Archive for
August 26th, 2005


Stories

Freedom of Speech News 

a small portrait of this author Rebecca MacKinnon · 12:47

According to Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), and Human Rights Watch, here are the latest developments on threats to Freedom of Speech over the past week:

Tunisia: Government bans new journalists' union from holding founding congress. RSF reports that the Tunisian government has decided to ban the Union of Tunisian Journalists (SJT) from holding a founding congress that had been planned for 7 September.

Libya: Web Writer's Arrest Stifles Debate. HRW reports Libya’s internal security force has detained al-Mansuri since last January in an apparent effort to silence a writer with critical views. See also the RSF appeal here.

China: Cyber-dissident Ma Yalian released on completing sentence. According to RSF, “A total of 62 other cyber-dissidents are still currently imprisoned in China for circulating articles and information critical of the authorities on the Internet.”

Maldives: Cyber-dissident Mohamed Zaki freed after two years in prison and 19 months under house arrest. According to RSF “Zaki, who helped run the e-mailed newsletter Sandhaanu, was freed on 18 August, two months after the release of another Sandhaanu staff member, Fathimath Nisreen.”

Belarus: KGB censors satirical Internet cartoons RSF reports on “raids carried out on 16 August by the Belarusian secret police, the KGB, on three apartments in Minsk and the western city of Grodno allegedly belonging to young members of the Third Way opposition movement who create satirical, animated cartoons (in Flash format) for Internet distribution.”

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Maghreb Blog 

a small portrait of this author Mohamed Marwen Meddah · 09:36

A group of enthusiastic bloggers from the Maghreb world; that consists of Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Mauritania; have launched a new project under the name of Maghreb Blog.

This group blog mainly discusses news from across the region, common issues and more, in an attempt to promote the Maghreb blogosphere and bring its people closer to each other.

If you look a bit closer at the blogs from across the Maghreb countries (e.g. Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria), you’ll realize how much they have in common, and how they share so many things; from the issues they discuss, to the problems they face, to the ideas they share, to the goals they aim at; This only goes on to confirm how maghrebian people are very alike in their thoughts, concerns, aims and everything in addition to history, language, geography and race.

This project was created to showcase that, to unite Maghreb bloggers online, to create a meeting point for them where they can interact, discuss, share, talk about what unites them and also understand what unique and enriching differences they have.

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Blog Day 2005 

a small portrait of this author David Sasaki · 04:10

Sometime in June of this year Israeli blogger Nir Ofir had a realization: the date 3108 (or August 31st) looks suspiciously like the word “Blog.” He had also become increasingly aware that as more weblogs from around the world make their way onto the internet, the more we get stuck in our regular reading habits without searching for new content and new voices from other cultures and viewpoints. Despite the rhetoric of the internet making the world a smaller place, most weblogs still link to bloggers from their same country and with their same political outlook. His solution?

In one long moment on August 31st, bloggers from all over the world will post a recommendation of 5 new Blogs, Preferably, Blogs different from their own culture, point of view and attitude. On this day, blog surfers will find themselves leaping and discovering new, unknown Blogs, celebrating the discovery of new people and new bloggers.

There are specific instructions on how to format your blog post in English as well as 10 other languages.

The idea has certainly caught on and is already making noise around the world. SAJ Shirazi from Pakistan has listed no less than 124 blogs which he fully expects to participate in Blog Day this coming Wednesday. Satish Talim from Pune, India is encouraging fellow Indians to take part. Aldebarán from El Salvador, Jordi Abad from Barcelona, Spain, naevus' corner from Italy, David Weinberger from the U.S.A., and Alexis Perrier from Paris, France are just a few examples of the many around the world who will be introducing their readers to new bloggers from other countries.

Unfortunately, it seems that Technorati's lack of support of the Korean standard character set, EUC-KR, will keep most Korean bloggers from participating in the day's events. In a letter to Nir Ofir, the Korean blogger, Hof explained why.

Though Blog Day has garnered less attention here in the United States, the Indianapolis Star did give it mention last week.

We at Global Voices, of course, couldn't be more supportive of the idea. We have long encouraged bridge blogging, where a weblog serves as a bridge between two groups of people, especially from different countries and cultures. August 31st marks a day in which we can all play that role by seeking out new blogs from foreign places and introducing them to our regular readers. If you're looking for a great place to start exploring, there's none better than our Bridge Blog Index.

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News from Chinese Blogosphere(Aug 21th-27th) 

a small portrait of this author Frank Dai · 04:02

1 Firewall Update: From Aug 20th, internet users in mainland China generally began to experience access failures when they tried to browse websites outside China. Even the searching engine Google and its mail service Gmail are both inaccessible while all the websites based in China are normal. Keso pointed out that the major international router may face problem after test. Virushuo guessed that the GFW, mechanism to block websites is undergoing update operation. He said the new system can now block different websites on same URL.

2 Blog Tag Game: A game was spreading among Chinese Bloggers called “Five Weird Habits” with amazing speed. Its rule was that a blogger wrote about five weird habits in his or her daily life then named other 5 bloggers to continue the game on their blogs. It was started on Aug 15th by a Taiwan blogger named Anaislee and reach across the strait almost overnight. Incomplete has a map illustrating how the game was spreading in mainland China and Florahsueh discussed this social behavior using Maslow’s theory.

3 More Female Blogger than Male: In an interview conducted by Businessweek with Hu Zhiguang, CEO of Blogcn, whose company is leading Blog Service Provider in China, revealed that near 60% of blogger are female because they are more emotional to express feeling and males are too busy to blog. Mr Hu also talked about the issues like real name registration and sensitive words.

4 Online Game: New regulation governing online game would be soon approved by legislature body. It requires the game designing must have a system that limits the consecutive playing time no more than 3 hours. Anyone who plays over the limitation would face punishment on their virtual money and scores. Fons Tuinstra discussed its impacts on the profitable market of online game. Also a game called “Anti-Japan War Online” developed by China Communist Youth League was going to begin commercial operation by the end of the year. Joi Ito was very curious about how Japanese history was portrayed in the game.

5 Chinese Blogger Conference: A list of major speakers and panel moderators has been published including their biography. More details are still under way.

6 Nomination for Best of Bloggers: The annual competition initiated by Deutsche Welle called Best of Bloggers began now. Anti, a celebrated right-wing journalist blogger, told his readers that he had became one of the 12 judges in the competition. He asked people to recommend blogs to him for award nomination.

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