stand up to a determined and ruthless government -- or whether Myanmar, already isolated from the world, can ride out a prolonged shutdown more easily than most countries.
Burma junta unplugs Internet International Herald Tribune
It was about as simple and uncomplicated as shooting demonstrators in the streets. Embarrassed by smuggled video and photographs that showed their people rising up against them, the generals who run Myanmar simply switched off the Internet.
04 October 2007
us: Editorial - The Verizon Warning New York Times
We have long been concerned about the potential threat to free speech and a free press as communications migrate from old-fashioned telephone lines, TV broadcasts and printing presses to digital networks controlled by unregulated private companies. The threat stopped being theoretical recently when Verizon Wireless censored political speech on one of its mobile services.
Stop suffocating internet freedom in Thailand Bangkok Post
Since the military coup of Sept 19, 2006, Thailand has almost caught up with China as a world leader in the field of internet censorship and control, particularly with regard to freedom of political expression. This is a completely unacceptable environment for the promised return to democracy at the end of this year.
02 October 2007
Bloggers who risked all to reveal the junta’s brutal crackdown in Burma The Times
Internet geeks share a common style, and Ko Latt and his four friends would not be out of place in cyber cafés across the world. They have the skinny arms and the long hair, the dark T-shirts and the jokey nicknames. But few such figures have ever taken the risks that they have in the past few weeks, or achieved so much in a noble and dangerous cause.
