June 4, 2010 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
The Guardian reports that a proposed piece of legislation up for debate in the Italian senate would mean: “No more reporting of criminal investigations before they come to trial (even if that takes years). No more recording or photographing of anyone, even a Mafia boss, unless that person approves. Only members of the state-approved “National Order of Journalists” allowed to film or record. Fines approaching half-a-million euros for publishers who transgress, with €20,000 per reporter also on the table.”
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October 23, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
John McCain, the Arizona Republican who ran against Barack Obama in last year’s presidential election, today introduced in the Senate the “Internet Freedom Act”, in a brazen bid to make the internet far less free for the average web surfer. The bill would bar the FCC from enacting regulations that would prevent internet service providers from interfering with users’ preferred content choices, penalizing small content producers and slowing the internet down broadly in order to collect fees for higher-speed services, which the providers would select.
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August 5, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Now, we face unprecedented challenges to the right of people everywhere to access information intended for public consumption. Repressive governments are building state-of-the-art censorship , tracking and filtering mechanisms (the ‘Great Firewall of China’, for example), and internet service providers (ISP) are seeking to establish profit-dr… that limit users’ access to certain websites or content-producers.
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August 4, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Associated Press perceives the routine standard for online journalism, blogging and social networking, which involves quoting, citing and linking to sources, as injurious to its revenue stream. It is now seeking to institute a blanket global policy, whereby quoting even 5 words by the AP would cost the quoting publication $12.50. Quoting 251 words or more would cost $100. Critics say the AP, like other online news producers, benefits immensely from the incoming links posted across the web by readers and journalists referring back to its news material.
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July 22, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is filing a federal lawsuit to force release of documents the intelligence community has refused to turn over in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. US intelligence agencies keep records of internal reports and investigations of alleged wrongdoing, and are obliged to report that wrongdoing to the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB), but may have failed to do so in recent years.
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July 1, 2009 :: staff :: 3 Comments
Amid a storm of protest from Chinese citizens, businesses, rights activists and foreign governments, China has suddenly halted its planned installation of a new enhancement to the ‘Great Firewall’ called ‘Green Dam’. In a statement the UK’s Guardian calls “terse”, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported “China will delay the mandatory installation of the ‘Green Dam-Youth Escort’ filtering software on new computers.”
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June 23, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 8 Comments
As Iran’s presidential election has morphed into a massive international spectacle, with opposition protesters demanding justice and a full accounting of how votes were tallied, the regime has used every technological advantage at its disposal to obstruct online communications and mobile phone traffic. The government now has a wealth of powerful technologies, from western firms, it can use to spy, block communications, and even alter messages before they are delivered.
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May 2, 2009 :: Riga Listin :: 5 Comments
UNESCO Committee on Communication and Information representative presents award for research into press freedom. Debate discusses anti-press actions that have impeded the free flow of information about civilian suffering in war-zones ranging from Gaza to Sri Lanka to Iraq. The debate is hosted and moderated by William Horsley, of the Association of European Journalists.
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March 11, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The best thing China’s ruling Communist party can do for itself, for its people and for the stability of the nation, is take seriously all petitions for redress of grievances, investigate all claims of official corruption, negligence or assault, give weight to collective or individual property claims by punishing officials who steal property, blaze a path toward transparency in banking, ban government cover-ups and establish a zero-tolerance policy for public officials who use their power to punish or intimidate citizens who come forward seeking justice.
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December 16, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Communist party government of China has resumed blocking some websites it had unblocked as a gesture of good will, after foreign reporters complained during the Olympics that certain foreign information sources were not available to them. The BBC and Reporters without Borders (RSF) report their sites being blocked, and the Chinese government says sites that contain information sympathetic to Tibetan or Taiwanese independence movements cannot be allowed to be read in China.
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November 18, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
Despite urging from the Russian prosecutors and the potential national-security implications of a case involving at least one former FSB (successor to KGB) agent, the trial of those accused of conspiring in the killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya will be held in open court. The first trial hearings began “behind closed doors”, and Karina Moskalenko —a human rights lawyer working with Politkovskaya’s family— was allegedly poisoned while in France.
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September 2, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
The Republican party kicked off its nominating convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, last night, with a heavy focus on the plight of those displaced by Hurricane Gustav. Fortunately, the storm did not turn out to be “the storm of the century”, but it did leave over 1 million homes and businesses without electricity along the Gulf coast. So in an effort to avoid anything resembling the perceived indifference with which the catastrophic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was met, the GOP has devoted significant time to voicing its support for efforts to send aid to the Gulf coast.
