Twitter censorship plan provokes outrage

To cries of protest, Twitter announced last week that it will take a country’s laws and culture into account in conducting country-specific censorship. Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who is also the second largest shareholder in News Corp., recently invested $300 million in Twitter. -db From the Courthouse News Service, January 27, 2012, by Adam [...]

U.S. press freedom plummeted in 2011

Press freedom took a hit in the United States in 2011 according to Reporters Without Borders who ranked contries according to their performance. The U.S. now shares 47th place in a tie with Romania and Argentina. Much of the drop may be based on the harassment, beating and arrest of journalists covering Occupy Wall Street [...]

Bloggers advocating democratic reform suffer oppression

Despite the promise of the Arab Spring, bloggers world-wide are seen as threats to public order and  arrested and imprisoned for speaking out for democratic reform. Bloggers are in danger in many countries including Syria, Egypt, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. -db From a commentary by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, October 27, 2011, by [...]

Mexican citizens held for ‘Twitter terrorism’

Two Mexican citizens were arrested in Veracruz for  reporting on Twitter something they heard,  that a drug gang had attacked a primary school and conducted a kidnapping. It turns out that the report was untrue and caused a panic and over twenty car accidents as parents rushed to get their kids out of class. The [...]

International press freedom: Nonprofits may have role in mitigating censorship

Clothilde Le Coz of Reporters Without Borders says that in many countries that try to censor the internet, a user can still find uncensored news on the web, and nonprofit journalism sites can step up to provide some of that news. Le Coz says it is a challenge to guarantee independence even with the nonprofit [...]

International reporters group lists ‘predators of freedom’

Reporters Without Borders (RWB) has released a list of the “predators of press freedom” – leaders, crime organizations and armies throughout the world that harass and kill reporters and censor news. RWB said while changes in the Arab world and the ouster of despots looks promising, there was a “staggering” number of abuses against the [...]

U.S. protests beatings and arrests of journalists covering protests in Egypt

With reports that Mubarak supporters had beaten a number of journalists and that two dozen reporters had been arrested including two Americans, the White House issued a statement that the actions were “completely and totally unacceptable.” A report by Erika Niedowski in The Hill quoted Reporters without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard on Wednesday: “We remind [...]

Wikileaks deserters said to be forming rival organization

Dissatisfied with the antics of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and the organization’s failure to protect lives of people in publishing the Iraq war documents, several employees have left to form a competing organization. -db ReadWriteWeb November 7, 2010 By Curt Hopkins Back in September, we reported that whistleblowing site Wikileaks had hemorrhaged a number of prominent [...]

Press Freedom Index: U.S. remains in 20th place

Amplify’d from voices.washingtonpost.com Reporters Without Borders, the journalism watchdog group, released its Press Freedom Index for 2010, tracking media freedom across 178 countries. The report measures the violations of press freedom in the world, taking into account murders, imprisonment, physical attacks and threats as well as censorship, confiscation, searches and harassment. The United States remained [...]

Europe losing ground in fight for press freedom

The 2010 World Press Freedom Index shows that while Europe claims some of the highest rated countries for press freedom, many other countries in Europe rank near the bottom. -db MediaShift Commentary October 21, 2010 By Clothilde Le Coz Reporters Without Borders yesterday released its 2010 World Press Freedom Index. Thirteen of the EU’s 27 [...]

Iranian bloggers at great risk in using Internet

In the last year since the protests over the Iranian election, the government has arrested 170 bloggers and journalists with 22 receiving prison sentences totaling more than 135 years. Authoritarian governments are sharing technology aimed at stifling dissent and in the last two years have increased their effectiveness in silencing critics. -db Voice of America [...]

President signs law to protect journalists worldwide

President Barack Obama signed a law to monitor press freedom around the world and identify countries where journalists are killed, imprisoned or subject to censorship. The law is named after Daniel Pearl, an American journalist murdered in Pakistan in 2002. -db Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press May 17, 2010 By Brian Westley President [...]

Free internet depends on establishing ‘net neutrality’

While the European Union is rejecting the principles of an open internet, the United States with leadership from the Obama administration favors ”net neutrality”, policies the provides equal access to the internet without any restrictions on accessing content.No company or government would be allowed to restrict use except to safeguard security and to fix temporary technical glitches.-DB MediaShift Commentary [...]

Obama enforcing Bush visa requirements on foreign journalists

The Obama administration is enforcing unpopular visa requirements on foreign journalism instituted during the Bush years. The requirements are in place for the two-day economic summit Pittsburgh in September. -DB Politico August 11, 2009 By Josh Gerstein The Obama administration is enforcing visa requirements for foreign journalists in connection with a two-day economic summit in Pittsburgh [...]