Category «Free Speech»

Net Censorship Abroad – Free Speech Colides With E-commerce?

Follow-up to February 2, 2006 posting, Hearing Focuses on Internet Censorship in China, this WSJ free feature today: Internet Censorship – Web Firms Face Grilling on China. Related news: New York Times, So Long, Dalai Lama: Google Adapts to China – “Google’s local staff works closely with Chinese officials to ensure that search results from …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Commerce, Free Speech, Internet, Privacy

Hearing Focuses on Internet Censorship in China

Congressional Human Rights Caucus Members’ Briefing: Human Rights and the Internet – The People’s Republic of China, Wednesday, February 1, 2006: “China has one of the most sophisticated content-filtering Internet regimes in the world. The Chinese government employs sophisticated methods to limit content online, including a combination of legal regulation, surveillance, and punishment to promote …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Free Speech, Internet

Sen. Boxer Calls For Hearings on Censorship of Gov’t Scientists

Follow-up to January 29, 2006 posting, Gov’t Climate Change Expert Contends Censorship of Data – today Sen. Barbara Boxer issued a press release that included the text of her letters to ranking members of two Senate committees stating, “It has come to my attention that the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Dr. …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents

Commentary on Gov’t Rationale for Domestic Surveillance

New York Times editorial, January 29, 2006, Spies, Lies and Wiretaps: “A bit over a week ago, President Bush and his men promised to provide the legal, constitutional and moral justifications for the sort of warrantless spying on Americans that has been illegal for nearly 30 years. Instead, we got the familiar mix of political …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Patriot Act, Privacy

ALA Announces Intention to File Patriot Act FOIA Request

American Libraries Online, January 13, 2006: “The American Library Association’s Executive Board intends to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine if the FBI has been collecting information on the Association and its leaders as a result of their opposition to certain provisions of the USA Patriot …

Subjects: Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Libraries, Patriot Act

Wiki Provides Global Guidance to Keep Free Speech Alive

Spirit of America sponsors The Anoniblogging Wiki: “This wiki contains our five initial guides on how to blog more safely [targeted to citizens in Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Malaysia and Zimbabwe]. Across the globe, countries that discourage free speech have followed their citizens into the blogosphere. According to one count, in the last two years …

Subjects: Blogs, Civil Liberties, Free Speech

ACLU Files Appeal With Supreme Court on Librarian Gag Order

Follow-up to my September 29, 2005 posting, Broad Coalition Pushes to Lift Gag Order Against Librarian, AP reports that yesterday the ACLU filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, the text of which is censored, to release an anonymous Connecticut librarian from a gag order concerning an FBI investigation into his/her organization’s patron records. ALA …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Government Documents, Libraries, Patriot Act, Privacy

Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents

From Reporters Without Borders, a new resource: Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents (46 pages, PDF): “Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest. Reporters Without Borders has produced this …

Subjects: Blogs, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Internet

Public Submits Questions for Roberts’ Confirmation Hearings

The Washington Post reported today (reg. req’d) on a new e-government initiative that is worth noting. Through the efforts of seven Democratic Senators (Barbara A. Mikulski, Barbara Boxer, Patty Murray, Mary L. Landrieu, Debbie Stabenow, Maria Cantwell, and Hillary Clinton), this website, Ask John Roberts, provides a voice to citizens to communicate their questions about …

Subjects: Congress, Courts, E-Government, Free Speech

Civil Liberties Groups Submit Amicus Brief on Listserv Membership Protection Issue

“EPIC joined eight civil liberties organizations to submit a “friend of the court” brief (38 pages, PDF) in Forensic Advisors v. Matrixx Initiatives, a case before the Maryland Court of Special Appeals in which a pharmaceutical company is attempting to force a newsletter publisher to disclose his subscriber list. The company wants to use the …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Free Speech, Internet, Legal Research