Philippines attempt to ban all sex entertainment

From the Manila Standard Today see full article

A nutter politician, Bienvenido Abante, has proposed legislation, Philippines House Bill 708, prohibiting and penalizing the production, printing, publication, importation, sale, distribution and exhibition of obscene and pornographic movies and materials, and the exhibition of live sexual acts.

This bill is presumably similar to a previous attempt, Bill 480, filed by Sergio Osmeña III, which has the same exact descriptive title as Rep. Abante’s where “obscene and pornographic materials” are defined as:

1. Explicit pictures or scenes depicting or describing sexual acts; masturbation, oral and anal sex, autoerotism; excretion such as urination and edema materials; sadomasochistic sex, bestiality, necrophilia, pedophilia, bondage and sex, sex with sacrilege; sex acts between and among children
2.  Lewd or libidinous depiction or description of the nudity of human body and its various parts such as male and female genitals, pubic region, buttocks, female breast below a point immediately above the top of the areola, male genitals in a discernibly turgid state, genitals in a state of sexual stimulation; fondling or erotic touching of genitals, pubic region, buttock or female breast
3. “Sex stories” such as columns, narrative or illustrated stories and articles contained in newspapers graphically depicting sexual acts
4. Lewd depiction and description of sexual paraphernalia such as life-sized rubber dolls, dildos, artificial vagina, vibrators or sexual gadgets of any kind
5. Still photographs of movies whether domestic or foreign, having sexual contents, and previously or subsequently rated “R” or “X” by the MTRCB.

According to a press release issued by the Public Relations and Information Dept. of the Philippine government, violators of the proposed law could be punished with imprisonment and fines ranging from approximately $1100 to $11000.

Thailand to ban YouTube videos about coup politics

From the Bangkok Post

The Department of Special Investigation under the Justice Ministry is seeking a court order to block clips recently posted on video-sharing website YouTube that accuse Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda of masterminding the Sept 19 coup.

In the couple of days, we will seek a court order to block those links deemed to cause public confusion and threaten national security, head of the unit Yanaphon Youngyuen said: While awaiting the court order, we are seeking cooperation from internet service providers to block those links.

There are two parts of the postings, entitled The Crisis of Siam I and II. They were posted by iunknown79.

Blocks from around the world

From the Guardian see full article

A Turkish court again ordered telecom authorities to block access to the popular video-sharing website YouTube over videos that allegedly insulted the country's leaders.

The decision followed a complaint by a resident in the eastern city of Sivas that the site hosted videos containing insults against Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the army, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The court ruling has been forwarded to the state regulatory body, the Telecommunications Board, to be put into effect, the agency said.

YouTube said in a written statement, carried by Anatolia, that it was ready to cooperate with Turkish authorities to resolve the dispute.

From Global Voices see full article

Iran has blocked access to Google search engine and Gmail Google’s free webmail service, Mehr news agency reported today. I can confirm these sites have been filtered, said Hamid Shahriari, the secretary of Iran’s National Council of Information.

It was reported that access to Google was later restored

From Global Voices see full article

It was reported that access to Google was later restored

The Don’t Block The Blog reported today that access to the popular blogging platform blogspot.com, which is owned by Google Inc, has been blocked again in Pakistan:

Today, for some odd reason, Google has suddenly reverted back to its original IP address, which has been on the block list since March of 2006. This move has resulted in the blocking of all internet traffic to the blogspot.com domain. Millions of blog readers in Pakistan now are unable to read or and interact with any of these websites.

From CPJ see full article

The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the ongoing Vietnamese government harassment of Peter Leech, the owner and publisher of the popular business news Web site Intellasia.

On September 12 Vietnam’s political police unit, known as PA25, and the Culture Ministry ordered the Australia-registered and Hanoi-based news service to close down or face punishment for operating an “illegal” Web site. Between September 7-10, Vietnamese authorities blocked nearly all local access to the Web site, including through the main state-run Internet service provider. In response to government threats, the online news service in recent days changed its domain name from Intellasia.com to Intellasia.net and is now based in Perth, Australia.

Intellasia published a report yesterday alleging that the Vietnamese authorities had put in place filters that blocked all Vietnam-based e-mail traffic to and from the Web site’s U.S.-based server. The report also claimed that Vietnamese authorities had in recent weeks attempted to overload and crash Intellasia’s server. The Web site’s U.S.-based server crashed from this notorious hacking technique on September 3.

Nutters call for worldwide laws against religious defamation

Based on an article from the Guardian see full article

A Senegalese UN 'expert' on racism on Friday branded the defamation of religions - in particular critical portrayals of Islam in the West - a threat to world peace.

Islamophobia today is the most serious form of religious defamation, Doudou Diene told the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Diene cited a caricature of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad in a Swedish newspaper, a protest by far-right groups in Belgium Tuesday against the Islamization of Europe, and campaigns against the construction of mosques in Germany and Switzerland as evidence of an ever increasing trend toward anti-Islamic actions in Europe.

