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Brazil tops Google’s censorship list
May 22, 2010
The Hollywood Reporter:
Thu Apr 22, 2010 @ 10:31AM PST
Telegraph.co.uk:
The search giant has launched an online tool breaking down the figures which it hopes will be "just the first step toward increased transparency" Photo: GETTY IMAGES
Published: 9:24AM BST 21 Apr 2010
Google releases list of government censorship requests
Internet search giant Google has revealed that Brazil’s government has made the most requests for information or censorship. However figures for China, which censors great swathes of online information, have not been revealed.
Google could not include requests made by Beijing because the information is regarded as a state secret.
Instead, Brazil tops the list, with 3,663 data requests between 1 July and 31 December 2009. The US made 3,580 and the UK came third with 1,166.
Brazil was also made the highest number of requests to Google to remove content with 291 calls between July and December 2009. In second place was Germany with 188, India with 142 and the US with 123 requests.
If China were included it would almost certainly be in the top spot.
The search giant has launched an online tool breaking down the figures which it hopes will be “just the first step toward increased transparency”. The web page features a map showing country by country where it has had government requests or court orders to remove content from the YouTube video service or its search results, or to provide details about users of its services.
“The vast majority of these requests are valid and the information needed is for legitimate criminal investigations or for the removal of child pornography, ” David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, wrote on the company’s blog.
“We believe that greater transparency will lead to less censorship. Government censorship of the web is growing rapidly: from the outright blocking and filtering of sites, to court orders limiting access to information and legislation forcing companies to self-censor content.”
The move comes after Google stopped censoring search results in China after the Gmail accounts of users associated with human rights groups were hacked.
The company said the attacks had originated in China while the Chinese authorities denied any involvement.
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Catholic Sexual Abuse Controversy: Media Frenzy, Unmentioned Homosexuality, More News
April 15, 2010
Tuesday April 13, 2010
News Briefs on Catholic Sexual Abuse Controversy – Media Frenzy, Unmentioned Homosexuality, More News
* Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of LifeSiteNews.com. They are presented only for your information.
Compiled by Steve Jalsevac
Note: Because of the great importance of this situation we are presenting this broad list of reports to help leaders and regular LSN readers better understand what is occurring. This crucial issue demands wide reading in order to avoid being drawn into the various agendas at work and to develop an informed and ethical response. We strongly encourage you to take the time to at least scan the excerpted quotes. Many of these articles are exceptional, while others are questionably fair, if not unethical reporting, but are included to illustrate the different responses to the issue.
MEDIA FRENZY
The Pope and the New York Times – Wall Streeet Journal
A few years later, when the CDF assumed authority over all abuse cases, Cardinal Ratzinger implemented changes that allowed for direct administrative action instead of trials that often took years. Roughly 60% of priests accused of sexual abuse were handled this way. The man who is now pope reopened cases that had been closed; did more than anyone to process cases and hold abusers accountable; and became the first pope to meet with victims. Isn’t the more reasonable interpretation of all these events that Cardinal Ratzinger’s experience with cases like Murphy’s helped lead him to promote reforms that gave the church more effective tools for handling priestly abuse?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052702304017404575165792228341212.html
Former NY Mayor Ed Koch Says ‘Enough Already’ with Anti-Catholicism in Media
Many of those in the media who are pounding on the Church and the pope today clearly do it with delight, and some with malice. The reason, I believe, for the constant assaults is that there are many in the media, and some Catholics as well as many in the public, who object to and are incensed by positions the Church holds, including opposition to all abortions, opposition to gay sex and same-sex marriage, retention of celibacy rules for priests, exclusion of women from the clergy, opposition to birth control measures involving condoms and prescription drugs and opposition to civil divorce.
http://catholickey.blogspot.com/2010/04/former-ny-mayor-ed-koch-says-enough.html
The Pope and the press – Fr. Raymond DeSouza
The New York Times was guilty of egregiously shoddy reporting — or worse — on a story of global implications.
