Posts Tagged ‘freedom of speech’
September 9th, 2011
Stores may be
required to request ID for those buying spray paint under new motions.
LA Councilman Dennis Zine has made calls for a motion which would require stores to keep record of the name and address of anyone buying spray paint and “graffiti paraphernalia” including spray paint nozzles, paint pens, glass cutting, and etching tools. Stores will be required to keep a record of these purchases for two years. Zine believes this will encourage the public to participate in the fight against graffiti.
July 18th, 2011
Two cars belonging to
Vijesti, one of
Montenegro‘s most popular independent daily newspapers, were torched last Thursday. The cars were parked opposite the headquarters of the Montenegrin Intelligence Agency when the attack took place. One
eyewitness reported seeing a young man pour petrol on the cars and throw a spark towards them but police have yet to make an arrest. Vijesti is one of the two biggest Montenegrin newspapers and reports regularly on corruption and government malpractice.
July 18th, 2011
Three nuns have each been jailed for three year after they staged a peaceful street protest, chanting “
Free Tibet” and “long live His Holiness the Dalai Lama”, on 15 June. The women, aged between 21 and 31, are part of the Gyemadrak Nunnery in
Tibet and were
arrested by Chinese authorites hours after the protest began. The nuns have been named as Jampa Choedon, Sheh Lhamo and Tashi Choetso.
July 15th, 2011
A 26-year-old radio station director was killed yesterday in
Honduras. Nery Jeremias Orellana was stopped and shot in the head by masked gunmen as he rode home from work on a motorcycle. He died soon after he was taken to a local hospital. A supporter of recently ousted
President Manuel Zelaya, Orellana was head of
Radio Joconguera de Candelaria and was a member of the National Resistance Front.
July 11th, 2011
Police in
Malaysia made 1600 arrests at the weekend, as protesters ignored government warnings to cancel
anti-government action. Leaders of the opposition coalition, Bersih, who have led the campaign for a “free and fair” election system, were amongst the thousands detained. An estimated 10, 000 police officers used tear gas and batons against the 50, 000 people who took to the streets of Kuala Lumpar. Crowds chanting, “Reformasi!” (“Reforms”), ‘”God is great” and “Long Live the People” were successfully prevented from gaining access to the to the king’s palace to hand over a memorandum detailing their demands.
June 30th, 2011
Istanbul police have
arrested 50 contributors to
Turkey’s largest user-generated dictionary. The “Sour Dictionary” (
Eksi Sozluk) site offers satirical definitions of a number of common words and has been running for around 12 years. The anonymous authors, who were identified through their IP addresses, have been charged with “insulting religion” following a complaint over a discussion about the prophet Muhammed. The site’s administrators have faced criticism for agreeing to hand over authors’ IP addresses to the police.
June 27th, 2011
Russian journalist,
Oleg Kashin, has won the right to speculate about the identity of two men who beat him with iron rods. Kashin spent five days in a coma after he was attacked outside his apartmenton 6 November last year. The Kremlin’s youth policy chief, Vasily Yakemanko, filed a libel suit against Kashin, liberal newspaper
Novye Izvestia and political analyst, Alexander Morozov, for reporting speculation that he might be behind the incident. A Moscow court ruled in favour of Kashin after it was found that Yakemenko had failed to prove that the accusations were factual statements.
June 24th, 2011
Activists used popular Russian social network,
Vkontakte, and Twitter hashtag,
#2206v1900, to organise protest action in towns all over
Belarus on 22 June. Over 1, 000 people gathered for a rally in
Minsk despite warnings to would-be protesters from local police about “possible administrative charges for participating in unsanctioned protests”. Throughout the day Vkontakte group, “Movement of the Future”, with over 200, 000 members, tweeted regularly. A total of 450 protesters were arrested during the “silent”
anti-government demonstrations, many remain in detention.
