05 Sep 11 | Americas, Mexico
Free expression and press freedom in Mexico have again taken several hits in recent days. Last week, two Twitter users were sent to jail in Veracruz, the southern state which has seen a rise in drug-related violence thanks to the Zetas Cartel and its confrontations with anti-drug units of the Mexican Navy.
Gilberto Martínez Vera and María de Jesús Bravo Pagola were sentenced to jail for having tweeted warnings about impending drug gang violence around several public schools. Tweeps using the hashtag #verfollow continue to complain about the jail terms and attacks against freedom of expression.
On the same day, the congress of the southeastern state of Tabasco approved a law punishing those who disseminate false alarms via phone calls or social networks. The crime carries a possible sentence of up to six years in prison.
The nerves of Mexican journalists have also been frazzled by the murder last week of two female journalists, Ana María Marcela Yarce Viveros and Rocío González Trápaga, who were found strangled in a park in Mexico City. Until now, violence against the press in Mexico has spared the capital, Yarce Viveros worked for Contralinea, an online investigative journalism site, and Gonzalez Trapaga, who worked for Televisa a one point, was at the time an owner of a currency exchange centre at Mexico City’s international airport. Investigators have suggested the motive for their murders was not journalism related.
25 Aug 11 | Statements, Uncategorized
As Twitter, Facebook and Research in Motion prepare to meet the Home Secretary, Index on Censorship and other human and digital rights campaigners ask to be included in discussions on social media blackouts
Joint Letter to Home Secretary
11 Aug 11 | minipost, News and features
Index on Censorship news editor Padraig Reidy said today:
“David Cameron must not allow legitimate anger over the recent riots and looting in the UK to be used in an attack on free expression and free information. Too often, channels of communication, whether Twitter, Facebook or BlackBerry Messenger are seen as the culprits in acts of violence and anti-social behaviour, rather than merely the conduit. While police in investigations should be able to investigate relevant communications, there should be no power to pre-emptively monitor or suspend communications for ordinary social media users.”
Contact Index on Censorship Tel + 44 (0) 20 7234 2522
[email protected]
10 Aug 11 | Asia and Pacific, China
Ai: A bird needs to flutter its wings to see if it can fly
After nearly two months of silence, artist Ai Weiwei, one of China’s most prominent human rights activists, is back in the spotlight. Over the past few days he’s been tweeting, and today an exclusive for one of China’s state-owned newspapers, the English-language Global Times. It is Ai’s first interview since he was released from detention back in June.
His tweets first. On Monday Ai wrote about the condition of two of his associates who were arrested alongside him in April:
Today I met Liu Zhenggang. He talked about the detention for the first time … This steel-willed man had tears coming down … He had a sudden heart attack at the detention center and almost died.
Followed by:
Because of the connection with me, they were illegally detained. Liu Zhenggang, Hu Mingfen, Wen Tao and Zhang Jinsong innocently suffered immense mental devastation and physical torment.
Ai told The Guardian that Liu had almost died from maltreatment in detention.
On Tuesday he tweeted again:
If you don’t speak for Wang Lihong, and don’t speak for Ran Yunfei, you are not just a person who will not stand out for fairness and justice; you do not have self-respect.
Wang Lihong is an internet activist who is facing trial for “causing a disturbance” last year when she helped organise a small demonstration outside a court to support three bloggers who had tried help an illiterate woman find justice after her daughter died.
Ran Yunfei, a writer and magazine editor was arrested in March, allegedly for his anti-government writings. He was released today, though he is reportedly not allowed to leave home or meet people without permission, and may not speak publicly.
Ai told CNN that he has started to tweet because “a bird needs to flutter its wings to see if it can fly.”
The Global Times’ exclusive with Ai has him photographed in shorts, presumably at his studio in east Beijing, posing with a small cat. He was “relaxed” and “flirtatious,” the journalist curiously noted.
While the newspaper boasts that Ai gave a “feisty” interview, his comments sound more like government directives than the characteristically outspoken Ai. He confirmed separately with Western media that he did indeed give the interview.
For a start there’s this:
Overthrowing the regime through a radical revolution is not the way to solve China’s problems. “The most important thing is a scientific and democratic political system.
Later he concedes, “no one is above the law.”
However, a few Ai-like quotes remain. “I will never stop fighting injustice,” he says at one point. Curiously, Wen Tao, Ai’s associate who was arrested with him in April, is a former Global Times journalist. Ai was released in June on charges of tax evasion. His supporters say the accusations have been cooked up and his arrest was in fact linked to his outspoken criticism of the government.