On March 23, the annual independent audit of American dioceses revealed that in 2009, there were six credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors, in a church of 68 million people — a sign of astonishing progress in stamping out this evil. That was the news before The New York Times decided to make its own.
http://www.nationalpost.com/most-popular/story.html?id=2776154
Why Attack the Pope? by Richard Bastien
The media are going for the jugular because they now understand that the Catholic Church will never water down its sexual morality, and that the only way to neutralize its moral influence is to discredit its highest authority. Where mockery will not do the trick, try defamation and distortion.
http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7912&Itemid=121&ed=1
On Sexual Abuse Scandal, the Pope Gets a Bad Rap – Washington Post
By any human standard, Pope Benedict XVI and the American Catholic Church are getting a bad rap in the current outbreak of outrage over clerical sexual abuse. “Benedict,” says the Rev. Thomas Reese of Georgetown University, “grew in his understanding of the crisis. Like many other bishops at the beginning, he didn’t understand it. . . . But he grew in his understanding because he listened to what the U.S. bishops had to say. He in fact got it quicker than other people in the Vatican.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/06/AR2010040601902.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
The Catholic-Bashing Telephone Game – Carl Olson, Ignatius Press
Someone needs their hearing checked. The AP’s headline and story are accurate in its details. But it’s obvious—even if the Towleroad headline is something of an extreme example (I’m not so sure it is…)—that some folks will use anything to bash the Catholic Church. The Towleroad sets some sort of dubious record in getting three things wrong in an eight-word headline: 1) it was not the “Vatican” who made the statement; 2) the reference was not to “Catholic Priest Pedophiles”; and 3) there was no reference to the Holocaust or Holocaust victims.
http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2010/04/the-catholicbashing-telephone-game.html
The New York Times has seriously screwed up its coverage of the Pope and the child abuse scandals
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100032319/the-new-york-times-has-seriously-screwed-up-its-coverage-of-the-pope-and-the-child-abuse-scandals/
Time For Some Fair and Balanced Reporting on Clerical Sexual Abuse – Fr. Z
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/04/time-for-some-fair-and-balanced-reporting-on-clerical-sexual-abuse/
Ideology Trumping Information in Media Coverage of Abuse, Italian Editor Charges
The Catholic Church is “not a modern republic” pointed out Giuliano Ferrara, director of the political Italian daily Il Foglio, in an editorial on Friday. He argued that the conflict in the media today between offering information and promoting a secular ideology—with ideology winning out—is behind the coverage of the sex abuse sandals.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/ideology_trumping_information_in_media_coverage_of_abuse_italian_editor_charges/
Catholics may just have to sit out this anti-Papal media frenzy – Telegraph
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100033866/catholics-may-just-have-to-sit-out-this-anti-papal-media-frenzy/
The Frustratingly Poor Quality of Press Coverage – Michael Sean Winters, America
It is the job of religion reporters to not only report on information but to provide the context for interpreting that information. The documents in the Oakland case raise certain obvious questions that the press ignores or fails to perceive – I do not know which is worse. I do not “blame” the media for the sex abuse crisis and I do blame the Vatican for doing such a horrendous job of answering the current questions and for seeing themselves as the victim. Nonetheless, I believe the press corps is guilty of shoddy reporting. The documents in the Oakland case are no “smoking gun” but they are presented as such.
http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&entry_id=2746
Catholic League Responds Again
Every news story and commentary stating that the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church is widening is factually wrong. The evidence shows just the opposite—it has been contracting for approximately a quarter century.
There is no other religious or secular institution being cherry-picked by lawyers and the media like that of the Catholic Church. If what happened in the 1950s qualifies as news when it happened in the Catholic Church, then surely it would be news to learn of all those who were abused a half-century ago by ministers, rabbis, school teachers and others. But it will never happen—such news fails to make the media salivate.
http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1825
Italian Political Paper: NY Times Needs Consultants More Than Vatican Does
The influential Italian political newspaper Il Foglio published an article today criticizing the New York Times for relying on a computer-generated translation from Italian to English of important responses from the Vatican to a sex abuse case. “Behind the accusations,” says Il Foglio’s senior writer Paolo Rodari, “there is a gross translation mistake.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/italian_political_paper_ny_times_needs_consultants_more_than_vatican_does/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+catholicnewsagency%2Fdailynews+%28CNA+Daily+News%29
The Real Scandal and the Real Story by Carl Olson, Ignatius Insight
Equally bothersome have been comments from some normally reasonable pundits (some of them Catholic) who have said, in essence, “Well, Catholics really shouldn’t be upset. They should resist the impulse to respond. After all, the media has done the dirty work of exposing the abuse and cover-ups.” This is ridiculous. Let’s say my neighbor alerts me to the fact that my teenage son has been committing acts of vandalism and provides proof thereof. Does it give him the right to then, a year later, accuse my wife of being a prostitute when he has no evidence and it’s clear he dislikes her?
