News: Freedom of expression

The Bulgarian police has called in bloggers and pressured them to stop writing about the recent wave of environmental protests that has swept across the country in the recent weeks. While the issue is hot in Bulgaria and broadly covered by the Bulgarian press, APC’s member in Bulgaria (BlueLink) believes this deserves to go global.

Amendments to Bulgaria’s Access to Public Information Act were passed by the National Assembly at the first reading. Many of the proposed changes breach established international standards on the right to information and appear specifically designed to hinder access to public records.

Eleven years after the Indian Supreme Court directed New Delhi to "open up the airwaves", campaigners who battled long for this to happen gave a sigh of relief when India finally opened up its broadcasts to community radio in mid November 2006.

The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, section Asia Pacific, condemns the military takeover in the Fiji islands. Particularly, the APC partner organisation expresses its solidarity and support for "femLINKPACIFIC: Media Initiatives for Women", one of its members in the Fiji islands. Read the entire press release.

Blatant censorship is one thing, and can be fought. But who controls the controllers? What about the more subtle forms of control and blockages, that often can work in the more brutal ways of the unseen hand? APC member-organisation RITS’s Carlos Afonso, made this point articulatedly at the Internet Governance Forum in Athens. Afonso underlined that it was difficult to deal internet-related issues "without considering the situation of regulation, legislation and control of the network itself." He questioned the view that "the technical question is not as relevant as the other issues." What is the responsibility of network operators? Controlling players decide if voice over IP traffic can pass through an exchange point or not.

APC condemns the unjust detention of free speech bloggers and journalists in Egypt. Alaa Seif Al-Islam, a seasoned blogger and APC colleague, is one of four Egyptian online diarists being held in detention for criticising the current regime since May 7. In addition, APC has heard disturbing reports about violent actions taken by state security against several of the bloggers who were released from custody last week, only to be subsequently re-arrested. Authorities prevented human rights lawyers from visiting the bloggers who had been beaten and tortured on Thursday May 25.