Diene, a Senegalese lawyer who was appointed as an independent U.N. expert on racism in 2002, was presenting a report on defamation of religions to the 47-member council. The report also includes sections on anti-Semitism and other forms of religious or racial persecution around the world.

African and Islamic countries welcomed the assessment and called for moves to draft an international treaty that would compel states to act against any form of defamation of religion.

Diene said that the Danish & Swedish caricatures of Mohammed were evidence that the basic principle of coexistence of different cultures and different religions, which is the lasting basis for peace, is threatened now. Freedom of expression cannot be used as a pretext or excuse for incitement to racial or religious hatred.

European Union members of the council and other countries cautioned against equating criticism of religion with racism.

The EU finds it problematic to reconcile the notion of defamation with the concept of discrimination, said Goncalo Silvestre of Portugal, who was speaking for the 27-nation bloc: In our view these two are of a different nature.

Religions in themselves do not deserve special protection under international human rights law, he said.

Death threats to author of Japanese royal biography

From The Telegraph

The Australian journalist who wrote a controversial biography of Crown Princess Masako has received death threats ahead of the release of its Japanese translation.

Daisan-Shokan, the Tokyo-based publisher of the translation, has also reported being targeted by rightwing nationalist groups.

The translation of Princess Masako, Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne by Ben Hills is due to be published in early September.

Hills said he has received several e-mail death threats via his Web site in the leadup to the Japanese publication: They were saying things like, 'Die white pork!' They were quite racist.

Hills' biography has proved popular in the United States, Australia and parts of Asia but has drawn the ire of the Japanese government, which claims it defames the Crown Princess and contains errors.

The book alleges she conceived her daughter, Princess Aiko, through in vitro fertilization and was driven to a nervous breakdown by the Imperial Household Agency, which looks after the Imperial family's affairs.

As a result of the government criticism, the publisher originally contracted to release the book in Japan, Kodansha Ltd., backed out of the deal in February. Daisan-Shokan came forward and agreed in June to publish the book, saying it was a freedom of speech issue.

In an e-mail to Hills, the publisher's president, Akira Kitagawa, said a Japanese ultranationalist group visited the company's office Aug. 10 and demanded the publication be pulled: Just now, two black cars with ultranationalistic slogans on them are parking (next to) the building where my company address is. They are shouting hysterically, 'Stop the publication of Princess Masako' with huge loudspeakers.

No Japanese newspapers will take advertising for royal exposé book

Based on an article from the Guardian see full article

The author of a controversial biography of Crown Princess Masako has accused the Japanese government of censorship after newspapers refused to carry advertisements for the book.

The release of the English version of Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne this year sparked protests from the Japanese foreign ministry and the imperial household agency, which accused the author of insulting the royal family and demanded an apology.

Ben Hills, an Australian journalist, claims that Masako, who gave up a promising diplomatic career to marry the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Naruhito, in 1993, is suffering from clinical depression.

The book's publisher in Japan, Daisan Shokan, was refused advertising space in all of the major newspapers, including the Asahi Shimbun, which positions itself as the country's leading liberal voice. One paper said it would not take an ad because [Hills] had not responded to the government protests, said Daisan Shokan's president, Akira Kitagawa. "I find that reasoning very strange."

The foreign ministry predictably denied there had been pressure on newspapers from it or the royal household.

Pakistan dictates that SMS messages should be monitored and censored

From the Daily Times see full article

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed all the mobile operators in the country to start monitoring SMS text messages sent by mobile users in order to impose censorship and block mobile connections of users spreading anti-government content.

China have banned and blocked 20,000 websites

Based on an article from the Epoch Times see full article

With the Chinese Communist Party's Seventeenth Congress around the corner, another wave of Internet traffic controls are sweeping across the nation.

China Telecom recently declared, To respond to the Ministry of Information Industry's project to purify and improve the Internet environment and to combat Internet pornography, China Telecom has blocked 8,808 illegal web addresses, cut off 265 virtual hosts without IDC (Internet Data Center) permits, and 9,593 unregistered websites.

Additionally, Yu Xijian from China Netcom (CNC) said it has blocked 587 websites which were unregistered from the IDC (Internet Data Center) and 112 websites without IDC/ISP permits.

Meanwhile Chinese Bulletin Boards have reported that the most sensitive topics to the Chinese government are those that:

• involve the Party, state, government, governmental departments and units
• involve Japan, Darfur in Sudan, issues in Tibet and Xinjiang
• involve appealing crowds, parades, demonstrations and livelihood issues
• involve overseas Falun Gong, the rightists, exiles from Tibet and Xinjiang.

The administrators have been asked to report and delete such postings immediately!

Update: Government is Going Bananas

25th September

This campaign seems more indiscriminate than usual. In recent weeks, police nationally have been shutting down Internet data centers (IDCs) hosting websites offering interactive features, say industry insiders. With the approach of the Party Congress, the government wants the Internet sphere silent, to keep people from discussing social problems, says Isaac Mao, one of China's first bloggers, who is now organizing a censorship monitoring project.