It used to be that most reporters worked to break a story, to find the truth, and to shed light on the shadows. But now more and more reporters work to stage a story, to fudge the truth, and to create shadows by obscuring the light. The scandal is the complete collapse of journalistic standards in the handling of this story. The real scandal, in other words, is the slander. Just don’t expect it see it on the front page of many newspapers.
http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2010/04/the-real-scandal.html
How Much Did the Pope Know? – MacLeans magazine
Benedict faces tough questions about the Church’s sex abuse scandal
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/04/06/how-much-did-the-pope-know/
THE UNMENTIONED HOMOSEXUAL ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
The Curious Incident at the New York Times
The word “homosexual” does not appear a single time in all the articles the Times has run since the story first broke.
Here are four possible interpretations of the Times’s curious omission of Hullermann’s homosexuality.
One, that the Times reporter didn’t know that Hullermann was a homosexual — and wasn’t curious enough to find out. Two, the editors of the Times assumed all its readers would assume Hullermann was a homosexual. Three, the people at the New York Times thought the fact irrelevant. And four, the people at the Times are in thrall to the homosexual community and didn’t want to disparage it.
One and two are implausible Three is absurd: Leaving the fourth reason: the Times made a choice to speak no ill of homosexuals. The pedophilia story really begins more than forty years ago, when the Roman Catholic Church began accepting known homosexuals into the priesthood. Are most child molesters in the Catholic Church homosexuals? Almost certainly. But try finding that story in the New York Times.
The Times seems to be more interested in protecting its friends in the homosexual community than the youngsters in churches. One part of the “crisis” in the Roman Catholic Church is probably over. Abuses have declined since 1980, and the church has stopped letting known homosexuals into the priesthood.
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/04/13/the-curious-incident-at-the-ne/
Vatican Attacked Over Cardinal’s Claim of Homosexuality and Paedophilia Link
In apparent embarrassment, the Holy See’s official daily, L’Osservatore Romano, did not mention Bertone’s remarks in its report on the press conference. Five years ago the Vatican implicitly linked homosexuality and paedophilia when, following the child abuse scandals in the US, it banned men from studying for the priesthood if they “showed deeply rooted homosexual tendencies”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/13/vatican-homosexuality-paedophilia-claim-condemned
Gay Cover Up Must End re: Priestly Sexual Abuse – Bill Donohue
http://www.catholicleague.org/release.php?id=1821
Anti-Catholicism and the Times – Patrick Buchanan
As the Catholic League’s Bill Donahue relates, 80 percent of the victims of priestly abuse have been males and “most of the molesters gays.” And as the Times‘ Richard Berke blurted to the Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association 10 years ago, often, “three-quarters of the people deciding what’s on the front page are not-so-closeted homosexuals.” Is there perhaps a conflict of interest at The New York Times, when covering a traditionalist Catholic pope?
http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2010/04/05/the-anti-catholic-times/
Expert: Donohue’s claim that most abusive priests are gay is “unwarranted”
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201004020028
MORE NEWS
The Passion of Pope Benedict. Six Accusations, One Question by Sandro Magister
Pedophilia is only the latest weapon aimed against Joseph Ratzinger. And each time, he is attacked where he most exercises his leadership role. One by one, the critical points of this pontificate
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1342796?eng=y
U.S. Lawyer Takes on Vatican Over Abuse Cases
He shared documents with New York Times, sees Ore. lawsuit as critical. He claims to have no idea how much he has won in settlements; in 2002 he estimated that it was around $60 million.
