Censorship
12 October 2007
China tightens control of net The Guardian
Censorship of the internet in China is becoming more draconian, according to new details of Beijing's online restrictions published by human rights organisations. The claims come in a report from international journalism watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres and the China Human Rights Defenders group, which examines the way the Chinese government reacts to free speech on the internet.
08 October 2007
Downloading the Burma uprising: Did it help? Christian Science Monitor
When protesters took to the streets of Burma two decades ago, activists relied on fax machines to tell the world what was going on. In last month's uprising in the isolated police state, they photographed and uploaded the demonstrations via cellphone. Images and videos bounced from Internet cafes to foreign blogs and international media, then sometimes back again to Burma (also known as Myanmar) by satellite TV and shortwave radio.
07 October 2007
Monks Are Silenced, and for Now, Internet Is, Too New York Times
It was about as simple and uncomplicated as shooting demonstrators in the streets. Embarrassed by smuggled video and photographs that showed their people rising up against them, the generals who run Myanmar simply switched off the Internet. ... The efficiency of this latest, technological, crackdown raises the question whether the vaunted role of the Internet in undermining repression can stand up to a determined and ruthless government -- or whether Myanmar, already isolated from the world, can ride out a prolonged shutdown more easily than most countries.
Burma's Net Curtain Begins To Lift Forbes
After a week-long Internet blackout intended to block all communication about the government's brutal political repression, Myanmar's Net users are regaining limited access to the outside world. Researchers at the OpenNet Initiative reported Friday that the country's only Internet service provider, Myanmar Infotech, had begun relaying data again sometime Thursday, raising hopes that political dissidents will manage to smuggle out more information about the recent violence.
05 October 2007
Monks Are Silenced, and for Now, Internet Is, Too New York Times
... The efficiency of this latest, technological, crackdown raises the question whether the vaunted role of the Internet in undermining repression can stand up to a determined and ruthless government -- or whether Myanmar, already isolated from the world, can ride out a prolonged shutdown more easily than most countries.
Burma junta unplugs Internet International Herald Tribune
It was about as simple and uncomplicated as shooting demonstrators in the streets. Embarrassed by smuggled video and photographs that showed their people rising up against them, the generals who run Myanmar simply switched off the Internet.
04 October 2007
us: Editorial - The Verizon Warning New York Times
We have long been concerned about the potential threat to free speech and a free press as communications migrate from old-fashioned telephone lines, TV broadcasts and printing presses to digital networks controlled by unregulated private companies. The threat stopped being theoretical recently when Verizon Wireless censored political speech on one of its mobile services.
Stop suffocating internet freedom in Thailand Bangkok Post
Since the military coup of Sept 19, 2006, Thailand has almost caught up with China as a world leader in the field of internet censorship and control, particularly with regard to freedom of political expression. This is a completely unacceptable environment for the promised return to democracy at the end of this year.
02 October 2007
Bloggers who risked all to reveal the junta’s brutal crackdown in Burma The Times
Internet geeks share a common style, and Ko Latt and his four friends would not be out of place in cyber cafés across the world. They have the skinny arms and the long hair, the dark T-shirts and the jokey nicknames. But few such figures have ever taken the risks that they have in the past few weeks, or achieved so much in a noble and dangerous cause.
Burmese bloggers silenced as curbs bring internet blackout The Guardian
The shutdown of communications in Burma has slowed information to the outside world to a trickle, with the number of reports to one exile group cut by half and websites with the .mm Burma suffix being unavailable, campaigners said yesterday.
Bloggers who risked all to reveal the junta’s brutal crackdown in Burma The Times
Internet geeks share a common style, and Ko Latt and his four friends would not be out of place in cyber cafés across the world. They have the skinny arms and the long hair, the dark T-shirts and the jokey nicknames. But few such figures have ever taken the risks that they have in the past few weeks, or achieved so much in a noble and dangerous cause.
30 September 2007
Why China shut down 18,401 websites: A fresh censorship wave is linked to next month's Party Congress. Christian Science Monitor
The Chinese authorities are in the midst of an unusually harsh crackdown on the Internet, closing tens of thousands of websites that had allowed visitors to post their opinions, according to bloggers and Internet monitors in China.
