· November, 2006

Stories about Freedom of Speech from November, 2006

Interview with Kosoof, a leading Iranian Photo Blogger

  30 November 2006

Arash Ashoorinia is a leading photo blogger whose blog, Kosoof, won the Reporters Without Borders prize in the BOBs (Best of the Blogs) competition organized by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. Arash's photos have been published all over the world in publications and on web sites such as the Washington Post...

Oman: Freedom of press in Oman

  29 November 2006

“You can't stop people from writing online. It's easy to regulate the press because 1) the press needs big expensive machines to print newspapers. 2) they need trucks to distribute. 3) they need shops to sell their papers. 4) they need advertisers to pay for all the above. 5) they...

Cambodia: Kite Weilding Terrorists?

  29 November 2006

Details are Sketchy writes about the ridiculous comments made by Cambodian information minister supporting the police confiscation of kites from protesters who were planning to fly them in front of the national assembly.

Voices from Zimbabwe

  29 November 2006

With the rainy season now underway in Zimbabwe, most of the nation's time and attention is given to pontificating and prognosticating what the agricultural prospects have in store for us. Like many other agro-based economies, the measure of a good (or bad year) is based on the nation's agricultural production....

Belarus: CIS Scandal

  29 November 2006

TOL's Belarus Blog writes about the scandal involving Russian journalists that broke out during the CIS summit in the Belarusian capital. Also, there's a post about the pain the summit is causing to downtown Minsk.

China: limited real name registration?

  28 November 2006

China Media project follows up the report and debate on blogger real name registration. The chairman of the Internet Society of China claimed that backstage real name registration is a limited real-name registration.

Ethiopia's bloggers disappear again

  28 November 2006

The bulk of Ethiopia's bloggers disappeared from Ethiopian computer screens for the second time in seven months this week. All sites hosted by the popular Blogspot platform stalled when internet users tried to log on to them through their Ethiopian Telecom Corp dial-up connections. The small stable of anti-government blogs...

Belarus: Kozulin Turns 51 in Jail

  27 November 2006

A former presidential candidate, Aleksandr Kozulin, has celebrated his 51st birthday in prison, in relative obscurity, and with no food – because he's been on hunger strike for over a month already, writes TOL's Belarus Blog.

Arabisc: Bahraini Elections, Dying Children and Confusing Freedom!

  27 November 2006

Bahrain held its second Parliamentary elections in its modern history this week, with about 300,000 voters going to the polls. Amongst them was Bahraini blogger Haythoo, who hoped his ‘party’ would emerge victorious. أنا الأن متوجه لتغطية العملية الأنتخابية.. أتمنى أن يحالفنا الحظ و نفوز بأكثرية نيابية.. يجب أن نعمل...

French minorities: Questioning the Republican Model

  27 November 2006

Togolese-origined French politician Kofi Yamgnane posts a December 13 conference announcement that questions the limitations of French republicanist integration (Fr): “Integration in the French tradition … is resolutely hostile to any differentiation or separation founded on individual origins … Contrary to the Anglo-Saxon model, the Republican model rejects communities and...

Japan: blogger survey

  27 November 2006

Kaishin in Japundit presents some data from a recent blogger survey: almost 70% of the people who took it responded that updating was too much of a trouble…

China: sex scandal

  27 November 2006

China Media project translates an article from Southern Metropolis Daily which comments upon the recent sex scandals and discusses about free speech and social responsibility.

Tunisia: Censoring Wikipedia?

  26 November 2006

Sami Ben Gharbia writes (Fr): “We don't yet know if it is censorship or not but what is certain is that the Wikipedia and Wikipedia Foundation sites have not been accessible from Tunisia since the 23rd of this month. According to a subscriber to the francophone Wikipedia mailing list …...

The Week That Was in Bahrain

  26 November 2006

More than 300,000 Bahrainis went to the polls on Saturday to elect 40 Municipal Councillors and another 40 Members of Parliament. This is the second time Bahrainis vote in their modern history, after sweeping reforms initiated in 2002. According to official records, seventy-two per cent of the eligible voters took...