“It’s not about the money,” Anderson told The Associated Press.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36075025/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
Another Long Lent by George Weigel
2010 is not 2002, and that is in large measure due to 2002. What we now have is, largely, the recycling of old material, usually provided to the press by contingent-fee attorneys whose strategic goal is to build a public “narrative” of conspiracy that will shape American courts’ decisions as to whether the Vatican and its resources can be brought within range of U.S. liability law.
The realization among serious Catholics that this is not 2002 and that things have changed dramatically since 2002, has led to a far more confident effort to fight back against misrepresentations such as those the Times perpetrated on March 25. There is a danger here: to recognize that this is not 2002 cannot blind us to the fact that there are wounds that remain to be healed, reforms of priestly formation that remain to be completed, bishops whose failures remain to be recognized and dealt with, new norms for the selection of bishops to be implemented, and accounts rendered as to why the Vatican, prior to Ratzinger’s taking control of the issue of clerical sexual abuse in the late 1990s, was sometimes sluggish in its response to scandalous behavior by priests and deficient leadership by bishops.
Assuming, however, that Benedict XVI has set in motion processes that will lead to all those lingering issues being forcefully addressed, a serious question can now be credibly posed: Are those most vigorously agitating these abuse/misgovernance issues today genuinely interested in the safety of young people and children, or are they using the failures of the past to cripple the moral credibility of the Catholic Church in the present and future?
There is no harm in acknowledging that, like just about everyone else, Joseph Ratzinger was on a learning curve in dealing with abusive clergy and malfeasant bishops; the point to be stressed, however, is that he learned faster, and acted more decisively on what he had learned, than just about anyone else.
…the Holy See must make unmistakably clear that it is serious about dealing with malfeasant bishops: that, in addition to swift action against abusive priests, the Church is prepared to take swift and decisive action against episcopal misgovernance.
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2010/04/another-long-lent
Church Gets an Unfair Rap By George Weigel
Pope has been at forefront of change
http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.4122/pub_detail.asp
What Went Wrong By George Weigel
http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.4124/pub_detail.asp
The Catholic Abuse Scandal – Rush Limbaugh
What really is going on here is that the forces of the left are in the process of trying to tear down and destroy every institution in America that stands for something other than big government, other than liberal Democrats. The Catholic Church is despised by the left because of its abortion stance. It is despised because it is a religion other than the earth. It is a religion other than liberalism. So they’re full-court press in trying to discredit the church. It could be a dual-edged sword for these people trying to destroy the church.
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_040710/content/01125118.guest.html
Pope is on the Case and Has Been, in Fact By Philip F. Lawler in USA Today
“Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered.” The Bible’s Book of Zechariah (13:7) warns how cynics will respond to a prophetic leader. The same unhappy pattern is visible in the recent news media attacks against Pope Benedict XVI.
But no disciplinary system will work if the responsible officials do not enforce the rules. The canon law that governs the Catholic Church provided ample authority for diocesan bishops to discipline predatory priests in the 1970s and 1980s; the bishops chose not to use that authority.
In 1995, long before the scandal emerged in the headlines, Cardinal Ratzinger pushed for a full investigation of accusations against a powerful Austrian cardinal, ultimately leading to his resignation. Anyone who weighs the facts carefully and objectively will conclude that Benedict XVI is part of the solution — that is, if the goal is to reform the Catholic Church, not to destroy it.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-04-12-column12_ST1_N.htm
Hatred of the Church? On Scandals, Sinners, and Stones Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
We look at our modern day accusers. We look at what they hold. They have few if any problems with all sorts of human disorders which they have now made to be “human rights.” The one classical thing that they still hold is that child abuse is wrong. But it is mainly wrong because no “consent” is involved. The same activities of those “of age” are deemed acceptable.
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2010/schall_hatredofchurch_apr2010.asp
The Lessons of the Scandal: Hypocrisy and Discipline – Dr. Jeff Mirus
The prolonged and unremitting secular attack on the Catholic Church for a sexual abuse problem overwhelmingly in the past, the confiscation of the ecclesiastical wealth of the Catholic people (who, in general, have no guilt in this matter), the changing of statutes of limitations to permit vast financial settlements in cases where the perpetrators are long dead, and the effort to implicate the Pope in the complete absence of evidence: All of this, even in those cases where justice is served, is a monumental hypocrisy. What we have here, in essence, is people who favor sexual licentiousness, and who hate the Catholic Church because of its very condemnation of sexual licentiousness, exploiting one of the last remaining sexual taboos to discredit and break the Church.
