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Freedom of Speech

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Latest stories about Freedom of Speech

10 February 2012

Russia: “Anti-Gay Propaganda Bill” Passes Second Reading

Written by Veronica Khokhlova · Eastern & Central Europe

St. Petersburg is getting closer to signing into law the notorious "anti-gay propaganda bill." "Will talking about Tchaikovsky be banned?" tweets British writer and actor Stephen Fry. Some of the Russian netizens' reactions are translated below.

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8 February 2012

Tunisia: Reports About a Court to Decide on “Interim” President's Title Refuted

Written by Afef Abrougui · Middle East & North Africa

The office of the ¨Presidency in Tunisia denied rumors initiated by a local newspaper claiming that on February 13, a court in the capital will issue a verdict about the use of the term “interim” by the state media when referring to the current President Moncef Marzouki and his government.

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Morocco: Busted for Posting Caricatures of the King on Facebook

Written by Hisham Almiraat · Middle East & North Africa

On February 7, Walid Bahomane appeared before a court in the Moroccan capital Rabat. The 18-year-old is accused of "defaming Morocco's sacred values" by posting pictures and videos on Facebook mocking king Mohammed VI of Morocco. Moroccan netizens are closing ranks in solidarity with Bahomane.

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7 February 2012

Italy: More Protests Against Austerity and Information Deficit

Written by Ylenia Gostoli · Translated by Ylenia Gostoli · Western Europe

The austerity measures being implemented in EU countries are still drawing popular opposition. Especially in a country like Italy, already strained by years of government mismanagement and budget issues -- not to mention a relevant information deficit.

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6 February 2012

Palestine: A Blogging Initiative for Jerusalem, the Praying City

Written by Mohamed ElGohary · Middle East & North Africa

Palestinian bloggers have joined hands to blog for their country, in a blogging initiative led by Abir Kopty under the theme: “For you, oh praying city, we blog.” In the following post, Kopty writes in Arabic about social media utilization in the Palestinian cause, and coordinating it with offline events on the ground.

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3 February 2012

Côte d'Ivoire: Hackers Threaten Intelligence Agency Upon Arrest of Journalist

Written by Julie Owono · Sub-Saharan Africa

Managing editor of newspaper Le Patriote, Charles Sanga, was arrested by the Ivorian intelligence agency, DTS, following a controversial story about the constitutional court of Côte d'Ivoire. The next day, anonymous hackers threatened to leak confidential documents of the agency if he was not released.

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Updates about Freedom of Speech

11 February 2012

China

The Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) reports that more than half of the 27 journalists imprisoned in China are ethnic Tibetan or Uyghur.

• Oiwan Lam

10 February 2012

Cuba

“After almost 18 years as a captive in the Castro gulag, Rafael Ibarra Roque on Thursday was released from jail“: Uncommon Sense says that “his release represents a victory for Ibarra, his family and the Cuban opposition.”

• Janine Mendes-Franco

9 February 2012

Cuba

Iván García writes about the late leader of Las Damas de Blanco, Laura Pollan, recounting a violent assault on the group days before her death and saying: “If they have anything left of humanism and dignity, her assaulters owe a public apology to the family of Laura Pollan Toledo.” Pedazos de la Isla, meanwhile, notes here and here that the violence and intimidation continue.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Russia

On February 9, 2012, following the widely-discussed leaks of pro-Kremlin mailboxes, LiveJournal, where the leaks were published, became temporarily unavailable, Lenta.ru reported [ru]. Russian representative of Anonymous group @OP_Russia, suggested [ru] that it was a DDoS attack to hide the evidence of massive wrongdoings (including corruption, thievery, political provocations, and cybercrime) [ru] by Nashi youth movement. Later that day @OP_Russia took responsibility for taking down 3 websites of United Russia party: mos-partya.ru, er-region.ru, and er-kaluga.ru.

• Alexey Sidorenko

Macedonia

While the authorities in Macedonia remain silent on the country's stance on the ACTA, bloggers, such as Airborne, emphasize the need to gain more knowledge [mk], as the traditional media mostly ignore the issue: “Maybe, one of these days, we'll just simply wake up in the ACTA-ruled world.” The new media attempting to fill this gap in local languages include Metamorphosis and IT.com.mk. Endek blog advocates [mk] standing up for Internet freedom by joining international protest movements.

• Filip Stojanovski

8 February 2012

Russia

Andrey Rylkov Foundation writes about the first case of enforcement of the domain seizure rules in the “.ru” and “.рф” domain zones. The rules [ru] (Article 5, point 5.5) , updated on November 11, 2011 allow any law enforcement agency (like police, Federal Security Service, Prosecutor's office or Federal Drug Control Services (FDCS)) to request domain seizure without a court order. On February 3, 2012 FDCS successfully seized the domain of rylkov-fond.ru, a website of Rylkov Foundation that had severely criticized situation with drug trafficking.

• Alexey Sidorenko

Russia

Read The Guardian's take on the so-called “Potupchik-gate,” a series of scandals surfaced as a result of hacking and publishing of private inbox of Kristina Potupchik [ru], press-secretary of Nashi, notorious pro-Kremlin youth group. All hacks were published by twitter-user @OP_Russia who uses Anonymous symbolics. Representatives of Anonymous, previously never seen involved in Russian online politics, had also issued an Russian/English statement on the issue.