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25 APRIL: INTERNATIONAL DAY TO DEFEND BANGLADESHI BLOGGERS
April 16, 2013 — xanthippaFrom Maryam Namazi of One Law For All:
‘The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and others have called for 25 April to be an international day to defend Bangladesh’s bloggers and activists. Please spread the word, sign this petition today, and stand with and for Bangladeshi freethinkers.
As you may know, in January, 29 year old blogger Asif Mohiuddin was stabbed. In February, 35 year old atheist blogger involved in the Shahbag protests, Ahmed Rajib, was brutally killed. Islamists continue to threaten prominent bloggers and have called for the “execution of 84 atheist bloggers for insulting religion”. Rather than prosecute the Islamists, the government has arrested some bloggers and shut down blogs and sites.
We unequivocally condemn the attacks on and threats against atheist, secularist and freethinking bloggers and call on the Bangladeshi government to guarantee their safety, respect free expression and prosecute Islamists who threaten, attack and harm critics.
On 25 April, we urge groups and individuals to rally at Bangladeshi embassies, contact members of parliament in their countries of residence, highlight the situation, write protest letters, carry out acts of solidarity, Tweet #Bangladesh #Bloggers and more.
You can find more information here.’
In case you are not aware, Bangladeshi Islamists have been calling for including the death penalty for transgressing Bangladesh’s blasphemy laws:
Blasphemy laws are being implemented in more and more countries. Russia, for example, is preparing a blasphemy law so unreasonable (in every sense of the word) that the mere teaching of evolution and the Big Bang Theory would violate it. And don’t even get me started on the UN…
We must fight this trend of normalizing penalties for blasphemy – an integral part of free speech. Supporting the Bangladeshi bloggers is a small step in the right direction!
Toronto Distric School Board sics cops on blogger BlazingCatFur
March 14, 2013 — xanthippaOh, my, my!
So, for quite a while, Arnie over at BlazingCatFur has been doing some deep investigative reporting into the actions and policies of the TDSB (Toronto District School Board).
Yes, the TDSB has done all that – and Arnie has covered it on his blog, long before it would break in the more traditional media!
His signature is abrasive, not politically-correct language, sarcasm and hyperbole.
In Toronto, that can earn you a visit from the police….
It makes one think of the time the ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ theme song got a school lock-down – except there, it was a simple misunderstanding, while here, there is a definite stink of trying to silence the messanger.
EU parliamentarians consider emails from citizens to be spam
March 7, 2013 — xanthippaJust received this email – thought I’d share:
Friend,
If you complain about censorship to the European Parliament, they’ll just censor you.
That’s the message that concerned citizens in the EU have been receiving after the European Parliament’s IT department began blocking thousands of emails from citizens opposed to a controversial new policy (one that itself could have a serious impact on Europeans’ freedom of expression online).
And if we complain? I suppose they’ll block those emails too. So instead of emailing, help us make this petition go viral!
Politicians need to know that silencing people’s opinions is not an option. Share this petition on Twitter and Facebook to make sure they get the message:
The censorship was uncovered earlier today by an MEP from the Pirate Party. Here’s his first hand account of what went down:
“Next week the European parliament will be voting on a resolution to ‘ban all forms of pornography in media.’ After this information became known to a wider audience, many citizens have decided to contact members of the European parliament to express their views on this issue … Before noon, some 350 emails had arrived in my office. But around noon, these mails suddenly stopped arriving. When we started investigating why this happened so suddenly, we soon found out: The IT department of the European Parliament is blocking the delivery of the emails on this issue, after some members of the parliament complained about getting emails from citizens.”
You can read his full account here.
Shockingly, this is not the first time this has happened. During the widespread outcry against ACTA, Parliamentary authorities decided to send all emails related to ACTA to MEP’s spam folders.
Thank you for taking action against censorship. If everyone shares this petition and forwards this email to friends, we can generate enough outcry to ensure that the public’s voice is heard.
For Internet freedom,
Holmes, Tiffiniy, Evan, and the whole team.
Center for Rights / Fight for the Future
p.s. Protecting freedom of expression everywhere is what keeps us up at night. After you sign the petition, can you donate to support Center for Rights’s international anti-censorship efforts? Every contribution makes a difference!
Supreme Court of Canada says it’s OK to censor the truth, then re-publishes hate-speech
March 1, 2013 — xanthippaSad…
H/T: BCF
Free Dominion is under attack and needs our help!
February 17, 2013 — xanthippaFree Dominion is in the forefront of the battles for the freedom of speech and for the freedom on the internet, Their path has not been easy, but they are determined and brave and understand just how important freedom is. They have already won some important rulings in court regarding privacy on the internet, which is why they made it to Michael Geist’s list of internet achievements of 2012!
However, legal battles are expensive.
Very expensive.
If Mark and Connie, the people behind Free Dominion, run out of funds, no amount of determination will help. The wanna-be-oppressors know this. That is why, just as Mark and Connie announced their new fund-raising campaign, they have tried to keep the word from getting out by hitting their site with a DDoS SYN attack…
Please, help spread the word!
And, if you can, chip in a bit…
From Connie Fournier:
‘As many of you know, Mark and I are fighting three trials this year related to issues of online freedom of speech. We just started our largest fundraiser because we need to raise $50,000 to cover the cost of all of those trials.Almost immediately, the Free Dominion website was attacked by hackers. We are fighting what is called a DDoS SYN attack where dozens of computers are sending messages to our server in an attempt to overload it and shut it down. We keep blocking IPs, but new ones spring up almost immediately and the attacks start again.Sometimes we will have periods where the site is accessible to read, but many people cannot post. Then they come back and increase the attack until the site becomes inaccessible again.We desperately need help!We can’t get the word out about our fundraiser because many of our regular readers can’t get into our site to find out about it.We really need people who care about free speech to circulate this email, tell your friends, or post it on your blogs.Somebody doesn’t want us to meet our fundraising goal, but we have to do this. Internet freedom depends on it!Here is the link to our fundraiser, please pass it around! http://igg.me/at/internetThanks so much for your help!Connie’
H/T: Andrew
Ai Weiwei’s First Major U.S. Show Has Everything but the Dissident Artist Himself
February 6, 2013 — xanthippaHaving also grown up as a child of a publicly labeled political dissident, actively persecuted by a totalitarian regime, I have much empathy for Weiwei…
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 