Expression and Defamation

Various stars, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu are among nearly 20,000 people who have backed the Observer and Amnesty International campaign to end repression on the internet. This remarkable response to the launch of irrepressible.info included support from around the world.

Reporters Without Borders regrets that a bill passed by parliament on 4 May allowing the authorities to block websites with content deemed to have insulted the memory of the Turkish republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was signed into law by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on 22 May.

Amnesty International UK and Open Net Initiative (ONI), an Internet surveillance monitoring organisation, have claimed that several large technology companies are guilty of collaborating with “repressive” governmental regimes. Together with The Observer, Amnesty and ONI have launched the Irrepressible.info campaign to urge people to take a stand against repression.

Reporters Without Borders call for online journalists, as well as journalist website operators and bloggers, to be accorded the same legal protections as journalists with the traditional press.

Shirin Ebadi claims her memoirs would be blocked in the US by regulations preventing publishing activities involving works by authors in countries such as Iran, Cuba and Sudan.

The Home Office appeal against Brian’s right to remain in the Square has been successful, so peace activist Brian Haw may have to end his five-year vigil outside Parliament. But all is not lost… there is some negotiation taking place over the conditions the police wish to impose on Brian’s protest. Indymedia report as the situation unfolds.

Plans for new anti-terrorism controls on websites have led to a government defeat in the Lords – by just one vote. The original plans would have allowed a police constable to decide that information on the internet could be related to terrorism. But peers changed the Terrorism Bill to ensure police have to ask judges before telling ISPs that web pages should be removed.

TV Producer alleges he was held for murder so police could access controversial files.

The action comes after Mr Clarke’s satirical column criticised the government. The case is pending appeal.

Reporters without Borders report: an Iranian weblog editor has been imprisoned and fined for supposedly insulting the country’s leaders and making anti-government propaganda.

- Reporters Without Borders say that the Singaporean authorities are violating free expression and trying to foster self-censorship in the country’s blogosphere.

on Bush links with leading Saudis.

Reporters Without Borders has produced this handbook to help bloggers get round censorship, set up and make the most of a blog, publicise it and to establish its credibility through observing basic ethical and journalistic principles.

A popular blogger in Bahrain, Mahmood Al-Yousif, has had his blog reinstated after public protest, while one of his Egyptian supporters, Abdelkareem Soliman (“Kareem”), well known for his stance on human rights, has been thrown into jail because he would not retract anything he wrote on his own blog. To stay updated on the campaign, read the Free Kareem blog started by his friends, and join the campaign for his release.

Judgement has been reserved against the five alleged dissidents whilst the courts finally agreed to examine the police evidence against them. Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard said “we hope the court will acknowledge that their arrest was unjustified and will quash their convictions.”

Mr Pamuk is on trial for “denigrating” Turkishness, and faces up to three years in jail if found guilty. His case has attracted international concern over freedom of expression.

A written Home Office response says no Commons statement is necessary.

Further to our news item last week, Yahoo Inc. has been cited in a Chinese court decision to jail a dissident Internet writer for 10 years for subversion in 2003 — the fourth such case to surface implicating Yahoo!. Reporters Without Borders has now called on Yahoo! to withdraw its Internet servers from China.