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June 11, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Federal Communications Commission has been asked by leading members of Congress to investigate revelations about a Pentagon program to use retired military personnel, some working for defense contractors and arms manufacturers, to deliver “talking points” on US television in the months before the Iraq war. The viewing public was not informed of these officials’ special relationship to their former employer or of their ties to military contractors who stood to profit from the war.
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April 21, 2008 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
19 April :: “The global food crisis became official yesterday [15 April] when the UN called for urgent intergovernmental action and farming reforms to tackle the soaring prices that are plunging millions of people into potentially deadly poverty”, reports UK’s Independent; reports of riots from southeast Asia to the Caribbean, along with multiple border crises [...]
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April 20, 2008 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
GUARDIAN BLOG CLASSES IT “WORST. DEBATE. EVER.” Two ABC News reporters were criticized for the quality of the debate questions they posed to the two senators competing for the Democratic nomination for the US presidency. Some critics have said the questions were reminiscent of the kind of exaggerations and innuendo typical of “character-assassination” campaigns waged [...]
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April 10, 2008 :: The Editors :: One Comment
10 April :: ABC News reported yesterday that “In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News”; Rice chaired the meetings, as National Security [...]
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March 25, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
We are on the verge of a major communications and global economic revolution, in which major media, technological advances, cloud computing and dispersed optimization, adapt to and take over new models for living and producing in human society. The New Scientist magazine reports in its March 15-21, 2008 edition that “web 3.0 will be about making information less free”.
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February 2, 2008 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
2 February :: Wash. Post reports “Two mentally disabled women strapped with remote-control explosives — and possibly used as unwitting suicide bombers — brought carnage to the two pet bazaars, in attacks Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said sought to ‘turn Baghdad back to the pre-surge period’”; at least 99 people were killed in the two [...]
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January 24, 2008 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
The potential for broad-scope “electronic agents” —preprogrammed service aggregators and self-organizing databases with proactive marketing capability—, aiding in everyday information-related activities, will require a new security standard to prevent identity theft, which could become one of the gravest threats to economic performance and individual liberty.
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January 9, 2008 :: The Editors :: One Comment
AT&T is proposing the implementation of new filtering technologies “at the network level” that would essentially interrupt in a definitive way the public’s freedom to access online content. The concept known as ‘net neutrality’ refers to consumers and netizens’ ability to freely gain access to any site, paid or unpaid, without major telecommunications companies programming [...]
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November 7, 2007 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
7 November :: Benazir Bhutto has called on Pakistan pres. Musharraf to restore constitution, fix date for elections, step down as army chief, or she will lead mass demonstration in Lahore, march with thousands of supporters to Islamabad to repeat demands; police used force to put down pro-Bhutto rally outside parliament building in Islamabad… In [...]
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November 6, 2007 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
6 November :: Privacy advocates say Real ID —a Homeland Security plan to force all US citizens to carry uniform biometric ID cards— may be finished, as DHS official reportedly indicated to officials from several states their citizens will not be penalized for the states’ rejecting Real ID; 17 states have passed legislation opposing the [...]
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November 5, 2007 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
5 November :: Foreign envoys aim to force Musharraf to keep promises to US, UK, to hold elections in January, step down as military chief or face drop in Western support… As reports say as many as 3,500 dissidents have been arrested in Musharraf’s 2nd military takeover, the Pakistani president has said on state television [...]
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November 3, 2007 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
3 November :: Senate subcommittee approves America’s Climate Security Act, legislation aimed at capping greenhouse gas emissions, now to be voted by full Environment and Public Works committee; bill touted as milestone in US climate policy; Sen. Lieberman has said it is the “Manhattan Project” for climate change that activists have long called for, bill [...]
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October 31, 2007 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
31 October :: US authorities fear catastrophic dam failure in Iraq: “A catastrophic failure of the largest dam in Iraq would send a wave 65ft high hurtling down the valley of the river Tigris, killing up to 500,000 people, US engineers warned yesterday” reports UK’s Independent; Army Corps of Engineers warns failure of the two-mile-across [...]
