Posts under ‘Free Speech’

Pantagraph.com: Newspapers file suit against IHSA. The Illinois Press Association filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Illinois High School Association in an effort to overturn a rule that limits access to school sporting events and the use of photos taken at those events. Yes, the association’s action is obnoxious. But the best responses would take […]

NY Times: Fox Bars Candidates From Using Its Images. The Fox News Channel sent notices to the campaigns of the leading Republican presidential candidates ordering them to stop using images from their Fox appearances in their campaign ads. The notices were sent out after the network was criticized for singling out only Senator John McCain’s […]

I’m on the board of the California First Amendment Coalition, which is holding its annual “Free Speech and Open Government Assembly” this week in LA. This afternoon I”m moderating a panel with some prominent bloggers.

UPDATED NY Times: Verizon Reverses Itself on Abortion Rights Messages. Saying it had the right to block “controversial or unsavory” text messages, Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon’s mobile network available for a text-message program. But the company reversed course this morning, saying it […]

Syracuse.com: SU student questions VA security actions. A Syracuse University graduate student taking photographs outside the VA Medical Center says she was questioned and ordered to delete several images by hospital security officers Thursday afternoon. Mariam Jukaku, 24, of Michigan, said the officers also photocopied her university ID and driver’s license and asked if she […]

AP: Chinese blog providers ‘encouraged’ to register users with their real names. Blog service providers in China are “encouraged” to register users with their real names and contact information, according to a new government document that tones down an earlier proposal banning anonymous online blogging. At least 10 major Chinese blog service providers have agreed […]

Timothy Carr, in “AT&T Gets Caught in its Own Spin Cycle,” notes the telecom company’s increasingly “slippery response” when confronted with evidence of snipping out political content on its webcast concerts. The company’s sleazy behavior is no surprise, but nonetheless telling in context of its push to decide what bits will reach customers’ computers in […]

Press Gazette (UK): MPs outlaw satire in New Zealand. New Zealand’s Parliament has voted itself far-reaching powers to control satire and ridicule of MPs in Parliament, attracting a storm of media and academic criticism. The new standing orders, voted in last month, concern the use of images of Parliamentary debates, and make it a contempt […]

BBC: Malaysia cracks down on bloggers. The Malaysian government has warned it could use tough anti-terrorism laws against bloggers who insult Islam or the country’s king. I remember visiting Malaysia in late 2001, and being assured by people in business and government that the Internet was going to truly remain a free-speech zone (unlike the […]

David Weinberger: Delaminate the Bastards!. We should do to the carriers of Internet signals what we did to the carriers of telephone signals. Bust ’em up so that the companies that connect us to the Internet don’t also sell us services over the Internet. Providing connection and providing content and services can and should be […]