Archive for March, 2010
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
A production of a new play about the British National Party and homophobia
has been pulled from the stage in Dudley. Philip Ridley’s
Moonfleece was due to be performed at the Mill Theatre – based in Daunton Community School – on Thursday, two days before a protest by the
English Defense League was scheduled in the town. The play was pulled by the school
on the basis that “some of the issues raised within the play were [not] suitable for a school or community setting”. The production already toured some of the country’s most racially-sensitive areas without protest. In 2004, Birmingham Repertory Theatre
was forced to close a play which depicted rape and murder in a Sikh temple, after it prompted riots from the city’s Sikh community.
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
The World Association of Newpapers and News Publishers,
the World Editors Forum, and
the European Newspaper Publishers Association have called on the government to drop a proposal that would enable courts to jail journalists who failed to reveal their sources, and impose fines on newspapers solely on the basis that they intend to publish “potentially harmful information”. In
an open letter to President Thomas Hendrik, the organizations said that proposed Source Protection Act would“have a significant negative impact on investigative journalism”and was in conflict with Estonia’s international treaty obligations. On 18 March, six leading newspapers
published blank pages in protest at the draft legislation.
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
On 25 March, journalist
Gustavo Azocar, host of “Café con Azócar,” a news and political commentary of
Televisora del Táchira,
was sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment for illegal profiting in acts of public administration. Judge José Hernán Oliveros found the journalist
guilty of fraud in the signing of a 2000 advertising contract between the state lottery and Radio Noticias 106, where he was working at the time. Azocar, an outspoken critic of Chavez’s government, was released from prison, where
he had been held since July 2009, and he will be able to serve his sentence on probation.
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
On 28 March, unknown persons
attacked and burned the car of journalist Adela Gómez, from Radio 21, in
Santa Cruz province (southern part of Argentina). The attack took place while her car
was parked outside Gómez’s house. The journalist is well know in the area for her investigations on local polical power. “I don’t know if I’m going to keep practicing the profession because I fear for my life, and I have a family,”
she said.
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
The Maltese Front Against Censorship
has asked the country’s MEPs to raise the country’s case in the European Parliament. The Front is concerned with recent infringements on freedom of expression, which include punishment of carnival revellers for dressing up as Christ, the ban of the play Stitching, the threat of a prison sentence to a newspaper editor for publishing an erotic story, and the suspended prison sentence to an artist for offending against the Catholic religion. In February,
protesters gathered in the capital Valetta, against escalating censorship by government agencies.
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
Yesterday Chinese users of the Google.cn search engine faced problems accessing results for
normal terms such as “dog” or “home”. Although Google has redirected traffic to its uncensored servers in Hong Kong, internet users in mainland China still face
the Great Firewall, which bans access to sites containing sensitive information. The glitch was caused by Google’s new coding which incorporated “gs_rfai” into certain search terms. The letters “RFA” was mistaken to be an acronym for Radio Free Asia, a site banned by the Great Firewall.
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
The American games company Envoy has
dropped its libel suit against the English blogger Bruce Everiss. Envoy was
suing Everiss for libel in an Australian court over a series of blogposts on Everiss’ website,
bruceongames.com, in which he had claimed that Envoy had previously been owned by a Chinese company, UMGE, linked to a Chinese “gold-farming” business. Everis alleged UMGE employed low-paid workers to earn virtual money in online games, and then sold it, against the game’s rules, to other players. Envoy dropped the case, halfway through its second day, telling reporters that the decision was driven by criticism from its customers.
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
Last Monday,
hundreds of protestors attacked the offices of the Maharaja Television offices in Colombo, injuring four workers and smashing many windows and cars. The incident is over hip-hop artist Akon’s latest music video “Sexy Bitch”, which depicts images of bikini–clad women dancing in front of a statue of Buddha, causing offense to the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese population. Akon, due to play a concert in Sri Lanka in April, has been refused entry into the country as a result of the uproar.
