September, 2011

Stories from September, 2011

Kuwait: Three Netizens Detained

Kuwait does not have a history of detaining citizens for expressing their views online; the first arrest case in relevance to the internet happened to Bashar Al-Sayegh (@balsayegh) a Kuwaiti...

28 September 2011

Connect your Rights! Internet Rights are Human Rights.

Joy Liddicoat of APC.org points out that while governments are positioning themselves around internet governance issues, the politics associated with this must not detract from the issues that are facing civil society in developing countries, nor be a smokescreen behind which governments, or others, can hide their increasingly sophisticated interference with human rights and the internet.

27 September 2011

MagyarLeaks: This Is A Test of the Hungarian Media Law

Not long after the launch of the first Hungarian whistleblower website police started an investigation against its editor-in-chief. Reason: “keeping the confidentiality of informants is perjury, or even aiding or abetting in the blackmailing.” Atlatszo.hu is a watchdog NGO and online magazine for investigative journalism started in July 2011 by Tamás Bodoky and other pro-transparency and anti-corruption journalists, and lawyers, IT-specialists, academics, independent experts. (The meaning of the word ‘átlátszó’ is ‘transparent’ in Hungarian.)

19 September 2011

Syrian Government Blocks WordPress

Syrian Twitter users are reporting that the popular blogging platform WordPress is blocked on ISPs in the country. This move comes amidst a wave of anti-regime protests that's taking the country by storm despite being faced by a brutal governmental crackdown.

18 September 2011

The Netizen Report: Inaugural Edition

This is the first post in a new series on GVA called "The Netizen Report:" A regular overview of recent global developments related to the power dynamics between citizens, companies and governments on the Internet.

16 September 2011

Cameras Everywhere: Current Challenges and Opportunities at the Intersection of Human Rights, Video and Technology

I’m pleased to announce the launch of our new report: “Cameras Everywhere: Current Challenges and Opportunities at the Intersection of Human Rights, Video and Technology.” You can read and download it on our website. The report, like the initiative of the same name, aims to ensure that the thousands of people turning to video for human rights can do so as effectively, safely and ethically as possible.

9 September 2011

Police lèse majesté “experts” in Prachatai trial

A capacity crowd of supporters filled the lèse majesté trial of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of Thailand’s independent online news portal Prachatai, which continued into its seventh day at Bangkok’s Criminal...

2 September 2011