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By: Jillian C. York
Date: 18 Jul 2009
WASHINGTON — Freedom House released its country reports on freedom in the world. Belarus remains the only European country classiffied as “Not Free”.
A few former Soviet Union countries did better — Ukraine and Baltic States are regarded “Free”, while Moldova, Georgia and Kyrgystan are “Partially Free”.
Here is the summary of the report on Belarus:
Hopes that President Alyaksandr Lukashenka might loosen his grip on Belarus in 2008 proved illusory. After brutal crackdowns and additional arrests, Belarus released all of its political prisoners in August. The regime also agreed to allow international observers to monitor its September parliamentary elections. However, the monitors determined that the elections did not meet democratic standards, and no opposition members won representation, leaving them without a platform to influence political processes.
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 17 Jul 2009
This week in Rome, bloggers and activists wore gags to protest a proposed law that could impose heavy fines on bloggers who don’t correct “offensive” comments within 48 hours.
About 200 bloggers gathered at sunset in the picturesque Piazza Navona July 15, while hundreds others joined the protest online by freezing blog posts for a day.
“A blogger is not a professional reporter,” yelled 35 year-old Guido Scorza from atop a marble bench as he held a heavy megaphone. “A blogger doesn’t have a legal office to defend him from lawsuits,” he said.
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 17 Jul 2009
Popular social networking site Facebook is breaching Canadian law by holding on to users' personal information indefinitely, a report has concluded.
An investigation by Canada's privacy commission found the US-based website also gave "confusing or incomplete" information to subscribers.
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 17 Jul 2009
Iran has blocked access to whistleblowers' site WikiLeaks, ahead of today's expected protests.
The site complains that it carries very little content about Iran and much of that shows the machinations of US intelligence-funded efforts to destabilise the country.
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 17 Jul 2009
According to the China Internet Network Information Center, internet users in the country have now reached 338 million, a 13.4 percent increase from the previous year’s number.
That is 32 million more than the population of the United States following February 2009 estimates. In comparison, the second highest number of internet users in the region is Japan with 94 million, India with 81 million, South Korea with 36.5 million and Indonesia with 25 million, based on figures reported by the Internet World Statistics.
The number of internet users in China shows how powerful the mechanism for China’s internet censorship is, called the Golden Shield Project sometimes referred to as the Great Firewall of China.
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 17 Jul 2009
US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said Thursday that he had raised concerns over Internet censorship and online control with Chinese officials.
"The issue of Internet control, the issues confronted by Google, the Green Dam issue were raised," Locke told journalists on the second day of a visit to China.
Locke discussed the issues in talks with his Chinese counterpart Chen Deming and other officials, he said. He had also met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, along with US Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 16 Jul 2009
The Government is spending $150,000 on website "filtering" software, outraging some bloggers who say the move amounts to censorship of the internet.
Since 2007 the Department of Internal Affairs' Censorship Compliance Unit has worked with a small group of internet service providers on a "trial" project to block access to websites distributing child pornography.
The project, using hardware and software supplied by a Swedish technology company, thwarts access to more than 7000 websites known to offer child sexual abuse material.
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 16 Jul 2009
Provincial Chinese police have detained at least five people over content posted online that alleged gang-rape and murder at a police-backed brothel.
The detentions add to a long string of cases in which Chinese police have taken bloggers or other Internet users into custody for writing online about government corruption. The events also show how Chinese Internet users have sometimes used the Web to reveal and trumpet injustices, and how the government has worked to control online opinion when it turns critical of authority.
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 15 Jul 2009
The Second Criminal Court of Peace in Denizli, western Turkey, has banned access to Google Sites, which contains thousands of websites. The reason for the ban is not known.
Google Sites allows users to create their own websites and, as such, there are thousands of sites available.
The 24 June 2009 court ruling does not give any justification for the decision to ban Google Sites.
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By: Rebekah Heacock
Date: 15 Jul 2009
Federal communications minister Stephen Conroy has vowed to fight illegal file sharing head on in a report on the Digital Economy.
"One solution proposed by copyright owners is a "three strikes" or "graduated response" proposal under which copyright owners would work together with ISPs to identify the ISP's customers who are suspected of unauthorised file sharing and the ISP would then send a notice on behalf of the copyright owner to that customer advising of this allegation".
