France’s has fast-tracked a law allowing the government to block websites. Amendments seeking judicial oversight and clauses specifying pages not sites should be blocked were rejected. The law has been classified as urgent, bypassing the normal four readings in parliament, and will go to the senate for a final vote next week.
Chinese authorities have told the US human rights group, the Dui Hua Foundation, that Gao Zhisheng – a human rights lawyer who has been missing for more than a year – is in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Zhisheng’s case has drawn international attention due to the unusual length of his disappearance. John Kamm, the foundation’s executive director, said the news was a “tentative step in the right direction toward accountability”, but many questions still needed to be answered such as “What is he doing there? How long has he been there?”
Hackers took control of the website of Agos, a leading Turkish-Armenian newspaper last Friday, the cyber-attackers uploaded images of the alleged murderer of the newspaper’s former editor-in-chief, and winner of the Index on Censorship’s 2008 journalism award, Hrant Dink. The hackers claimed there would be more of the same if the newspaper did not fix its reporting to “the way we see fit”. Agos has regularly published articles about the Armenian genocide.
British freelance journalist and documentary film maker Paul Martin was detained at a Gaza courthouse yesterday on the orders of Hamas officials. According to a Ministry of Interior Spokesman Martin – who has worked for the BBC and the Time – is suspected of breaking Palestinian law and is to be detained for 15 days, but the allegations have not been clarified further.