Posts Tagged ‘censorship’
July 3rd, 2009
A book by Britain’s former top counter-terrorism officer has been blocked from the shelves following an injunction by the Attorney General. Andy Hayman’s The Terrorist Hunters describes the fight against Islamist extremism from his inside perspective as Scotland Yard assistant commissioner.
It has been reported that the book was also vetted by the Cabinet Office, MI5 and MI6 but an explanation for the injunction cannot be published for legal reasons.
July 2nd, 2009
Six journalists were harassed and beaten preventing them from reporting on the demolition of several buildings on government land in Nigeria. Read more
here
July 2nd, 2009
Following the ousting of President Manuel Zelaya on 28 June in Honduras, the new authorities have imposed a 48-hour curfew and blocked broadcasts, suspended programmes and hounded journalists and citizens for exercising their right to free expression. Read more
here
July 1st, 2009
An unknown group calling itself the Tamil United Force to Safeguard the Country has threatened to kill all the employees of the Tamil-language newspaper Uthayan, the leading newspaper in the Jaffna peninsula, if they have not resigned by the end of today. Read more
here
July 1st, 2009
A UK artist, Michael Dickinson who was cleared in September of mocking Turkey’s prime minister by portraying him as a dog in a piece of artwork has fled the country after hearing his acquittal has been overturned. Read more
here
June 29th, 2009
A law passed by the Lithuanian parliament that would ban “propaganda for homosexuality and bisexuality” from public places for their ‘detrimental’ effect on children has been vetoed by the president after protests by gay-rights activists
Read more
here
June 26th, 2009
Azerbaijan has a new, harsher religion law and new penalties for producing, selling, circulating, importing and exporting religious literature without state permission, reports Felix Corley of Forum 18
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June 25th, 2009
Steps taken by the government to remove Globovisión’s free-to-air licence poses a fresh threat to the country’s independent media. Daniel Duquenal reports
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June 24th, 2009
Human Rights Watch has called for the district police in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia to free the 14 Burmese asylum seekers arrested on 19 June at a peaceful celebration of the 64th birthday of the Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Read more
here
June 24th, 2009
The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in Gambia has closed down The Point newspaper and forced two journalists and an executive member of the Gambia Press Union into hiding. Read more
here
June 24th, 2009
Stars and Stripes, the newspaper that receives U.S. military funding to help it cover and get distributed free to American forces in war zones, complained Tuesday of censorship by military authorities in Iraq. Read more
here
June 24th, 2009
One of China’s most prominent political activists has been formally arrested for inciting subversion. Liu Xiaobo is accused of spreading rumours and defaming the government, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. Mr Liu’s arrest comes six months after he was taken into custody. Read more
here
June 23rd, 2009
Released political prisoner and writer Abd Al-Monem Monieb was detained in Cairo airport for 45 minutes by state security officers. Their actions prohibited him from travelling to Lebanon where he was due to publicise his book on Islam in Egypt. Read more
here
June 23rd, 2009
As protests continue in Iran, details are emerging of the technology used to monitor citizens. Nokia Siemens Network has confirmed it supplied Iran with the technology needed to monitor, control, and read local telephone calls. It told the BBC that it sold a product called the Monitoring Centre to Iran Telecom in the second half of 2008. Read more
here
June 22nd, 2009
New York Times journalist, David Rohde who was kidnapped by the Afghan Taliban seven months ago has managed to escape from the compound where he was being held. Read more
here
June 19th, 2009
Lawyer Le Cong Dinh (right) has always worked to change the system from within - which is exactly why his arrest is troubling, says Roby Alampay
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June 19th, 2009
In light of the situation in Iran, search giant Google has stepped up work to release a tool that will translate Farsi into English and Facebook will be launching a Persian version. Both companies stress privately that there is no political motivation in what and that their main goal is to facilitate communication and the flow of information. Read more
here
June 19th, 2009
Tesco has been criticised for displaying a book about Josef Fritzl in its Father’s Day gift section. The store hit back at the complaints, saying it would be touching on censorship to remove the book but has now changed its policy and taken the book out of displays. Read more
here
June 19th, 2009
Activists across the world are marking the 64th birthday of Burma’s detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, with vigils and protests. Read more
here
June 19th, 2009
Cuban photojournalist Maria Nelida Lopez Baez has been arrested and is being held at an unknown location on the communist-ruled island. The journalist faces possible persecution for “pre-criminal social danger,” the Paris-based organisation Reporters Without Borders says. Read more
here
June 19th, 2009
Palestinian Authority security officials have seized and erased video footage shot by news service Al Jazeera on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Hebron. The erased footage dealt with a prisoners death in a Hebron detention centre and alleged torture. Read more
here
June 19th, 2009
The press and public have reacted with outrage after MPs were accused yesterday of a massive cover-up of their expenses after the Commons authorities released hundreds of thousands of claims documents and receipts with huge sections of detail blacked out. Read more
here
June 18th, 2009
Tabloid coloumist Antonia Castillo has been shot dead by two men at close range following a brief chase on motorbikes. Castillo is the second journalist killed in the Philippines in the last week and the fifth journalist deliberately murdered in the country this year. Read more
here
June 18th, 2009
The expenses claims of every MP for the past four years have been published, but with some key details blacked out.
