Tag: freedom of speech
I had the story of Russian protest group Pussy Riot on my shelf for quite some time, but only in the last few months have I felt inclined to take a look behind the workings of the Russian state machinery. The book was actually a friend’s copy, and I had it for an embarassingly long time. About two years ago she gave it to me saying it’s something I need to read, and I was meaning to, but there was always some other book to be read first (you know how it is with books). I even tried to give…
It’s absolutely vital, they can’t win. We are all suffering, with grief, with fear, but we will do it anyway because stupidity will not win. ‘Charlie Hebdo’ columnist Patrick Pelloux. The paper will put out one million copies next week (via micdotcom)
I have watched The Interview yesterday and I am now totally sorry for that almost two hours of my life. I do admit I have had one or two laughs along, but that is all, most of the time, I was just waiting for it to be over. Since I know people who actually enjoyed it, I will just add that it is absolutely the kind of move that I never watch. Never. Ever. I don’t enjoy obscenity, neither in graphic nor in oral form in movies at all. Again, tastes are different, if you enjoy these kinds of things,…
Top Kuwait court jails activist over Twitter posts Now, how about this? [JURIST] Kuwait’s Supreme Court on Sunday upheld the two-year jail sentence of an opposition online activist for writing tweets found to be offensive to the country’s Emir. After the ruling, activist Hejab Al Hajeri said on his Twitter [official website] account that his “determination is bigger than their jail.” Al Hajeri, a law student in his early 20s, was sentenced by the Emirate’s lower court last April after it found that comments he made on his twitter account were critical of the country’s Emir, Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad…
UN forum backs Web freedom after Arab Spring The United Nations’ main human rights body has for the first time backed people’s right to freedom of expression on the Internet in the wake of the massive role that social media networks played in the Arab Spring. China and Cuba have tried to limit access to the Internet and voiced some reservations but joined the consensus recognizing “the global and open nature of the Internet as a driving force in accelerating progress towards development”. China has had “difficulty” in joining consensus on civil and political rights linked to freedom of association,…
Google reports ‘alarming’ rise in censorship by governments Search engine company has said there has been a troubling increase in requests to remove political content from the internet. Many of these requests came from western democracies not typically associated with censorship.