The moral lesson is that there must be zero tolerance for other forms of abuse among the Church’s ministers as well, particularly the abuse of any of the rights of the faithful to the goods the Church offers for their salvation. The failure to discipline priests and bishops in their dispensation of the Church’s sacraments, her teachings, her grace and her inner life have all contributed to this disaster, and have wrought far too many other disasters besides, many of equal or greater magnitude. One of the great benefits to the Church of the sex abuse scandal is that the free pass has been withdrawn in this one area. But the greatest lesson of the crisis is the need for a proper and edifying discipline across the board.
http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/articles.cfm?id=438
Pope Should Apologize and Explain
Many Catholics imply that Benedict has nothing to apologize for at all. I don’t buy this. Certainly he should apologize for not preventing the Rev. Peter Hullerman from defiling children again after he left therapy. He was Hullerman’s archbishop, after all. He had some responsibility for the wayward priests’ conduct. Ratzinger’s lack of knowledge doesn’t mean the buck didn’t stop with him.
http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Pope-Should-Apologize-and-Explain.html&Itemid=127
Bill O’Reilly says Cardinal Bernard Law should be in jail for pedophile cover up
http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bill+O%27Reilly+says+Cardinal+Bernard+Law+should+be+in+jail+for+pedophile+cover+up++++|+Irish+News++|+IrishCentral+++&expire=&urlID=424483825&fb=Y&url=http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Bill-OReill
Broad Criticism of Pope Benedict’s Handling of Sex Abuse Scandal
Only about one-in-ten (12%) say the pope has done an excellent (3%) or good job (9%) in addressing the sex abuse scandal; 71% say he has done a poor (44%) or only fair (27%) job.
http://people-press.org/report/604/
Catholic bishop says sex abuse scandals will cause ‘generations of damage’ – TImes on line
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7063171.ece
And so the relentless attempts to ‘get’ Pope Benedict XVI continue… – Telegraph
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100033706/and-so-the-relentless-attempts-to-get-pope-benedict-xvi-continue/
Mean Men – Newsweek
The priesthood is being cast as the refuge of pederasts. In fact, priests seem to abuse children at the same rate as everyone else. …the John Jay study found that 149 priests were responsible for more than 25,000 cases of abuse over the 52-year period studied.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/236096
Vatican rebuffs claim Pope blocked Fr. Maciel investigation – CNA
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican_spokesman_rebuffs_claim_pope_blocked_fr._maciel_investigation/
Vatican, Canadian church officials tried to keep sex scandal secret – Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/vatican-canadian-church-officials-tried-to-keep-sex-scandal-secret/article1528471/
The Vatican prepares new measures to combat sex abuse
http://www.romereports.com/palio/index.php
Archbishop Weakland Halted Ecclesial Trial of Notorious Priest
The Milwaukee priest who strongly criticized The New York Times for its reporting on the scandal surrounding the late Father Lawrence Murphy has apologized for failing to recall that Archbishop Rembert Weakland ordered Father Murphy’s trial halted.
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=5929
Former Vatican No. 2 becomes unlikely cheerleader
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gfPYXJqQ_6SXsq6dvoRacwIJOUgAD9EUMJVG2
Abuse Crisis Strains Vatican’s Ancient Ways of Management – NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/world/europe/07vatican.html
A “radical humanist” and atheist defends the Pope and the Church
His conclusion is, I think, quite excellent: “Whatever you think of the Catholic Church, you should be concerned about today’s abuse-obsession. Events of the (sometimes distant) past which nobody can change are being used to justify dangerous trends in the present.”