Commons authorities have published details after a long-running Freedom of Information battle but certain information has been blacked out on the grounds of privacy and security. Read more
here
June 16th, 2009
Intelligence agents in Afghanistan have reportedly detained two producers working for Doha-based satellite TV channel, Al-Jazeera. Read more
here
June 16th, 2009
Authorities in Iran have announced sweeping new restrictions on foreign media, effectively confining journalists to their offices and hotels. Read more
here
June 16th, 2009
A story that reported the firing of two government official has caused the editor of a private newspaper to be held in detention since Wednesday. The story has been withdrawn but the editor, Abdulhamid Adiamoh of the Today newspaper could face up to six months in jail. Read more
here
June 10th, 2009
The chief executive of leading drugs and humans rights charity Release today accused advertising regulators of censorship after the body’s ad campaign was withdrawn from London buses. Read more
here
June 10th, 2009
Reporter Nedim Sener who has written a book about the murder of journalist Hrant Dink, faces up to 28 years in prison after police officers filed complaints against him. Read more
here
June 9th, 2009
Monthly magazine L’Essentiel has been suspended for disturbing public order, after the cover page reportedly insulted the President. Read more
here
June 9th, 2009
A journalist for The Worker newspaper was arrested for photographing a demonstration of the Harare City Council Workers’ Union. The editor was later arrested when questioning the arrest with the authorities. Read more
here
June 9th, 2009
During his weekly radio broadcast President Rafael Correa accused media outlets of committing “abuses” and “distorting” information arguing that the media had been manipulating citizens’ opinion and has threatened they will face legal action. Read more
here
June 9th, 2009
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has described TV chef Gordon Ramsay as “a new form of low life” after the chef showed a food-fair audience a photo of a nude woman on all fours, with multiple breasts and a pig’s face, and said the image was of popular Australian television journalist Tracy Grimshaw. Read more
here
June 8th, 2009
A court in North Korea has sentenced Euna Lee and Laura Ling, two US journalists to 12 years according to state media. Read more
here
June 4th, 2009
The head of the United Nations agency tasked with upholding press freedom condemned the kidnapping and murder of a newspaper journalist in Mexico, calling on the nation’s authorities to catch those behind the killing. Read more
here
June 4th, 2009
Bing, the new search engine from Microsoft is varying search results of the term “sex” dependent on the country. The UK, US and all European countries produce long lists of results but Arabian countries, China, India and several others produce no results leading to accusations of censorship. Read more
here
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Tags: Tags: Arab region, Bing, censorship, china, india, Internet censorship, Microsoft, search engine, sex, UK, US,
June 4th, 2009
Chinese police have cordened off Tiananmen Square, to prevent people marking the 20th anniversary of the massacre and banned foreign press. Earlier today US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged China to launch an official inquiry. Read more
here
June 4th, 2009
Euna Lee and Laura Ling, the two US journalists arrested in North Korea earlier in March this year, are reported to have gone on trial in North Korea for charges of committing “hostile acts”. The US has dismissed the charges as “baseless”. Read more
here
June 1st, 2009
The families of American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who go on trial this week, for what North Korea calls “hostile acts” have decided to speak out and are scheduled to appear on NBC and CNN later today. Read more
here
June 1st, 2009
Italian police have confiscated hundreds of photographs taken of allegedly topless women at Silvio Berlusconi’s villa in Sardinia, after a court appeal ruled in favour of the Prime Minister, deeming the photos to be an invasion of privacy. Read more
here
May 29th, 2009
A Texas Rangers fan was nearly ejected from a Rangers baseball game against the New York Yankees in Arlington, Texas for a T-shirt that read “Yankees suck”. A security guard told her to turn it inside out, buy another shirt or they would eject her. Read more
here
May 29th, 2009
Cuban journalist Victor Rolando Arroyo is in his second week of hunger strike as a protest to lack of medical attention, bad sanitary conditions in his cell, his cruel treatment, and the fact that he has not been allowed to practice religion. Arroyo was sentenced in April 2003 to 26 years in prison for acting “against the independence or the territorial integrity of the state”. Read more
here
May 28th, 2009
The Australian government has back-tracked on its much criticised plan to pass legislation that would impose censorship Internet browsing habits. Read more
here
May 26th, 2009
Armed Israeli police attempted to halt the opening night of a prominent Palestinian literary festival in Jerusalem ordering a Palestinian theatre to close. Read more
here
May 26th, 2009
The House of Commons will break the law if it goes ahead with its plan to release a heavily censored version of MPs’ expenses claims, according to the leading barrister involved in a campaign to get the information published, Hugh Tomlinson QC. Read more
here
May 22nd, 2009
A well-known Mozambican television journalist, Ercilio Zacarias, has been forced to move his family, after receiving anonymous death threats. It is suspected the death threats may arise from TIM news items that angered the powerful Brazilian cult, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD). Read more
here
May 22nd, 2009
Comedy is too often constrained by preconceptions of audience reaction and the comic’s own self-censoring streak, says Robin Ince
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May 21st, 2009
Three Tamil doctors have been detained in Sri Lanka after they supplied local and international news media with causality figures in Vanni during the last stages of the war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Read more
here and
here
May 20th, 2009
Sesawe is an international consortium working to support uncensored access to the Internet. It includes software developers as well as organizations and individuals who share a belief in the need for an open Internet. Sesawe is a gathering place to share information and related resources.
May 20th, 2009
Psiphon is a censorship circumvention solution that allows users to access blocked sites in countries where the Internet is censored.