To avoid being blocked, ISPs in China and individual websites have been disabling chatrooms, forums, and other interactive features that might provide a platform for viewpoints unacceptable to the authorities.

We don't want to get shut down so we shut down anything that could be offensive, says one foreign ISP employee. Our upstream provider [the company that owns the servers] told us verbally there should be no commentary, no blogs, no bulletin board services, because the government is going bananas.

Malaysian system supposedly to monitor not censor internet

Based on an article from the ZDNet Asia see full article

Malaysia's National Security Centre (NSC), supposedly aimed at monitoring and tracking cyber security threats, is expected to be up and running by year-end, according to industry regulator Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

Mohd Ali Hanafiah, senior director for the MCMC's content and network security division, said the center will be housed within its premises and is designed to track malicious Internet traffic on the Web.

The information collated will then be used to create a security threat information database that will be disseminated to all local Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Ali said Tuesday.

Shamsul Jafni Shafie, director of security, trust and governance at MCMC, said the NSC is patterned after Singapore's Cyber-Watch Centre and the Korea Information Security Agency (Kisa).

He added that the NSC will only monitor and analyze Internet traffic for malicious activity, and will not censor material on the Internet.

We are committed to the non-censorship of the Internet as promised by the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Bill of Guarantee, he said. The Bill comprises various conditions the Malaysian government has pledged to observe in order to ensure the Internet will not be censored.

Indian court rejects case to ban 'obscene' song

Based on an article from the Calcutta Telegraph see full article

Aye Ganpat can blare on, with all its suppsosed obscenities...the Supreme Court has plugged its ears.

The court refused to intervene in a public interest petition seeking a ban on the song being played on television and radio.

We agree it’s in bad taste, said a bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, about the hit song from Shootout at Lokhandwala. But it refused to impose a ban, and instead asked petitioner Jyothika Kalra to launch a public campaign.

Kalra, a nutter working for women’s rights, had argued that the song was derogatory to the dignity of women and violated a fundamental right i.e. right to love with dignity.

The language of the song does not stand the test of decency and morality, Kalra said, adding that such songs objectify women and are detrimental to any society seeking gender equality.

Shootout at Lokhandwala was given an adults-only certificate by the censor board, she said. But the song was being freely aired on TV and radio and was also available on cassette.

Apart from the request for the ban, Kalra also sought a directive to the censor board to withdraw the movie’s certificate of exhibition. But the court dismissed the petition.

North Cyprus ban children from internet cafes outside school hours

Obviously the politically important thing is to blame the internet for all the world's ills and then get children banned. It is obviously not so important to think much about exactly when children should be banned.

From Observer Cyprus see full article

Under 14s not to be in net cafés after 6 pm. The Turkish Cypriot administration has decided to watch over and check internet cafés with a new law.

The Inspection of Internet Cafés Bill was ready whereby those running an internet café will need to get an Internet Café Manager Authorisation Certificate.

According to the new Law, internet cafés will be separated into 3 Categories. The Law will not only regulate how internet cafés will be run and checked but it will also ban children aged under 14 from going into them after 6pm. They will, however, be able to go into Category A and B type internet cafés with their parents whereas they will not be allowed to enter Category C type internet cafés after 6pm even with their parents.

In his statement Minister Usar said that the Law will also regulate the food, drinks and cigarettes that are sold in internet-cafés and in this way they will ensure that the youth will stay away from alcohol and cigarettes.

According to the new Law, those who apply for an ‘Internet Café Manager Authorisation Certificate’ in order to run an internet café, should not have a criminal record and should not have been convicted of gambling, prostitution etc. The computer hard disks must have no data concerning pornography and/or violence. Usar explained that the Law contains the usage of programs that are able to filter these kind of content up to 65% and that Managers will have 3 months, after the law comes into force, before legal action will be taken against those cafés not obeying the law.

Philippines ban children from internet cafes during school hours

From Sun Star see full article

Philippines to control the contents that could be accessed by their customers (misprinted as costumers), especially the youth.

The move is being proposed supposedly to protect minors in the province from pornography and other forms of exploitation.

Benguet Board Members Juan Nazarro Jr. and Florence Tingbaoen proposed an ordinance regulating the use of and access of the Internet from computer shops in the province. They claimed the advent of the Internet carries risks, especially to children, which include exposure to extreme violence and harmful materials through online gaming and by the downloading of photos and videos.

Under the proposal, operators of Internet cafes shall be required to install filtering software that would restrain users from accessing pornographic and other exploitive websites.

To monitor the websites that are accessed by their customers, owners of Internet cafes would be asked to maintain open cubicles for their computer units.

A minor would also be prohibited from accessing Internet services during regular school hours unless they could present permissions by school authorities, parent or guardian.

Thailand unblocks YouTube

Based on an article from The Nation

The government yesterday lifted its ban on the YouTube website after the site's management agreed to block any video clips deemed offensive to Thai people or those that violate Thai law.

