01 May 13 | Uncategorized
Preliminary research from a survey of nearly 10,000 Arab respondents has found that while most support the right to free expression online, they are apt to believe that the internet should be regulated, according to the researchers.
The survey — a joint effort between researchers at the Qatar campus of the US-based Northwestern University and the World Internet Project — explored media usage in the Arab world. Participants were drawn from eight Arab nations: Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.
The survey questioned participants’ perceptions of the news media, finding that 61 per cent thought the “quality of news reporting in the Arab world has improved over the past two years.” Media credibility declined in countries that experienced revolutions during the Arab Spring. The Saudi Arabian respondents gave their media outlets high marks with 71 [per cent agreeing with the statement, “The media in your country can report the news independently without interference from officials”.
Overall, the survey found high Facebook penetration among respondents who used social media. Ninety-four percent of the social media users had Facebook accounts, 47 per cent used Twitter and 40 per cent used Facebook. Among the Bahrain social media users, 92 per cent had a Facebook account, while just 29 per cent of the Egyptian respondents did.
The survey aimed to assess the use of media — TV, radio, newspapers, books, web — and levels of trust respondents had toward the sources. It also sought to guage how the respondents used the internet to communicate and conduct transactions like banking or purchases.
The results can be accessed at Arab Media Use Study.
30 Apr 13 | In the News, Newswire
GLOBAL
How a handful of tech employees control the future of free speech online
Seeing the diversity of opinions online, it’s sometimes easy for the average user to forget that freedom of speech is not a universally held value. Not so for global tech companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google who are increasingly finding themselves setting the standards for online free speech, whether they like it or not. (Think Progress)
BAHRAIN
John Kerry pushes Bahrain on rights, reforms
US secretary of state John Kerry pushed Bahrain on Monday to step up reforms and boost human rights as he met his counterpart from the Gulf kingdom shaken by two years of Shiite-led protests. (Times of India)
CHINA
Opinion: In China, let a thousand blogs bloom
Will suppression or free speech win the battle in China and beyond? (Los Angeles Times)
EGYPT
Egypt’s challenge: Free to speak
Under the Mubarak regime, the state closely monitored all forms of political and religious expression in Egypt. Now all that has changed and millions are watching a proliferation of satellite TV channels. Shaimaa Khalil reports on the new voices in the second part of her series Egypt’s Challenge. (BBC)
HONDURAS
President of Honduras toughens restrictions on freedom of expression in proposed telecom law
The president of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo, has presented the Congress with a proposal that toughens content regulations on the media, including regulation on schedules and punishments for broadcasting violent or obscene content, content that celebrates or defends crime, or content that goes against morals and good behavior, said La Prensa. (University of Texas: Journalism in Americas blog
KUWAIT
Activist in Kuwait jailed for royal insult as regimes take on Twitter ‘threat’
An opposition activist in Kuwait has been jailed for a year for insulting the country’s Emir on Twitter. The sentence was the third jail term handed down since the start of the year for online comments deemed offensive to the Royal Family. (The Times
UNITED KINGDOM
Scientists celebrate UK libel reform
New libel laws for England and Wales should help protect scientific debate, but campaigners worry that legal costs remain a threat. (The Scientist)
UNITED STATES
Mich. Arab festival being moved after religious tensions
After four years of increasing tensions between some Christian missionaries and local Muslims, the annual Arab International Festival in Dearborn is being moved from a street that has open access to a public park that could restrict admission to paid attendees. (Detroit Free Press)
30 Apr 13 | Uncategorized
GLOBAL
How a handful of tech employees control the future of free speech online
Seeing the diversity of opinions online, it’s sometimes easy for the average user to forget that freedom of speech is not a universally held value. Not so for global tech companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google who are increasingly finding themselves setting the standards for online free speech, whether they like it or not. (Think Progress)
BAHRAIN
John Kerry pushes Bahrain on rights, reforms
US secretary of state John Kerry pushed Bahrain on Monday to step up reforms and boost human rights as he met his counterpart from the Gulf kingdom shaken by two years of Shiite-led protests. (Times of India)
CHINA
Opinion: In China, let a thousand blogs bloom
Will suppression or free speech win the battle in China and beyond? (Los Angeles Times)