http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2010/04/a-radical-humanist-and-atheist-defends-the-pope-and-the-church-against.html
Russian Newspaper Pravda Defends Pope, Blames New World Oligarchy
http://english.pravda.ru/print/society/sex/112790-to_confuse_wood_with_trees-0
Swiss Roman Catholic bishops apologise over abuse
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8597459.stm
Catholic church sex scandal rocks faithful in Brazil
http://www.smh.com.au/world/catholic-church-sex-scandal-rocks-faithful-in-brazil-20100317-qcwl.html
Africa also suffers sex abuse by priests: bishop
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6372E620100408
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Clipping: NewsBytes LifeSiteNews 14/04/2010
April 15, 2010
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Tyranny vs. the Internet
April 15, 2010
American Thinker – April 13, 2010
Tyranny vs. the Internet
Essentially, the Act would federalize critical infrastructure security. Since many of our critical infrastructure systems (banks, telecommunications, energy) are in the hands of the private sector, the bill would create a major shift of power away from users and companies to the federal government. This is a potentially dangerous approach that favors the dramatic over the sober response.
The President … may declare a cybersecurity emergency and order the limitation or shutdown of Internet traffic to and from any compromised Federal Government or United States Critical infrastructure information system or network [emphasis mine].
Comments on “Tyranny vs. the Internet“
Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/04/tyranny_vs_the_internet.html
American Thinker – http://www.americanthinker.com
March 12: World Day Against Cyber Censorship
March 13, 2010
Stop Cyber Censorship - Protect Online Free Speech
From RSF:
World Day Against Cyber Censorship
Published on 12 March 2010
اليوم العالمي لمكافحة الرقابة الإلكترونية
Reporters Without Borders celebrates World Day Against Cyber Censorship on 12 March. This event is intended to rally everyone in support of a single Internet that is unrestricted and accessible to all. It is also meant to draw attention to the fact that, by creating new spaces for exchanging ideas and information, the Internet is a force for freedom. However, more and more governments have realised this and are reacting by trying to control the Internet.
Reporters Without Borders marks the occasion by issuing its latest list of “Enemies of the Internet.” This list points the finger at countries such as Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Tunisia that restrict online access and harass their netizens. A list of countries that have been placed “under surveillance” for displaying a disturbing attitude towards the Internet is also released. Turkey and Russia are added to this list of countries “under surveillance”.
Reporters Without Borders awarded on 11 March the first “Netizen Prize”, with Google’s support, to the Iranian women’s rights activists of the Change for Equality (www.we-change.org) website. Journalist, blogger and activist Parvin Ardalan, one of the site’s founders, received the prize from French journalist Jean-Marie Colombani in a ceremony at the Paris headquarters of Google France. The prize recognizes an Internet user, blogger or cyber-dissident who has made a notable contribution to the defence of online freedom of expression.
Reporters Without Borders has designed a logo to symbolise the defence of online free expression. It represents a computer mouse freeing itself from its chains. The logo can be downloaded free of charge and is available in various colours. Do you want to show your support for World Day against Cyber-Censorship? Do you want to defend an Internet without restrictions and accessible to everyone? Don’t hesitate to download this logo and post it on your blog or website or add it to your email signature.
Source: http://www.rsf.org/World-Day-Against-Cyber-Censorship.html
Related links at GlobalVoicesOnline.org :
English: Global: World Day Against Cyber Censorship
Español: Global: Día Mundial contra la Ciber Censura
Português: Global: Dia Mundial Contra a Cyber Censura
Français: La Journée mondiale contre la cyber-censure
English: Global Voices Authors Speak Out Against Censorship
Nederlands: Auteurs Global Voices spreken zich uit tegen censuur
Português: Autores do Global Voices falam contra a Censura
Malagasy: Manangam-peo hanohitra ny famehezam-bava ireo mpanoratra anivon’ny Global Voices
English/Hindi: Against Cyber-Censorship – Voices in Hindi
From: Global Voices Online
This post is also available in:
Français: Cuba: Mort d’un dissident en grève de la faim
Nederlands: Cuba: Hongerstaker overlijdt in gevangenis
Italiano: Cuba: reazioni online alla morte del prigioniero politico Orlando Zapato Tamayo
Español: Cuba: Reacciones a la muerte en prisión de un activista en huelga de hambre en La Habana
Thursday, February 25th, 2010 @ 12:27 UTC
Cuba: Hunger Striker Dies in Havana Prison
The death of the first Cuban political prisoner to die on hunger strike since 1972 is eliciting a combination of speechlessness and outrage on the web.