Information and Censorship Technology Minister Sitthichai Pookai-yaudom said local Internet surfers would now be able to access the YouTube site, which has been banned since April 3.

This follows an agreement between the Ministry of ICT and YouTube that the site would curb any clips which have contents considered an affront to Thai people or those that violate the Kingdom's laws.

Sitthichai said YouTube had just finished creating a program that would block sensitive video clips from being accessed from Thai Internet service providers (ISPs).

Other video sharing sites, Metacafe & Veoh, remain blocked in Thailand.

Chinese police on the lookout for those carrying an offensive opinion

From The Telegraph see full article

Cartoon police officers are to appear in "pop-up" warnings on the internet every half hour to warn Chinese users that they must steer clear of unapproved websites.

Officials stress that "Jing" and "Cha", its two "internet cops" named after the two characters that make up the Chinese word for "police", are on the look out for criminal activity. They will be on the watch for websites that incite secession, promote superstition, gambling and fraud, an official told the China Daily newspaper. "Secession" refers to support for an independent Tibet or Taiwan.

A second official said it was important to wipe out information that disrupts social stability, a catch-all phrase often used to refer to emails, bulletin boards and blogs that challenge the political status quo.

The new rules, devised by Beijing city authorities under the devolved system common in China, mean that the two cartoon characters will from Saturday roll up from the bottom of the 13 biggest internet sites every 30 minutes. They will expand their presence to all city internet sites by the end of the year.

Opposing internet censorship

From the BBC see full article

The internet should not be used as a scapegoat for society's ills, said Vint Cerf, Google's net evangelist and a founding father of the network.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4's Today programme he rejected calls for strict control of what is put online.

He said the net was just a reflection of the society in which we live. Anyone regulating beyond what was clearly illegal put themselves on a "slippery slope" that could limit freedom of expression, he said: If it's not illegal, it raises a rather interesting question about where you do draw the line.

Rather than impose controls centrally, said Cerf, it was far better to put them at the edges of the network where users go online. For instance, searching for results via Google can be constrained by filters that can be set to be strict or lax.

It was a mistake to divorce what was seen online from what happens in the real world: Most of the content on the network is contributed by the users of the internet. So what we're seeing on the net is a reflection of the society we live in. Maybe it is important for us to look at that society and try to do something about what's happening, what we are seeing. When you have a problem in the mirror you do not fix the mirror, you fix that which is reflected in the mirror.

And on the 6th day God created creationist nutters

From MediawatchWatch
See aso Turkey is Typing….Wordpress Still Blocked

Turkish creationist nutter Adnan Oktar (aka Harun Yahya) has succeeded in getting all Wordpress.com blogs blocked in Turkey.

Most recently famous for flooding schools and universities with a glossy, 800-page anti-evolution book, Oktar was annoyed by several bloggers at Wordpress.com who weren’t taking him as seriously as he takes himself. His lawyers applied to the Turkish courts about “slander” and ny the decision of Fatih 2nd Civil Court of First Instance, number 2007/195, access to Wordpress.com has been blocked in Turkey.

Petition to restore WordPress in Turkey

From MediawatchWatch
Please sign the Petition
See aso Turkey is Typing….Wordpress Still Blocked

The Turkish government has blocked WordPress, a blog publishing system, in all of Turkey because of a private defamation case. Because this censorship silences the voices of thousands of Turkish bloggers, we are petitioning for their rights to free speech.

Banning WordPress is a clear violation of free speech that effects the citizens of Turkey, WordPress bloggers, and readers all over the world. Certainly these disputes can be handled more judiciously by the Turkish courts.

We, the undersigned, respectfully ask the Turkish authorities to reconsider the decision to block WordPress.

Please sign the Petition

 
Fears of new Chinese regulation of forums

From Epoch Times see full article

According to a recent article circulating in China, new measures are being devised to "take care" of the Bulletin Board System (BBS), "problem."

The leaked article, titled BBS in China is Facing a Bloody Slaughter, states that the information came from a teleconference attended by officials of the BBS Special Project at Guangdong Communications Administration.

Since July 24 the article has spread quickly and widely over the internet. With such detailed content most internet surfers believe the information to be reliable.

The article said that new BBS restrictions will be implemented nationwide in China, and will start in Guangdong Province, as it has the most websites and surfers in China. All unregistered internet forums will be shut down after October 1.

The article also revealed some of the specific requirements include an independent server, and only one BBS site per server. Also, the owner of the BBS site will be required to provide personal and contact information so that he can be reached 24/7, and all participants will have to use their real names. BBS websites will have to ask users to register in advance, and to provide such personal information as name, telephone number, and ID number.

In the posting system, BBS websites will have to display the number of business licenses, or the registration number in a prominent position on the forum, chat room, and response pages. When surfers post a message, the website has to show the regulation page first.

BBS systems will be required to examine all articles before posting them. All information must be automatically filtered wither by software or by people, and should not be published without first being examined and censored. In addition, BBS websites will have to keep a strict record of all articles posted, including content, publishing time, and IP addresses of the people who post messages.

