Freedom of expression
On the first day of the Digital Citizen’s Indaba in Grahamstown, South Africa, Ethan Zukerman asked: “50 million people blog out of a global population of 6 billion people – not exactly representative is it?”
Getting to the 2006 iSummit took Andrew Garton to Santiago where he spent two days musing over digital rights management amidst trips to the Brazilian Consulate, Internet cafe’s and "real" coffee shops.
India is planning to significantly amend its Copyright Act of 1957, to include among other things the concept of Digital Rights Management, a move which could well restrict access to knowledge. Lawyers-with-a-difference are closely monitoring what’s happening on this front.
An ant, they say, can infuriate an elephant. That is, if the ant choose the right target, and goes into the elephant’s ear. In the Egyptian world of technology, an 24-year-old engineer is doing the same by giving a voice to protest that’s otherwise stifled in that part of the globe.
Alaa has finally be released after 45 days in prison. We heard the good news from Manal earlier this week. Here is a news report from the The Independent published on 21 June 2006.
Supposedly the birthday should be a bright day, with pleasant weather, gifts, lots of flowers, hundreds of birthday wishes via SMS and emails, sumptuous ice cream cake, dinner party with friends etc. However, this wasn’t the case on my birthday this year.
Says Amnesty International: "Independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas has been staging a hunger strike since 31 January 2006 to obtain access to internet for all Cubans. Internet remains under governmental control, accessible only through official organizations or at hotels from where Cuban nationals are normally barred".
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 ...
Internews Pakistan (http://www.internews.org.pk) compiles an annual State of the Media in Pakistan report. The one for the year 2005-06 has recently been launched. Welcoming the report, Hasan Rizvi, one of the pioneers in ICTs and development communications guru in the country commented that "The report is somewhat sketchy, especially in terms of media’s coverage/access (geographic, de...
Alaa is fine, treatment is fine in prison..the problem is in the state security.. they can interfere with any other authorities.
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