13 Apr 12 | Index Index, minipost, United Kingdom
A man from County Antrim, Northern Ireland, was fined £250 for writing “Kill all Taigs” — a pejorative term for Catholics — and “Fuck The Pope” on social networking site Facebook on his 21st birthday last August. Dean Boyd admitted to police that he should not have posted the message — which he removed 20 minutes after doing so — but said it had only been intended for his friends and he had not intended to trigger hatred, the prosecution told Coleraine magistrates’ court. It is the first case of its kind in Northern Ireland involving sectarian abuse on a social networking site.
12 Apr 12 | Africa, Index Index, minipost
The Comoros’ interior minister Ahamada Abdallah has withdrawn state daily Al Watan’s latest monthly supplement from distribution and issued a decree suspending its managing editor, Pétan Mouignihazi. The supplement had a special report on corruption and waste in the state sector. In a news conference this week, Abdallah said: “Any state media journalist who wants the freedom to write or speak has to conform to the government line, or have the intellectual honesty to go and work elsewhere, for a privately-owned news outlet. The government is not going to receive lessons from Al Watwan.”
12 Apr 12 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost
Google, Facebook, and other internet companies may be required cooperate with Vietnamese authorities in removing content from their sites, based on draft regulations that have been released by the Ministry of Information. Foreign businesses that provide online social networking platforms in Vietnam must “make pledges in writing” to follow local censorship laws and remove information, including that which is against the Vietnamese government, damages “social and national security” or promotes violence, newspaper Thanh Hien News said. The new rules will be considered for approval in June.
12 Apr 12 | Europe and Central Asia, Index Index, minipost
Activists in Minsk have been arrested for laying flowers and detained by police at Kastrychnitskaya metro station during a ceremony to open a memorial sign “River of Memory” near the station entrance. They were then taken to the Leninski district police department. Viasna Human Rights Centre reported the names of two of the individuals as Anastasia Shuleika and Yury Khodus, while other reports say the activists were accused of swearing.