 
China ends anonymous blogging

From Reporters without Borders see full article

The Chinese government gets blog service providers to sign "self-discipline" pact to end anonymous blogging

Reporters Without Borders condemns the “self-discipline pact” signed by at least 20 leading blog service providers in China including Yahoo.cn! and MSN.cn. Unveiled yesterday by the Internet Society of China (ISC), an offshoot of the information industry ministry, the pact stops short the previous project of making it obligatory for bloggers to register, but it can be used to force service providers to censor content and identify bloggers.

The Chinese government has yet again forced Internet sector companies to cooperate on sensitive issues - in this case, blogger registration and blog content, the press freedom organisation said. As they already did with website hosting services, the authorities have given themselves the means to identify those posting ‘subversive’ content by imposing a self-discipline pact.

Reporters Without Borders added: This decision will have grave consequences for the Chinese blogosphere and marks the end of anonymous blogging. A new wave of censorship and repression seems imminent, above all in the run-up to the Communist Party of China’s next congress.

Under the new pact, blog service providers are “encouraged” to register users under their real names and contact information before letting them post blogs. More seriously, they will be required to keep this information, which will allow the authorities to identify them. These companies have already in the past provided the police with information about their clients, resulting in arrests.

The pact says blog providers should monitor and manage comments ... and delete illegal and bad information in a timely manner. Articles 11 and 12 urge them to equip themselves with a secure management system that allows them to keep bloggers’ details, including their real name, address, contact number and email address.

ISC secretary-general Huang Chengqing was clear yesterday when he said: Blog service providers who allow the use of pseudonyms may be more attractive to bloggers, but they will be punished by the government if they fail to screen illegal information.

Early flak for Resident Evil 5

Thanks to Richard
From Game Politics see full article

Capcom’s Resident Evil 5 game has drawn the ire of a blog devoted to African women.

Black Looks calls into question the game’s setting as depicted in the trailer, first shown at this year’s E3 in Santa Monica:

The new Resident Evil video game depicts a white man in what appears to be Africa killing Black people. The Black people are supposed to be zombies and the white man’s job is to destroy them and save humanity…

This is problematic on so many levels, including the depiction of Black people as inhuman savages, the killing of Black people by a white man in military clothing, and the fact that this video game is marketed to children and young adults. Start them young… fearing, hating, and destroying Black people.

 
Over a single Nigerian porn clip

Based on an article from Reuters see full article

The government of Nigeria's predominantly Muslim state of Kano has called for a one-year ban on local film-making to "sanitise" the industry after a sex video of a local actress circulated widely on mobile phones.

The eight-minute clip, recorded for private use by the actress's boyfriend on a mobile phone and showing the two of them naked, caused a public outcry among Muslims in northern Nigeria.

The state's Filmmakers Association expelled 17 of its members for suspected involvement in "immoral acts such as drunkenness and fornication", even though they were not connected to the clip. The actress in question has gone into hiding.

But the state's Directorate of Societal Orientation said the expulsions were not enough to clean up the industry. Shooting of films in the local Hausa language should be suspended for a year, the directorate's Bala Muhammad was quoted as saying.

 
Nigeria's Kano state goes censorship crazy

From All Africa see full article

Kano State Censorship Board has extended the suspension earlier imposed on film production in the state from Three to six months until 21 February, 2008, just as it reeled out a massive number of measures to restrict the media industry.

IThe Board under its former executive secretary, Alhaji A.A. Kurawa, imposed a three-month suspension after a sex video clip of a popular actress, Maryam Hiyana, went public.

Addressing a press briefing, the new executive secretary of the board, Malam Abubakar Rabo Abdulkarim, explained that the extension of the suspension became necessary in order to enable his administration introduce new measures for the 'improvement' of film production in the state, adding that the policy would be vigorously monitored by the board to ensure stringent penalties for defaulters.

Rabo stated that the board has created additional guidelines for registration of production companies, artistes, internet cafes, publishers and authors. According to the new laws, production companies must have a minimum of N2.5 million as working capita; all members of the production crew shall also have a minimum qualification of a diploma or certificate in a related field from a recognised institution. The board would now censor films on CDs and VHS cassettes and all films marketed in the state,.

Rabo revealed that the board has cancelled singing and dancing of any kind in Hausa films, and no producer would be allowed to go to location for filming without his script being approved by a recognised consultant and vetted by the board.

Members of the Kano State Association of Printers have also been advised to make sure that before they print any book or poster meant for public use they must obtain a clearance from the board.

Meanwhile, according to the executive secretary, stakeholders of literary works such as authors, publishers, bookshops, poster sellers, distributors and vendors are expected to register with the board in compliance with the requirements of the Censorship Board Law 2001: A person who therefore exhibits, publishes, sells or distributes, in any manner whatsoever, a literary work without Censorship Board certificate shall be liable to face the wrath of the relevant provision of the Law.

