Worldcrunch
With both fans and diplomatic dignitaries missing, it’s an Olympics that recalls politically combustible Games of the past. COVID-19, like it did for the Summer Games in Tokyo, will also help haunt the premises. The good news is that the athletes will most likely take over our attention as soon as they hit the ice and snow.
Russian media outlets have received government orders to remove archived material about Alexei Navalny and his investigations into corruption by Vladimir Putin and his associates. While the jailed activist’s past work can be found elsewhere, YouTube and other foreign internet platforms may be the Kremlin’s next target.
Government regulators in Beijing have banned the TV and streaming appearance of what is referred to with the slur “niang pao” – literally, “girlie guns.” It is clearly a homophobic and transphobic measure, but the real aim may be to keep the increasingly powerful tech platforms in line.
Hong Kong’s national security police recently arrested five people over the publication of children’s books featuring sheep, which it says represent Hong Kongers, attacking wolves, allegedly standing for mainlanders.
Reports have come in from LGBTQ activists around the country that the government has shut down the organizations pages on WeChat, the top Chinese platform.
The infamous 1972 film sparked a years-long legal battle in director Bernardo Bertolucci’s native land. The recently restored court archives are now being made public.
There has been an obvious and unnerving crackdown on dissenting voices in the weeks since Narendra Modi began his new term as prime minister.
The U.S. web giant may be planning a return to China. But would web users there actually embrace it? An online pull (that mysteriously disappeared after just a few hours) offers some hints.
Computers that can perfectly mimic the human voice? Hyper sensitive surveillance cameras? Advances like these are already a reality, and need to be regulated now.
Low wages, government censorship and even arbitrary detentions. Practicing journalism has become an increasingly risky business in Egypt.
Once again, life imitates art. In his masterpiece 1984, George Orwell wrote, “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered.” This quote has proven particularly relevant in recent weeks as activists in the West suddenly […]
CAIRO — The Egyptian government has blocked access to a total of 21 news and information websites since last Wednesday, including the original publisher of this article, Cairo-based Mada Masr. A security source cited by MENA, the country’s official state news agency, said that the blocked websites were disseminating “content that supports terrorism and extremism […]
ISTANBUL — The smartphone’s video camera zigzags through the crowd. Amid a joyful brouhaha punctuated by applause, the young videomaker captures the first smiles and the excited faces, still stunned by the good news. “Asli Erdogan, Necmiye Alpay and Zana Kaya are free!,” the journalist comments as she films the scene. The date was Dec. […]
Debate continues to simmer over the threats of “fake news’ and the civic and journalistic responsibilities of the world’s largest and most powerful social media platform. What does state censorship in China have to do with all of that? We asked ourselves that very question. January 17, 2018* It was a handshake nine years in […]
BEIJING — In Xi Jinping’s China, it is again a risky proposition to openly criticize Mao Zedong. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) thought it had resolved the discussion in 1981 when it decreed that the reign of Mao, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, had been 70% good and 30% bad. But since […]
MOSCOW — He is described as the Russian equivalent of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. After launching VKontakte, Russia’s biggest social network, a decade ago, Pavel Durov has more recently become one of President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest, if ever discreet, opponents. Forced into exile after quarrels with the Kremlin, he is never where you’d expect him […]
Whether it’s about Syrian refugees, Syria or Iraq, the truth is sometimes better left unsaid. It all depends on the country in which it is said. One thing is certain: In these troubled times, censorship and self-censorship are thriving.
BEIJING — “No more homosexuality, extramarital affairs, or one-night stand content in Chinese television drama.” Thus reads a general rule published jointly this week by China’s Federation of Television Production Committee and the Chinese TV drama production Industry Association, Sina News reported. The list is extended to anything that is “against scientific spirit,” or which […]
Just days after Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Can Dündar accepted the 2015 Press Freedom Prize in France, he was arrested along with a colleague. He wrote this letter from the Istanbul jail where he faces life in prison for publishing articles about
Already very active within the country, Chinese censorship is now being applied outside its borders, and via the Internet. What are the implications for China, and the rest of us?