Internet access restored briefly in Myanmar Reuters
Internet access was restored briefly in military-ruled Myanmar on Saturday, a day after a Web blackout believed to have been imposed to stop reports and pictures of a major crackdown reaching the outside world.
Burma: Hundreds may be dead, as junta tries to keep brutality unseen The Independent
Yesterday [Friday], authorities shut Burma's only internet server and blocked all text and picture messaging on mobiles, in an effort to stem the violent images leaving the country, including pictures of a Japanese photographer shot in front of the Sule Pagoda. Though foreign journalists are banned, the regime ordered soldiers to go door-to-door at some hotels looking for foreigners. Includes coverage from The Independent, The Guardian, The Times, New York Times, Forbes, PC World [IDG] and The Washington Post.
29 September 2007
Myanmar appears to cut public Internet access Reuters
Myanmar's generals appeared to have cut public Internet access on Friday to prevent more videos, photographs and information getting out about their crackdown on the biggest protests against military rule in nearly 20 years.
Expert: World misunderstands China's Web controls Reuters
The Internet in China is not as restricted as sometimes believed in the West, with most controls actually coming from sites practicing self-censorship, an academic who studies the Chinese Web said.
28 September 2007
Burmese junta tightens media screw BBC
As Burmese soldiers fire bullets and tear gas to disperse anti-government protests in Rangoon, the military rulers have taken the offensive in the battle to control the flow of information in the country. Websites and internet blogs posting information and photographs of the government's action have been blocked. Telephone lines and mobile phone signals to monasteries, opposition politicians and student leaders have been cut.
us: Verizon Reverses Itself on Abortion Messages New York Times
Saying it had the right to block "controversial or unsavory" text messages, Verizon Wireless last week rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon's mobile network available for a text-message program. But the company reversed course this morning, saying it had made a mistake. ... The dispute over the Naral messages was a skirmish in the larger battle over the question of "net neutrality" -- whether carriers or Internet service providers should have a voice in the content they provide to customers.
Burmese Junta tries to shut down internet and phone links The Guardian
The Burmese junta was last night desperately trying to shut down internet and telephone links to the outside world after a stream of blogs and mobile phone videos began capturing the dramatic events on the streets.
27 September 2007
Burma cyber-dissidents crack censorship BBC
Burma's bloggers are using the internet to beat censorship, and tell the world what is happening under the military junta's veil of secrecy.
26 September 2007
Experts doubt EU plan to block bomb recipes on Web Reuters
A European Union proposal to stop people from accessing bomb-making instructions online is fraught with technical difficulties, if not downright unworkable, Internet practitioners say.
22 September 2007
Turkey bans access to YouTube again, prompting criticism from watchdog group ABC
A Turkish court has ordered the country's telecommunications company to block access to the popular video-sharing site YouTube because of clips the court deems insulting to leading political figures.
Civil liberties under threat: The real price of freedom - It is not only on the battlefield where preserving liberty may have to cost many lives The Economist
"They hate our freedoms." So said George Bush in a speech to the American Congress shortly after the attacks on America in September 2001. But how well, at home, have America and the other Western democracies defended those precious freedoms during the "war on terror"? As The Economist intends to show in a series of articles starting this week, the past six years have seen a steady erosion of civil liberties even in countries that regard themselves as liberty's champions. Arbitrary arrest, indefinite detention without trial, "rendition", suspension of habeas corpus, even torture -- who would have thought such things possible?
14 September 2007
Chinese web filtering 'erratic' BBC
China's firewall that tries to sanitise web browsing is much more porous than previously thought, says a study. Carried out by US researchers outside China, it found that the firewall often failed to block what the Chinese government finds objectionable. The firewall was least effective when lots of Chinese web users were online.
12 September 2007
For China's Censors, Electronic Offenders Are the New Frontier Washington Post
... But party censors are now turning to China's booming Internet and cellphone networks with particular vigor. Given the easy access to technologies such as text messaging, censors have found it difficult to keep a grip on information. It hasn't been for lack of trying. The Public Security Ministry, which monitors the Internet under guidance from the Central Propaganda Department, has recruited an estimated 30,000 people to snoop on electronic communications. The ministry recently introduced two cartoon characters -- a male and female in police uniforms -- that it said would pop up on computer screens occasionally to remind people that their activity is being tracked.