He then called on the stakeholders and the people in the state to support the task force in its purpose of sanitising the industry.

 
BBC World Service banned from Moscow FM

Based on an article from The Telegraph see full article

The BBC World Service has been banned from broadcasting on Russian FM radio in what is seen as the latest diplomatic swipe at the UK.

The state licensing authorities ordered Bolshoye radio in Moscow to remove all BBC programming by 5pm tonight or face being taken off air.

The Foreign Office immediately called for the service to be re-instated while a defiant BBC said it would appeal the decision.

Richard Sambrook, director of BBC Global News, said the Corporation was “extremely disappointed” that listeners would not be able to hear its impartial and independent news and information programming.

Sambrook said the BBC would appeal to Russia’s Federal Service for the Supervision of Mass Media, Communication and Protection of Culture Heritage.

Bolshoye Radio’s owners, financial group Finam, said the BBC’s output was “foreign propaganda”. Spokesman Igor Ermachenkov insisted management had taken the decision to remove BBC programming without outside interference: It’s no secret the BBC was established as a broadcaster of foreign propaganda.

The BBC said 730,000 people listened to the Russian Service in Russia, with around 93,000 listening via FM. Approximately 20,000 of those were dedicated FM listeners. The Russian Service is still available on mediumwave frequencies, via satellite and online.

 
Chinese suppress news of bridge collapse

From Info Shop see full article

Chinese authorities have banned most state media from reporting on the deadly collapse of a bridge in southern China, with local officials punching and chasing reporters from the scene.

The harassment and the reporting ban, issued by the Central Propaganda Department, came Thursday while reporters swarmed the tourist town of Fenghuang to report on Monday's accident.

Unidentified locals roughed up a group of five newspaper and magazine reporters as they interviewed families of those killed, according to a photographer and a reporter whose colleague was among the journalists involved.

The collapse of the bridge, which was under construction, left at least 47 people dead, making it one of the worst building accidents in China in recent years.

The rough treatment given the media stands at odds with the responsible, concerned image China's Communist Party leadership has tried to convey publicly in the wake of the accident and the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The accident has raised troubling questions about shoddy building and possible corruption between the officials and contractors, and by trying to control reporting on the disaster, Beijing is fueling those suspicions.

Under the ban, state media were ordered not to send reporters to Fenghuang or independently gather the news but to rely solely on reports by the government's Xinhua News Agency.

From The Guardian see full article

China has ordered its media to report only positive news and has imprisoned a pro-democracy dissident amid a clampdown on dissent ahead of the most important meeting of the communist party in five years.

Media controls have been tightened, Aids activists detained and NGOs shut down as president Hu Jintao prepares for the 17th party congress, when the next generation of national leaders will be unveiled in a politburo reshuffle.

Chen Shuqing, who is a founder member of the banned China Democracy party, suffered the toughest punishment meted out so far when he was found guilty on Thursday of "inciting people to overthrow the government".

The intermediate people's court in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, sentenced him to four years in prison. Chen was an outspoken critic of the Communist party, although because of the tightly controlled traditional media his campaigning in recent years was largely restricted to the internet.

With the congress nearing - the exact date is a secret, but it is expected in October - the domestic media have been banned from conducting independent investigations of food and product safety stories. In Beijing the municipal propaganda department has issued detailed instructions to editors on how they should cover the test of traffic-easing measures, which started today. During the four-day trial more than 1m cars have been ordered off the roads. Local newspapers and TV stations can only report on the improvements to the environment and transportation. Interviews with inconvenienced commuters or images of overcrowded buses are forbidden.

 
Ice Cube concert will go ahead in New Zealand

From Y! Music

A move to cancel Ice Cube's upcoming concert in New Zealand has been blocked by event organisers.

Auckland mayoral candidate Len Brown launched a scathing attack on the hip-hop veteran - real name O'Shea Jackson - insisting he will incite a rise in "gangster-style" violence in the area.

He also put pressure on the venue owners at the TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre to cancel the concert which is scheduled to take place on 22 August.

But TelstraClear CEO Richard Jeffery insists the star does not have a criminal record and he doubts his music will encourage gang problems.

Jeffery added he objected to censorship and said the concert will go ahead as planned. 

 
New sport being played in the Beijing Olympics

From IFEX see full article
Also special report from CPJ see full article

Chinese police temporarily detained about a dozen journalists yesterday after they covered a Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) press conference demanding greater press freedom in China ahead of next year's Olympics.

Four members of RSF flew in from Europe to hold their first-ever press conference in China, outside the headquarters of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games.

According to press reports, uniformed and plainclothes police moved in after the conference and refused to allow journalists to leave. Some cameramen were asked to turn over their tapes, but refused. The group was released after almost two hours.

In 2001, when China successfully bid for the 2008 Olympics, it said reporters would have complete freedom to report. But RSF and other IFEX members the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Human Rights Watch say that hasn't happened.