In an apt expression of this, Orlando Luis Pardo of Boring Home Utopics posts a series of solid black images, one after another, instead of words. Yoani Sanchez has posted a video she made of the prisoner’s mother waiting outside the hospital where her son died. In it, Reina Luisa Tamayo calls her son’s death a “premeditated murder.” This is a sentiment that others have echoed. “The Castro Brothers Have Returned to Murder!!!!” goes the headline of a widely tweeted post at El Tono De Voz.
Orlando Zapato Tamayo began the 86 day long strike on December 3rd, 2009, after a prison guard in the eastern province of Holguin beat him so brutally that the hematoma left on his head needed to be operated on. Initially, the director of that prison denied him water for 18 days, causing kidney failure. When he was transferred again, he contracted pneumonia. His last move was to the maximum security prison in Habana where he died.
Along the Malecon writes: in 2003 “he joined dissidents who were staging a hunger strike to try to pressure the socialist government to release prisoners. But then many of these protesters later wound up in jail themselves.”
The next year Zapato Tamayo was sentenced to 3 years of prison for contempt, public disorder, and disobedience. Once in prison, his term was extended to 36 years for “acts of disobedience.”
Former prisoner of conscience Jorge Luis García Pérez, reports Radio y Television Martí, said that this event “has caused enormous dismay throughout the country, not just among the opposition but also the whole population.”
It seems that some bloggers are hoping help make García Pérez’ prophecy a reality. As Uncommon Sense writes, ”this is not a time for regrets but for action, to follow Zapata’s example and continue the struggle against those who murdered him and for Cuban liberty.” A commenter at Diario de Cuba writes:
“Atencion estamos convocando una marcha mundial para el 13 de marzo del 2010 en favor de la libertad de todos los presos politicos cubanos, asi como la condena por la muerte de Orlando Zapata Tamayo.”
“Attention we are organizing a global march on March 13, 2010 for the release of all Cuban political prisoners, as well as a conviction in the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo.”
Twitter has updates on this proposed action. Blogger Yoani Sanchez has also proposed a (presumably virtual) prayer chain for the morning of Zapata Tamayo’s funeral.
On the other hand, the official leaning Cuba Debate (which is also on Twitter) republishes a post from La Isla Desconocida:
Tienen razón al decir que fue un asesinato, pero los medios esconden al verdadero asesino: los grupúsculos cubanos y sus mentores trasnacionales. Zapata fue asesinado por la contrarrevolución.
They are right to say it was murder…but the media are hiding the real murderer: small Cuban groups and their international mentors. Zapata was murdered by the counterrevolution.
The party line, then, has a web presence too.
According to CNN Spanish reporter Daniel Vottio, there are guards surrounding the Tamayo household where the wake is being held. Sanchez tweets that dissidents are being kept from leaving their homes; her and others’ movements seems to be generally restricted.
Two other Cuban prisoners of conscience, Ariel Sigler Amaya and Normando Hernández González are also imprisoned and in poor health. What this augurs for them, and for Cuban civil society, is to be determined.
Posted by Susannah Vila | Print version
Cuba: Orlando Zapata Tamayo dies
February 25, 2010
From VocesCubanas.com - Voces Tras Las Rejas
Orlando Zapata Tamayo murió hoy
Martes, 23 de Febrero de 2010 por Voces Cubanas
Orlando Zapata Tamayo died today. We, the volunteers who manage this blog, Voices Behind the Bars, for some of the political prisoners in Cuba, would like to demonstrate our sincerest condolences for the family of Zapata Tamayo, especially his mother, Reina Luisa Tamayo. Today’s news has been devastating and only proves that the Castro regime only oppresses its people. They have pretended to be blind, looked the other way, and have left this man to die. But neither his life, or his struggle, were in vain. The life of Orlando Zapata Tamayo has been added to a very long and painful list of names of brave men and women who have given all of their lives in order to achieve a Free Cuba. His struggle will continue, his ideas will be firmly maintained through all of the Cuban people and also by everyone else who, even if you are not Cuban, believe in freedom, justice, and human rights. Our prayers are with Orlando Zapata Tamayo, with his family, and with all the Cubans who risk the little that they have to fight for what’s right. Today, although we may feel a great deal of pain, all of the Cuban community, in exile and within the island, also feel a great sense of pride because we are able to say that Orlando Zapata Tamayo was one of ours. May God keep you, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, you and all of yours.
