26 Nov 10 | Iran, Middle East and North Africa
Index on Censorship today launches Iran Uncut, a special initiative to unearth and revitalise the plethora of archives of literary, artistic, photographic and other creative works by Iranians denied publication and expression in their homeland.
Pen names or pseudonyms have long been a facet of political and social identity, enabling and empowering otherwise forbidden expression.
Now millions of Iranians have created aliases in order to have a voice and actively engage in social and political online dialogue. An extraordinary community has developed of people inside and outside the country sharing thoughts and ideas, posting opinion on Facebook and Twitter and personal blogs. Many Iranians boldly go by their own names, risking intimidation and arrest. To the foreign eye the assumed names are no different, their pseudonyms not immediately recognisable as such in their phonetic Persian incarnations. But looking through activist pages on the net, they are there…along with Thunder Heart and Liss Nup are Tire Akhar, Irani Vatanparast, Mikrobe Siasi, Zibatarin Moosighi, Sokooto Dard, Gole Green, Na Mous, Zane Irani, Baghlava Rashti. To the non-Persian speaker these names blend in with the others as first and family names, but their verve is apparent to Iranians who instead read: Freedom-of Expression, The-final Bullet, Iranian Patriot, Political Bacteria, The-most-beautiful Music, Silence and Pain, Green Flower, Hon Our [honour], Iranian Woman, and the humourous Baghlava Rashti, after the syrupy pastry.
Less humourous is the reality that necessitates this precaution. The regime’s cyber army is busy monitoring all these sites and Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security last year expanded its activities to incorporate demanding Facebook passwords upon entry to the country, revealing individual’s profiles and most significantly the online company they keep. Other Iranians interrogated in detention report having to reveal email and Twitter account passwords. Outside the country “dissident” activity is under equal surveillance, with messages sent by intelligence agents that warn against posting “anti-government” discussion, and reported threats involving family still living in Iran.
Against this backdrop is the continued censorship of non-political writing, art, film, theatre, music, photography and other works deemed socially and culturally “inappropriate”. Some of these have already been seen at international festivals and through online networks. Index on Censorship wants to maximize this effort, with Iran Uncut presenting a forum for the open exhibition of creative talent from Iran to a wider audience. We welcome all your work and I look forward to communicating with you and sharing your ideas.
I shall go by the name of mahi siah-e kuchulu (the little black fish), in homage to the children’s story of that title and its author, the eloquent school teacher Samad Behrangi. The story, about a little black fish determined to discover the world beyond the little stream of her habitat, is a political allegory that sealed Behrangi’s fate and resonates today more than ever. You can read it here:
Please email me at: littleblackfish[at]indexoncensorship.org
25 Nov 10 | Uncategorized
It sounds alarming: the “Internet kill switch”. It also sounds alarming that under a law passed over 60 years ago Barack Obama (or any US president) has an opaquely defined authority to shut down sections of the Internet in the event of a national emergency.
At its inception the law addressed state control over telephone and telegraph networks. Obviously the law made no mention of the Internet, but made vague references to means of communication. Specifically, it is cited that provisions in the Communications Act give the president the power to “suspend or amend the rules and regulations applicable to any or all facilities or stations for wire communication”.
In June, the Obama administration introduced a bill which strove to give a newly created National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications significant control over the Internet in times of national emergency. The bill, having been approved, is now due to go before the Senate.
Presidential power in the event of an attack on America seems not to be the predominant objection amongst the bill’s critics, but rather it is the lack of specification that raises concerns. A letter sent in June to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs by the ACLU and 23 other groups expressed such worries. They sought assurances that “cybersecurity measures” would not “unnecessarily infringe on free speech, privacy, and other civil liberties interests” and asked for the committee to “clarify the scope of the legislation”.
In terms of how these powers would be employed, it has been suggested the president could make use of them to combat a hostile assault on the computer systems of America’s utility companies or Wall Street financial services. This is neither an abstract threat nor a provision for the future: This year US government agencies have been hit by an average 1.8 billion cyber attacks each month — and that number is constantly rising.
The many suggestions of discomfort and unease about the prying capabilities of Google Street View demonstrate a similar strain of thinking about the private sector. The disquiet around the hyperbolically named “kill switch” is again not a case of libertarian horror towards any assumption of influence by the state. In fact, a recent survey suggested that 61 per cent of Americans supported the president’s right to shut down parts of the Internet if their nation came under cyber attack. Regardless of whether the moves to monitor and control come from the private sector or the state, people (ever concerned with the balance between security and privacy) want these powers clearly outlined and legally delimited.
24 Nov 10 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
Sixty thousand websites deemed to host pornographic content have been shut down by the government since December 2009. The National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications also said some 1.6 million websites had been checked. The office revealed many of the offending websites were discovered through informants. Five hundred and sixteen informers have been rewarded with USD 79,000 since the crackdown started.
21 Nov 10 | Asia and Pacific, China
Wangyi09’s twitter feed stops abruptly at 7:45AM on October 28. According to human rights groups, the Chinese rights activist, whose real name is Cheng Jianping, was detained later that day for a satirical tweet she had posted on October 17 which mocked anti-Japanese protesters by urging them to destroy the Japanese pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. Her husband-to-be, Hua Chunhui, also a rights activist, said the day she was grabbed by police was to have been their wedding day. (more…)