The official slogan, 'One world, one dream,' sounds more and more hollow, RSF says. Beijing has not kept its promises to improve the human rights situation and yet continues cynically to refer to the Olympic spirit.

Wearing t-shirts showing the Olympic rings made up of handcuffs, RSF staff called for the release of the 100 journalists, cyber-dissidents and free speech activists now in Chinese jails, an end to Internet censorship - at least 12 websites were closed or blocked in July alone - and the ability for foreign correspondents to move about China freely.

 
Search engine optimisers to be fined in South Korea

From p2pnet see full article

South Korea’s ministry of information and communication has its eye on the likes of Naver, Daum and Yahoo and some of their users.

Under a new law, anyone who posts pornographic material on portals such as the three named could be fined W100 million (more than $108,000) and, Portals that manipulate the ranking of popular search words will be slapped with a maximum fine of W30 million.

The revised law: compels Internet portals to put up the manpower and mechanisms to prevent uploading of pornographic material. Portals have dodged accountability for obscene postings by citing a shortage of manpower.

 
Russian targets porn

From interfax see full article

By the mid autumn Russian Ministry for Culture and Mass Communications plans to draft a bill restricting erotic and porn content availability, Deputy Minister Pavel Pozhigaylo said.

According the bill, no erotic and porn content may be manufactured in buildings used by a child-related, educational, healthcare or similar institution; no porn may include images on minors, state symbols, or public places.

All content of this sort may be offered only in specialized shops. It is also planned to restrict availability of porn content in info networks including the Internet. According to the bill, all circulation or erotic and porn content and organizing of erotic shows will have to be licensed.

The Federation Council of Russia’s Speaker Sergey Mironov proposed a moral oversight for TV: There should be public councils at each TV channel in order to block seamy-side and cynic things.

According to him, not a single channel of the Russian TV: works for our country. Just compare what the presidents says and what the TV shows... Every ad urges to ‘ask for more’ and propagates consuming ideology. Really, sometimes it seams that this country needs a censorship to be healthy.

Indian police ban halt screenings of Kashmir documentary

From DNA see full article

In what is set to snowball into a major national controversy over the freedom of expression, the Mumbai police may soon find itself on the backfoot for twice “arbitrarily” stopping the screening of a documentary on Kashmir by award-winning filmmaker Sanjay Kak.

The police stopped the screening of Kak’s documentary Jashne-e-Azadi (How we celebrate freedom) last week and again on Monday on grounds that the documentary — portraying what Kashmir’s struggle for azadi really implied — as out-and-out inflammatory and radical in drift and content. However, the Campaign Against Censorship has already “taken up” Kak’s case, as one which smacks of “local thana censorship” above anything else.

A large section of writers, painters, film makers and other intellectuals too have come together — mostly in Mumbai and Delhi — to protest against police highhandedness. Murmurs of protest, condemning the police action, were heard across some Mumbai colleges.

Surprisingly, the two Mumbai police stations perceived to be “in the eye of the storm” — since they were instrumental in stopping the screening — refused to explain if their officers had the proper “mandate” from their superiors to interfere, the way, they did on the two occasions.

UN wants to exclude bloggers

From Inner City Press see full article

The United Nations says it wants to engage with bloggers, but only if it can control them. Those it cannot control, it wants to exclude, meeting minutes obtained by Inner City Press reveal.

At least three UN agencies have in the interim adopted policies of not answering questions from bloggers, no matter how widely they're read. From the top of the UN's headquarters building, it's a world of paranoia, a desire to turn back the clock of a type that usually proves fruitless.

In late June in Madrid, the spokespeople for 37 UN agencies met and, according to internal minutes leaked to Inner City Press, agreed that it is important for the United Nations family to engage with all forms of new media, but that some, such as blogs, present particular challenges for accreditation.

The UN limits access to its buildings and press conferences to those reporters it accredits. In April of this year, the New York Times reported that Inner City Press is, for now, the only accredited blogger at the UN. There have been several threats to revoke accreditation, based on inconvenient questions about the UN's role in the torching of villages in Uganda and the Congo, its standardless engagement with corporations and its use of funds to promote or spin its work.

According to the later-obtained internal minutes, at the UN Communications Group meeting a strategy emerged: UNCG members stressed the importance in accreditation decisions on the need, among other evaluation tools, to ascertain that there is an established editorial process in the media organization concerned that ensures copy goes through an editing process and which provides recourse to the UN to respond to factual inaccuracies, misrepresentations, etc. Consideration could be given to include alongside published accreditation criteria a statement that the respective organization would hold accredited media accountable to a journalistic code of conduct.

The proposal, then, is to exclude any reporter who is not subject a traditionally hierarchical editing process -- that is, to exclude blogs and most participatory media.

TV channel banished to cable now to be booted off cable

Based on an article from IFEX see full article

Ten days after the embattled Venezuelan broadcaster RCTV, now called RCTV Internacional, resumed broadcasting via cable and satellite on 16 July 2007, a new threat emerged that could result in its being removed from cable service distribution by 1 August. The government had previously stripped RCTV of its terrestrial broadcast licence on 27 May.