February 23, 2010
Más información sobre Orlando Zapata Tamayo aquí y aquí.
Seguiremos publicando más informaciones y enlaces.
Source: http://vocescubanas.com/voztraslasrejas/2010/02/23/orlando-zapata-tamayo-murio-hoy/ (entire article, Spanish/English)
Voces Tras Las Rejas – Pablo Pacheco - http://vocescubanas.com/voztraslasrejas
Voces Cubanas – http://vocescubanas.com
Valentine’s Day remains risky business in Middle East
February 24, 2010
In a now-annual preemptive strike against Valentine’s Day, the Saudi government’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtues and Prevention of Vice launched a campaign last week against shops selling red-colored merchandise or other symbols of the outlawed holiday. The Commission’s religious-police enforcers, the Muttawa, have confiscated all red items in the shops, including flowers. The details were described in an AP story titled “No Valentine’s: Saudi religious police see red.”
The Valentine’s Day prohibition reflects the Saudi’s strict Wahhabi school of Islam. The Kingdom’s authorities maintain that Valentine’s Day represents Christian traditions and encourages relations between men and women outside of marriage, a punishable offense. In addition, as the birthplace of Islam, Saudi Arabia also bans several Muslim holidays except the two most important ones, Eid al Fitr and Eid al Adha, because it considers them “religious innovations” that Islam doesn’t sanction.
The AP story went on to report that the Filipino labor-welfare organization Migrante has urged the million or so Filipino guest workers in Saudi Arabia to celebrate Valentine’s Day privately. It also warned them to refrain from saying “Happy Valentine’s” in public, and avoid wearing or carrying anything red.
Strangely enough, most of these items are legal at other times of the year. If Saudis or well-to-do expatriate workers wish to celebrate, they could have shopped earlier or traveled to more religiously liberal nearby countries, such as Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, where luxury hotels would be draped in red, offering romantic dinner specials. Cairo, Egypt, also offers restaurants gaudily decorated in red ribbon and hearts.
In a bizarre coincidence last Friday, a Saudi women’s group called for a boycott of lingerie stores in the Kingdom for two weeks, including on Valentine’s Day. They are protesting the contradiction that women have to reveal their underwear sizes to strange men in a conservative, Islamic nation, where female clerks are banned in most establishments. The full story appeared yesterday on the BBC website and is titled “Saudi lingerie shop boycott call.”
In other Middle Eastern nations, one has to be careful, especially if he or she is a popular singer holding a concert on February 14 in Yemen. Yesterday the English-language Yemen Observer reported that Al Qaida threatened to kill Syrian singer Asalah Nasri if she sang as scheduled in the southern port city of Aden. Nasri is known for her love songs and her Tarab oriental opera style. The concert organizers insist that the date was chosen to coincide with the midterm break of Yemen’s public schools.
Meanwhile, Iranians in Tehran are bravely celebrating the holiday despite a massive crackdown on political dissent and occasional warnings from the the government’s Office of Vice and Virtue. In an interview with National Public Radio last Friday, Farnaz Fassihi, Middle East correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, reported that many shops are fully decorated and some carry English-language Valentine’s gifts.
She attributed the holiday spirit to the fact that the population is getting younger and is well connected to the outside world. While there is an unspoken rule that unmarried couples should not associate in public, Fassihi says that she has seen many strolling Tehran’s streets hand in hand.
Finally, in Pakistan, as reported in the same AP story above, activists of the religious party Jamat Ahl-e-Sunnat rallied against Valentine’s celebrations in Karachi yesterday. Many consider the holiday un-Islamic, but others still buy flowers from busy street vendors and exchange gifts at this time of year.
As we exchange our Valentine’s Day promises and gifts in relative safety in the US, many of our counterparts in the Middle East have to look over their shoulders. Their persistent bravery will make the holiday even more meaningful for the rest of us.
More About: UAE · United Arab Emirate · Bahrain · Egypt · Asalah Nasri
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