From Facebook to Google, Baidu to VKontakte, the world’s biggest technology companies talk about their singular dedication to their users. Yet the road to becoming a global tech titan is inevitably lined with hard choices and conflicts of interest. Here are five prominent controversies where companies are accused of ceding to questionable demands of the […]
Last month, Spanish correspondent Ricard Gonzalez was forced to leave Egypt in a hurry. Here is his story
Behind the Chinese government’s easy shows of strength is a rising sense of insecurity within the regime.
South China Morning Post, June 5, 2015 Tens of thousands of people held a candlelight vigil Thursday night in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to mark the 26th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the student-led demonstrations in which hundreds — thousands, according to some estimates — are believed to have died. The Hong […]
Cumhuriyet, April 7, 2015 “Half Democracy,” Tuesday’s front page of Turkey’s center-left daily Cumhuriyet reads, after the government imposed a nationwide ban on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook Monday. The accompanying picture depicts a man divided between “CENSORSHIP” and “VIOLENCE.” Turkish authorities have now lifted the ban, which had been implemented in an attempt to prevent […]
The current series of kissing protests in India are indicative of a country and a culture in transition.
Bangkok is no Hong Kong right now. Once considered an Asian model of democracy, Thailand is under strict military rule since the spring, with free speech squashed and fears deepening.
In Colombia, a recent case of censorship – since reversed – shines a light on the role of art in a society that has all the signs of freedom. And yet….
Zulkiflee Anwar Haque, better known as Zunar, is a cartoonist who has been drawing editorial and political cartoons for over 20 years. His cartoons cover a range of issues, but are known for being critical of the government. “Most of the mainstream media neglect or black out the important issues, just focusing on petty or sensational issues. They want to distract people’s minds from focusing on the fundamental issues. Through my cartoons I want to highlight the important issues in Malaysia, like corruption; there are so many cases of corruption that have been blacked out by mainstream media.” As rules […]
Reports of the Thai army taking control in a military coup come as a growing number of activists are openly challenging the country’s long-reigning King Bhumibol.
MOSCOW — Russia’s deteriorating relationship with the West could lead to a complete restructuring of Internet policy in the country, Kommersant has learned. The Kremlin is currently holding internal discussions about instituting complex methods for tightening the control over Internet access providers. This means filtering content at all levels of content, forbidding the registration of […]
-OpEd- ISTANBUL — The saying goes that if the word “but” is featured in a sentence, nothing that comes before it should be taken seriously. Whether this is always true, I don’t really know, but what happened after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan targeted Twitter at a political rally in Bursa reminds me of this […]
With the United States no longer able to impose its position on Internet security and governance in the wake of the NSA spying scandal, Moscow is stepping into the void.
AHRAMONLINE (Egypt), AFP, THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch CAIRO — After being accused of “inciting hatred” against Coptic Christians and “undermining national unity,” the Islamist Al-Hafez TV channel was ordered by a Cairo administrative court to be closed permanently, according to the Egyptian Ahramonline news website. The station, which was among several to be taken temporarily […]
BEIJING – Is recess time over for China’s whistleblowers? Are we seeing the beginnings of a crackdown on this group of influential bloggers who have contributed to exposing corrupt public officials over the past few months? These digital activists and journalists had believed their crusade had the implicit backing of the central government after new […]
With the ownership change of the 24-hour news channel Globovision, the last remaining television source for reporting that challenges the government is gone.
A free speech advocate fears that President Rafael Correa’s sweeping new communications law, outlawing so-called “media lynching,” in fact threatens to silence real journalism.
BEIJING – These are good days for China. Not so much for the United States — or Sino-American relations. After Edward Snowden left Hong Kong unhindered last week, the angered Americans at first threatened this would have “negative consequences” on relations between the two superpowers. Snowden’s departure had delivered a blow to “mutual confidence,” the […]
JINAN – How to “surf” anonymously on the Web, in a country – China – where cybercafés ask for proof of ID before you are allowed to log onto the Internet? In order to circumvent this requirement, Mr Guo, owner of a cybercafé in Jinan city, northeastern Chinese Shandong Province, had found a perfect solution: […]