Mario Seijas, president of the Venezuelan Chamber of Subscription Television, said on 26 July that RCTV Internacional had five days to register as a national broadcaster under a provision of the National Commission for Telecommunications (CONATEL) that was introduced by the Radio and TV Social Responsibility Law of 2004.

This provision in theory requires any broadcaster operating in Venezuela to be formally registered as a "national broadcasting producer." The authorities have said that if RCTV Internacional does not comply, its programming will cease to be available by cable on 1 August. National broadcasters are expected to simultaneously retransmit the president's speeches and other government government propaganda when they are broadcast by the state media

RCTV Internacional responded with a statement disputing that it has to register as a national broadcaster. Legally, it said, RCTV Internacional is an international TV station producing programmes to be broadcast worldwide, just like Telesur, Warner, HBO, Sony, History Channel, Sunchannel, E! Entertainment Television and A&E Mundo. The stations cited are all available by cable in Venezuela.

Currently available by cable and satellite in Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago and part of the Netherlands Antilles, RCTV Internacional is going after international Spanish-speaking viewers, not only in Latin America but also in the United States and Europe.

Venezuelan TV channel banned again

Based on an article from IFEX see full article

On 1 August 2007, a spurious, last-minute legal pretext was used to force RCTV, now called RCTV Internacional, to suspend broadcasting for the second time in just over two months, RSF said. The grounds cited by the government were that the privately-owned station was not a "national audiovisual producer."

This time, the censorship of RCTV is complete, the press freedom organisation said. The Venezuelan government wanted the station to disappear, in Venezuela, at least. First it excluded RCTV from the terrestrial broadcast frequencies. Now it is preventing it from broadcasting by cable and satellite. This second phase of the RCTV affair raises several questions.

Firstly, if the Radio and TV Social Responsibility Law of 2004 and the regulations of the National Commission for Telecommunications (Conatel) really do require cable and satellite stations - even internationally-structured ones such as RCTV Internacional - to be registered as "national audiovisual producers," as is the case for terrestrial broadcasters, why was this requirement not previously enforced with all the others?

Secondly, why did the Venezuelan Chamber of Subscription Television remember that the 45 other pay-TV channels should also have to register as "national audiovisual producers" only after it had already given RCTV Internacional five days to do so? And why were the others given 10 days?

Thirdly, why did the communication and information minister wait until RCTV Internacional resumed cable broadcasting on 16 July to announce that the cable and satellite stations would now also have to submit to the system of "cadenas," in which national broadcasters are required to simultaneously retransmit the president's speeches and other government messages when they are broadcast by the state media?

Finally, why did the telecommunications minister not respond to the request for a deadline extension for RCTV Internacional that was made on 30 July by Mario Seíjas, the president of the Venezuelan Chamber of Subscription Television?

Venezuelan TV channel ban stayed

From CPJ see full article

Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice issued a stay Wednesday allowing RCTV International and dozens of regional stations to remain on cable temporarily, a ruling that came just hours before a deadline set by the government that could have removed their signals from paid subscription television.

The constitutional chamber of the Supreme Tribunal agreed to hear an appeal by the Cable Television Chamber, which requested Venezuela’s highest tribunal clarify which stations will fall under the category of national broadcasters.

The chamber established that there are no regulations for defining which are the national audiovisual production services, a statement from the Supreme Tribunal said. The court’s decision suspended a request from the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) to remove dozens of regional stations from cable and satellite providers’ programming if the stations did not register as national broadcasters by August 1.

 
Iran group opposing repressive Iranian internet filtering 

Based on an article from Payvand see full article

More than 10 million websites are currently being "filtered" in Iran, according to the state Information Technology Company. Reporters Without Borders ranks Iran's press situation as "very serious"

At a time when the country suffers from what human rights defenders describe as a severe "information crackdown," a group of young Iranians inside the country is determined to battle the dominant policy of online censorship imposed by the Iranian leadership.

The group Iran Proxy is formed by some Iranian youngsters who believe that this "new dictatorial barrier" must be fought from inside of the country -- and that they must remain underground to be able to do so.

Iran Proxy describes itself as the first anti-filtering group inside Iran. It says it is focused on introducing and promoting simple -- and yet technologically advanced -- ways of helping Iranian users skirt web filters.

Iran Proxy tries to teach to the Iranian users the advanced methods of getting around this new dictatorial barrier, which is the result of false policies of governments and religious extremists, in a simplified and understandable way through publication of a series of articles, one of the underground group's members tells Radio Farda on condition of anonymity.

Iran Proxy has so far created tens of proxy websites with search ability and also featuring fixed links to news websites that are currently being blocked by the Iranian government. The proxies, which get updated constantly and can be e-mailed to users, help surfers to enter the restricted pages.

According to the results of the worldwide research carried out between the years 2004 and 2005 by the OpenNet Initiative, Iran was filtering around 30 percent of the ta