Showing posts with label censorship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label censorship. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
extreme case of australian internet laws?
http://www.smh.com.au/news/home/technology/baby-swinging-video-case-warning/2009/03/10/1236447185321.html
Friday, January 23, 2009
"Author jailed for insulting Thai king"
From CNN.com
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- An Australian author was sentenced Monday to three years in prison in Thailand after falling foul of a Thai law that makes it a crime to insult the country's royal family.
Harry Nicolaides behind the bars of a Thai holding cell on Monday.
Harry Nicolaides behind the bars of a Thai holding cell on Monday.
Harry Nicolaides was arrested last August over a 2005 book called "Verisimilitude," which includes a paragraph about the king and crown prince that the authorities deemed a violation of the Lese Majeste law.
Nicolaides, 41, was bombarded with questions from foreign journalists as he arrived at the court Monday, wearing shackles as he stepped from a prison bus. In tears, he said he would plead guilty.
"Truth is stranger than fiction," he said. "It's been an ordeal for months. It feels like a bad dream." Video Watch shackled Nicolaides at court »
The Thai Criminal Court originally sentenced Nicolaides to six years in jail but cut the punishment in half because of the guilty plea. He listened calmly as the verdict was translated to him.
After hearing his verdict Nicolaides said: "I wish my family the best." Video Watch Nicolaides' brother's reaction »
One of his lawyers said no decision had been made about whether to appeal or seek a royal pardon. King Bhumibol Adulydej has pardoned foreigners in other similar cases in the past.
CNN has chosen not to repeat the allegations made by Nicolaides because it could result in CNN staff being prosecuted in Thailand....
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- An Australian author was sentenced Monday to three years in prison in Thailand after falling foul of a Thai law that makes it a crime to insult the country's royal family.
Harry Nicolaides behind the bars of a Thai holding cell on Monday.
Harry Nicolaides behind the bars of a Thai holding cell on Monday.
Harry Nicolaides was arrested last August over a 2005 book called "Verisimilitude," which includes a paragraph about the king and crown prince that the authorities deemed a violation of the Lese Majeste law.
Nicolaides, 41, was bombarded with questions from foreign journalists as he arrived at the court Monday, wearing shackles as he stepped from a prison bus. In tears, he said he would plead guilty.
"Truth is stranger than fiction," he said. "It's been an ordeal for months. It feels like a bad dream." Video Watch shackled Nicolaides at court »
The Thai Criminal Court originally sentenced Nicolaides to six years in jail but cut the punishment in half because of the guilty plea. He listened calmly as the verdict was translated to him.
After hearing his verdict Nicolaides said: "I wish my family the best." Video Watch Nicolaides' brother's reaction »
One of his lawyers said no decision had been made about whether to appeal or seek a royal pardon. King Bhumibol Adulydej has pardoned foreigners in other similar cases in the past.
CNN has chosen not to repeat the allegations made by Nicolaides because it could result in CNN staff being prosecuted in Thailand....
Report on "soft censorship"
New report released:
"Authoritarian regimes have traditionally managed news media through direct censorship, assuming control over media outlets or by intimidating and arresting journalists and outlet owners. But “a more insidious form of censorship has emerged, according to Soft Censorship: How Governments Around the Globe Use Money to Manipulate the Media, a new report from the Center for International Media Assistance.
Soft censorship entails influencing news coverage by applying financial pressure, often through selective advertising, punishing media outlets and individual journalists considered critical while rewarding those deemed friendly, the report’s author, Don Podesta, told a meeting at the National Endowment for Democracy today..."
"Authoritarian regimes have traditionally managed news media through direct censorship, assuming control over media outlets or by intimidating and arresting journalists and outlet owners. But “a more insidious form of censorship has emerged, according to Soft Censorship: How Governments Around the Globe Use Money to Manipulate the Media, a new report from the Center for International Media Assistance.
Soft censorship entails influencing news coverage by applying financial pressure, often through selective advertising, punishing media outlets and individual journalists considered critical while rewarding those deemed friendly, the report’s author, Don Podesta, told a meeting at the National Endowment for Democracy today..."
Egypt’s bloggers and labor activists make common cause
The article is from fall 2008, but connects with many topics we have been discussing in class
Over a dozen Egyptian “Facebook activists” were arrested last week, as authorities continued to suppress a network resulting from a recent textile workers’ strike. Those detained included Ahmed Maher whose Facebook group that supported the strikers attracted some 60,000 people.
Egypt’s crackdown on Facebook activism reflects the authorities’ anxiety that protests have escalated over several months, generating perhaps the biggest wave of strikes since the 1940s and that strikers protesting against economic hardship are starting to form independent unions, raise political demands and form links with civil society activists. Bloggers ” have taken on the role of bridging the gap between civil society’s desire for democracy and workers’ demands for better pay and working conditions,” according to one recent report.
The state is also disturbed at the growing use of the Internet for political ends. “The government wants to separate electronic space from politics and clamp down on young people who would dare to use that space to call for an end to the regime,” says newspaper editor Mohamed Sayed Said. “It is launching a wave of terror against young intellectuals who would use electronic space as a means to access freedom of expression.”...
Over a dozen Egyptian “Facebook activists” were arrested last week, as authorities continued to suppress a network resulting from a recent textile workers’ strike. Those detained included Ahmed Maher whose Facebook group that supported the strikers attracted some 60,000 people.
Egypt’s crackdown on Facebook activism reflects the authorities’ anxiety that protests have escalated over several months, generating perhaps the biggest wave of strikes since the 1940s and that strikers protesting against economic hardship are starting to form independent unions, raise political demands and form links with civil society activists. Bloggers ” have taken on the role of bridging the gap between civil society’s desire for democracy and workers’ demands for better pay and working conditions,” according to one recent report.
The state is also disturbed at the growing use of the Internet for political ends. “The government wants to separate electronic space from politics and clamp down on young people who would dare to use that space to call for an end to the regime,” says newspaper editor Mohamed Sayed Said. “It is launching a wave of terror against young intellectuals who would use electronic space as a means to access freedom of expression.”...
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