The Saudi Arabian government and RIM, the Canadian manufacturer of BlackBerry have compromised over plans to ban the BlackBerry messenger service. The deal reportedly allows for a server to be built in Saudi Arabia, overcoming the concerns of the...
Mexico kidnaps bring home reality of drugs war
The kidnap of four journalists in Durango state has made the capital’s elite take notice of the dangers for journalists attempting to work under the shadow of the traffickers. Ana Arana reports
Campbell privacy measure raises concern
The barring of photographers from picturing the supermodel at the Hague highlights the clash between privacy and free expression. Simon Jennings reports
Indonesia: Ban on Australian film Balibo
The Indonesian government has placed a ban on the screening of the Australian feature film Balibo due to its sensitive issues. The film tells the story of 5 Australian based journalists who were killed in the town of Balibo in Timor Leste in 1975....
Yu Jie chooses to publish and be damned
“No one living in China is more daring than the maverick writer Yu Jie,” journalist and historian Jonathan Mirsky wrote more than five years ago. It’s even more apt today.The 36-year-old Chinese dissident and writer is about to risk his freedom by...
Kuwait: Ban pornographic sites on BlackBerry
Kuwait has asked BlackBerry's Canadian maker RIM to block pornographic sites though they will not suspend the messenger services like their Gulf neighbours. RIM have agreed to block 3,000 porn sites and have promised to do so by the end of this...
China: Hong Kong’s Google question page blocked
Google's Hong Kong question page has been blocked in some parts of mainland China. The page allows users in China to ask questions of any description, acting as an open forum. The Chinese government uses a "Great Firewall" to censor and block all...
Reporter dead in Israel-Lebanon border skirmish
Al Jazeera is reporting that Assaf Abou Rahhal, a journalist with Lebanon's Al Akhbar newspaper, was killed today in an exchange of fire between the Lebanese Army and the Israel Defence Forces. Read more here
UAE: BlackBerry ban is a sign of elite’s unease
The leaders of the Emirates are nervous of an Iranian-style uprising, says
Christopher Davidson
Australia’s digital dilemma
Canberra’s idea of an internet filter that has proved unpopular with its citizens. Quentin McDermott reports
Russia: Freedom of expression versus car racing
Russian authorities have been criticised for giving permission to a sports car federation to hold an event in Triumfalnaya Square, St Petersburg, on July 31, the same day that opposition protesters had applied to use the square. Two weeks after...
Congo: Television and radio stations silenced for 48 hours
Three opposition radio and television stations were silenced for 48 hours on 26 July without a reason by a commando unit of five men in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The signals of Canal Congo Télévision (CCTV),...
