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obscenity
Posts Tagged “
Free Speech
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obscenity
obscenity
The Porno Judge and the Newspaper
Remember Alex Kozinski, the 9th Circuit Court Judge who's been forced to recuse himself from an obscenity trial because of BESTIALITY PORN POSTED ON HIS WEBSITE? What a wacky story, right? Hah! That maroon! Yes well it turns out it's actually a depressing tale of outright journalistic malfeasance that could impact an important first amendment case, but whatever. The Judge, Alex Kozinski, has already declared a mistrial, and all that's left is for his wife to pen angry letters to blogs. It's all the L.A. Times' fault! More »
bloggers in peril
Censorship!
A young man in Saudi Arabia (he is delivering a kidney to his father—no joke!) reports that the site of Fouad al Farhan, the Saudi blogger jailed last year, is blocked. Along with Radar, Fleshbot, and Craigslist Casual Encounters. [Kidney and the Kingdom]
psa
The Five Most Dangerous Countries for Bloggers
Internet nerds became terribly excited recently when Twitter sprung a man from jail, but it's worth noting that in most of the world, blogging is much, much more likely to send you to to clink. While there are a number of bloggers whose eternal imprisonment—possibly in the Phantom Zone—we fantasize about daily, we grudgingly admit that throwing bloggers in jail for blogging is probably bad. So as a public service, we're here to tell you where not to blog if you value your freedom. China and Iran probably get the most press for their blogger crack-downs, and Malaysia just arrested a blogger this week, but if there's anything we learned from skimming the site of the Committee to Protect Bloggers, it's this: don't Tumblr in Egypt. More »
crime
Saudis Release Blogger Jailed For Inflammatory Listicle
America's very very close friends in the Saudi government arrested and detained a young blogger named Fouad Farhan, shut down his site, detained him for four months without charges, and finally released him on Saturday. Thankfully, they have a very very good explanation for all that: "'We have ... what we call electronic crimes—any kind of violation related to computer and technology and so on,' Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Mansour Al Turki told the Monitor when asked why Fouad Farhan had been jailed. [...]'And I believe his main case was like violating personal rights.... Like when I go for example on the Internet or I go on any electronic media and I use your name and your personality and I criticize ... or offend you without being able to introduce evidence of what I'm saying.'" So. He was arrested for electronic crimes. Farhan could still be prosecuted for his "electronic crimes" despite the release. Farhan's worst electronic crime against the government? More »
free speech
Bjork Ruins Fun for the Rest of China
After Bjork repeatedly yelled, "Tibet!" during a concert in Shanghai last week, Chinese officials decided to "tighten its controls over foreign singers and other performers." Yelling "Tibet" broke a law, and so the Chinese people can no longer have nice things such as concerts. [Reuters]
serious business