EGYPT
Egypt’s challenge: Free to speak
Under the Mubarak regime, the state closely monitored all forms of political and religious expression in Egypt. Now all that has changed and millions are watching a proliferation of satellite TV channels. Shaimaa Khalil reports on the new voices in the second part of her series Egypt’s Challenge. (BBC)
HONDURAS
President of Honduras toughens restrictions on freedom of expression in proposed telecom law
The president of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo, has presented the Congress with a proposal that toughens content regulations on the media, including regulation on schedules and punishments for broadcasting violent or obscene content, content that celebrates or defends crime, or content that goes against morals and good behavior, said La Prensa. (University of Texas: Journalism in Americas blog
KUWAIT
Activist in Kuwait jailed for royal insult as regimes take on Twitter ‘threat’
An opposition activist in Kuwait has been jailed for a year for insulting the country’s Emir on Twitter. The sentence was the third jail term handed down since the start of the year for online comments deemed offensive to the Royal Family. (The Times
UNITED KINGDOM
Scientists celebrate UK libel reform
New libel laws for England and Wales should help protect scientific debate, but campaigners worry that legal costs remain a threat. (The Scientist)
UNITED STATES
Mich. Arab festival being moved after religious tensions
After four years of increasing tensions between some Christian missionaries and local Muslims, the annual Arab International Festival in Dearborn is being moved from a street that has open access to a public park that could restrict admission to paid attendees. (Detroit Free Press)
26 Apr 13 | Uncategorized
Governments around the world are ramping up their takedown requests, the latest data from Google’s Transparency Report revealed yesterday. 56 countries issued a record 2,285 requests to remove 24,179 pieces of content from the company’s products and platforms in the second half of 2012. This update comes three months after Google reported record high government requests for user data in the same period.
Brazil topped the list of offenders. The country’s courts and government agencies issued 697 content removal requests, more than double the number issued by the second-placed United States. Half of Brazil’s requests were to remove content that allegedly defamed or offended political candidates. Google removed content in some of these cases but is appealing others on the grounds that Brazil’s constitution protects free speech.
The countries in which courts requested the most individual items be removed were Turkey (8,751 items), the US (3,624) and Brazil (1,654). Requests from Turkey cited content that infringed copyrights or allegedly violated local laws that prohibit criticising the Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish state. US requests mainly cited defamation and trademark infringements.
According to Google’s newly compiled data, the most common reasons countries cite for removal requests since 2010 have been privacy and security, defamation, copyright, religious offence, electoral law, government criticism and adult content.
India’s government agencies issued 2,529 non-court takedown requests, far more than any other country. Most of these were issued in line with local laws on public order and ethnic offence amidst political unrest in India’s northeastern states.
Russia issued only six requests for Google to remove content in the first half of 2012. That number jumped to 114 in the second half of the year, 107 of which directly cited Russia’s new internet blacklist law. The law, which went into effect in late October, requires ISPs to block websites that contain “harmful” information including child pornography, “extremist materials” and information on suicide or drug use.
Countries with the worst digital freedom records like China and Iran requested few or no takedowns. Google services are limited or blocked and the internet already heavily restricted in these countries, meaning other measures are often taken to block access to online content.
In a troubling sign of internationally overlapping censorship, 20 countries requested that Google address the “Innocence of Muslims” video on YouTube, which the company owns. Australia, Egypt and the US merely asked Google to review the video’s compliance with its own community guidelines, but the rest requested it be locally blocked. Google complied with eight of these requests in accordance with local laws. It also preemptively blocked access to the video in Libya and Egypt “due to difficult circumstances”.
While government requests for content removal might be on the rise, Google’s compliance with these requests has fallen consistently from 76 percent in 2010 to 45 percent today.
Google’s transparency report has been a useful benchmark for the global state of online free expression since it first launched in 2010. Yesterday’s update comes one month after Microsoft issued its first report of this kind. Dropbox, LinkedIn and Twitter all share similar statistics.
