blogging where speech isn't free
freedomhouse.org - map of press freedom
google maps mashup shows public and secret prisons in Bahrain(?)
Having trouble keeping up with this guy. he's giving so much information so fast.
What states do:
block sites
block tools
register bloggers
arrest bloggers
mazret.com - leading ethiopian opposition news site.
Pakistan has blocked all of blogger in the process of blocking six sites they considered dangerous.
Someone who works at blogger speaks up to say that ban was lifted last week
Mahmood of Mahmood's den is fighting against registration of bloggers in Bahrain
freekareem.org
How we fight back
mirror sites
isaacmao.com and notisaacmao.com
insure someone can protect identity
sleepless in sudan (sleeplessinsudan.blogspot.com)
handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents
bring attention to the notion that people are blocking access
advocate for all, not just those we agree with
tor.eff.org - produces a suite of software which allows for circumventing firewalls or protecting identity online.
randomly routes you through proxies, and by the time you come out of the cloud, people can see what you are writing, but they can't see where you came from.
Oppressive countries realize that free speech is important for societal evolution, and they are trying to manage change.
There is some nationalism when people talk about free speech. You have to see it as an ongoing story involving cultural tensions. It's important to allow these tools, but it's at least as important that people who live in places where speech is free to not villify those countries where speech is restricted.
shahed amanullah altmuslim.com
a great deal of what's happening w/r/t repression of speech is happening in muslim countries.
why should we care
the muslim world also deserves political and press freedom
creating a moderate and dynamic islam rquires intellectual freedom
we all have a stake in who wins the battle for the soul of islam.
forces against muslim bloggers include governments and extremists.
Blogging and open discourse
It starts with the simple questions
breaks the monopoly on information
the freer the discourse is, the mor moderate the Islamic practice is
Advocacy for persecuted bloggers and press freedom in general
Linear correlation between extremism and political instability. Extremists do not want stability.
Serbian panelist Jasmina from yugoslavia.
calls herself a case study
during bombings had surreal vision of seeing herself bombed on the tv
all of the tv broadcasts were lies, but NATO lied, too.
Invisible victims - both sides were denying.
These invisible victims caused her to start her blog for friends and family. Anonymously...
but family knew it was her.
ABC news wanted to interview her..but wanted to protect her identity. She realized she was in danger of becoming collateral damage. So being public and non-anonymous was her only protection.
question one: do people use anonymity to spread lies...and are anonymizers responsible for reporting this kind of abuse or distortion. answer is if you can give anyone anonymity, must commit to giving anonymity to all. No one can pressure for information because they can't keep it. Someone recently used TOR to create an anonymous blog to publish photos of the babes of the best law schools in the us. and there was a complaint...but nothing they could do. There are people who use the system who end up getting caught in other ways...but there is no way to get caught through tor On one hand you are advocating for free speech, on the other hand... we know people use the postal mail to spread lies, to send child pornography, and do other things. Yet we agree as a social conscences that we don't allow all mail to be opened to censor these things. question 2 how to move us/russia where insidious censorship happens towards more freedom answer anonymity is a tiny piece of it. wants people to have access to anonymity, but also wants people to be able to stand up for what they believe. there is a question of having free speech, and then there is a question of having speech accomplish what we need it to accomplish. question 3 what is the specific/ongoing role of the expatriate press? 4th world - people who are post-national. new social class of expats. a lot of the senegalese election debate happened online by expats. jasmina says there is a serbian interactive blog that became most read media in Serbia within a couple of months. Some dude is talking on his phone. wtf? what do we do about people who lack infrastructure, such as electricity answer: the economic barriers are enormous...so community radio is important to link. other barriers=literacy community radio plus mobile phones is the solution...is a bridge. this is still an elite media...but it's an elite media that does have a global audience. we need to amplify the voices who can utilize the media. also need to address the global digital divide and find ways to increase access. question importance of these tools in "modern world"...omniscient surveillance mindfreedom.org whistle blowing is a big deal. I am tired. so so so tired. free speech is something that runs through a lot of our life and is not very well-guarded. epic.org eff.org privacy and free speech is an issue no matter where you are and what you are doing. eff has a big party at sholz garden 7 PM monday.
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