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October 27, 2007 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
27 October :: China plans to spend $14.4 billion to clean up Lake Tai, 3rd largest fresh-water lake in country, affected by direct toxic dumping, rampant algal bloom that cut off drinking water to Wuxi, a city of 2.3 million; according to IHT “Lake Tai, known as China’s ancient “land of rice and fish,” is [...]
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October 19, 2007 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
19 October :: US att. gen. nominee Mukasey has told Senate panel he believes so-called ‘unlawful combatants’ are not entitled to Geneva Conventions protections, a view contravened by existing law and jurisprudence; US Supreme Court has already ruled the Conventions govern US treatment of prisoners, not which prisoners enjoy protections; HRW reports “In Hamdan v. [...]
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October 14, 2007 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
14 October :: UN report shows rate of women dying during or just after childbirth in US on par with Belarus, Serbia, ten times worse than world’s safest, Ireland; a UN statement on the joint UN-World Bank report said “Among the ten top-ranked European and other industrialized countries, where women are guaranteed good-quality health and [...]
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October 7, 2007 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
7 August :: Brain-eating amoeba found throughout Tucson, AZ, water supply, authorities say no need to worry, as chlorination kills parasite; at least 6 young men and boys have been killed by the Naegleria fowleri amoeba this year in warm lakes, according to NIH researcher for recreational water-born diseases; scientists say rising temperatures may mean [...]
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September 27, 2007 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
27 September :: Reports emerge from Rangoon military junta has raided monasteries in effort to end pro-democracy rallies; UN Security Council has urged regime to meet with special envoy, China says it views Burma crisis as “internal affair”; reports suggest 70 monks were abducted from one monastery alone by security forces; junta has warned demonstrators [...]
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September 20, 2007 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
In late August, prosecutors announced the arrest of 10 individuals in connection with an alleged conspiracy to murder investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was gunned down in her apartment-building’s lobby last year. A judge in Russia has ruled against the detention of an FSB agent, who was released, then re-arrested on unrelated charges of abduction, murder and abuse of power. Now the Russian government has replaced the lead investigator, provoking “disappointment and bewilderment” at Novaya Gazeta, where Politkovskaya worked.
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August 9, 2007 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
THE OPEN INTERNET IS A FORCE FOR DEMOCRACY & OPEN GOV’T, NOW IT IS UNDER THREAT FROM THOSE WHO WISH TO BOTTLENECK THE FREE PRESS The concept of ‘net neutrality’ refers to the current state of affairs in the free democracies of the world, where those who control the physical infrastructure of the Internet are [...]
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July 29, 2007 :: staff :: Comments Off
IHT STORY SUGGESTS US ECONOMIC GROWTH SAVING WORLD MARKETS FROM TAILSPIN I was amazed to see an article entitled “Strong U.S. economy helps slow drop in world markets”, knowing that the dollar is falling, people are struggling to make ends meet, we’re constantly hearing about bankruptcies on the rise, and the housing market is, well, [...]
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July 7, 2007 :: staff :: Comments Off
ADVISORY GROUP IS PART OF EFFORT BY GOOGLE TO ENSURE THAT USERS NOT NEED TO SORT THROUGH RANDOM OR POSSIBLY ERRONEOUS INFORMATION ON SERIOUS MATTERS Google has launched a new special advisory group for health issues. The aim is to improve its overall search technology so that the end-user’s experience is not a confusion of [...]
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September 8, 2006 :: staff :: Comments Off
‘PATH TO 9/11′ CONTRADICTS EVIDENCE AS LAID OUT BY 9/11-COMMISSION REPORT, THOUGH IT CLAIMS REPORT AS SUPPORTING EVIDENCE ABC plans to air a “docu-drama” entitled Path to 9/11, a 6-hour TV movie detailing in fictional re-enactment events its writers allege occurred in the US counterterrorism community in the years before the attacks of 11 September [...]
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June 18, 2006 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) is to introduce an amendment to legislation currently under debate, which would restrict the executive branch’s ability to gag scientists, manipulate their findings or demote those who disagree with official policy. The legislation would also require that scientists appointed to investigatory panels be selected for their credentials, not their political views. [...]
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September 26, 2005 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
In a high-level Communist party meeting, China’s president Hu Jintao has reportedly called for an intensive crackdown on media liberties. While China’s government has sought to project an image of a more market-oriented, open system, it continues to forbid basic press freedoms and still persecutes journalists at an alarming rate. Reporters without Borders (RSF), a [...]
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