At today’s Berkman Center lunch, Rebecca MacKinnon is presently giving an excellent talk about the Internet in China and what’s been happening online in that country lately. While the government seems to be opening up a bit, things aren’t always what they might seem. Internet censorship is a small part of the picture. China employs [...]
It’s Banned Books Week. Had I not been reading Babbledog today, the week might have slipped past me unnoticed because I had forgotten to try to find out when it is. Sadly, my schedule this week won’t allow me to borrow any challenged books from the library. The one I’m presently reading, Middlesex by Jeffrey [...]
“It was not until just this morning that the MBTA admitted what the students were doing isn’t a prank. If there’s ever been a shoot-the-messenger case, I guess this is it.” –Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the organization representing the students.
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“We’ve always maintained that there are certain details that [...]
Since I recently wrote about what the data unit at Renesys does, using the recent telecommunication cable breaks as an example, I wasn’t so sure about writing about it again with the news last week. In trying to censor the popular video Web site YouTube, Pakistan inadvertently blocked most of the traffic to the site [...]
I heard a piece on the BBC World Service this morning about a proposed law in Britain that would hold authors responsible if their works incite certain kinds of violence. As a writer, I got a little scared because of what might happen if the authorities held me responsible for the actions of my readers. [...]
The McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, supposedly the first museum dedicated to the First Amendment and freedom, opens this week in Chicago. The McCormick Tribune Foundation, which was established when Chicago Tribune editor and publisher Col. Robert McCormick died, supports the museum.
Two Chicago Public Radio shows give us a, uh, listen to the museum:
The Sunday arts [...]
Berkman Fellow Rebecca MacKinnon has a piece in The Nation about actions the US government is taking about Internet censorship in China and the role of certain technology companies in that censorship and the handing over of data to Chinese authorities.
What role should the United States have in encouraging free speech in other countries?
noticed on [...]
Jessamyn reports on an interesting auction to support the First Amendment Project, a group focusing on protecting and promoting First Amendment rights. Bidders compete to have a name of their choice included in a forthcoming book by several well-known authors.
(Wow. I haven’t posted to this category in /months/!)
Several times, I’ve wanted to start a category for items about free speech and the First Amendment. There’s one now. It includes items about Banned Books Week and challenged library materials, too.
Addendum 3/15: There is going to be some overlap with the Reading department. I’ll try to put items emphasizing the freedom to read in [...]
When I was at a comic book store this weekend my awesome penpal highly recommends, I noticed a collection jar on the counter for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: Defending the Comic Industry’s First Amendment Rights Since 1986. Based in Northampton, Massachusetts, the nonprofit grew out of donations collected in 1986 to defend someone [...]