censorship
Last year, dissident Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof was unable to accept his Cannes invitation to join the Un Certain Regard Jury because of imposed travel restrictions. This year, he was able to present his new film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, in person. But not without a gripping off-screen story. Two weeks ago, Rasoulof clandestinely fled Iran upon receiving an eight-year prison sentence for standing up to the brutal theocratic regime. His nail-biting escape led him to Germany to finish the edit of the film, and up until a few days ago, no one was sure whether his escape meant that he...
Euronews (English)
Screenshot: Sky News Australia YouTube video – Same-sex parenting book ban defended by Cumberland City Councillor When Sydney’s Cumberland City Council placed a ban on the book Same-sex Parents in its eight public libraries, it was bound to cause controversy. In addition, the issue highlighted Australia’s record of historical and current censorship. There was immediate online outrage. David Tyler, aka Urban Wronski, summed up the negative reactions: “We’re going to make it clear tonight that … these kind of books, same-sex parents books, don’t find their way to our kids,” Christou said during ...
Global Voices
Nadezhda Kevorkova standing in court in Moscow. Screenshot from the video “Очередной журналист брошен в тюрьму за посты – Надежда Кеворкова в Басманом суде Москвы” from Sotavision‘s YouTube channel. Fair use. On May 7, the well-known 65-year-old Muslim journalist Nadezhda Kevorkova was arrested in Moscow and sent to a pre-trial detention center for two months in a criminal case for “justifying terrorism.” The accusation is based on the two posts on her Telegram channel “Kevorkova.”. The first one was published in 2018, and it is a repost of the text written by Russian journalist Orkhan Dzhemal...
Global Voices
Closing ceremony of TIDF festival New Taipei. Photo by Filip Noubel, used with permission. Taipei hosted the 14th edition of the Taiwan Independent Documentary Festival (TIDF) this month, an event that showcases over 200 movies with a focus on Myanmar, Ukraine, and Taiwan’s own history of documentary filmmaking. The 2024 edition, which ran from May 10–19, presented close to 140 movies from Taiwan and from a variety of countries, from Madagascar to Ukraine, Mali, Palestine, Argentina, Paraguay, and many Asian countries. The festival held in Taipei has taken place every two years since 1998, tha...
Global Voices
Egyptian protesters rally at Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square, saying they will organise a sit-in untill the borders with the Gaza Strip are open. October 20, 2023. Screenshot froma video by AFP News Agency. Fair use. This post by Haneen Shoukry was first published by Raseef 22 on May 8, 2024. An edited version is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement. Our MENA team added the links to provide further clarification. On Tuesday, April 23, protesters in Cairo were detained while participating in a peaceful demonstration in support of women in Sudan and Gaza. Ironically, ...
Global Voices
Thai activist Netiporn “Bung” Sanesangkhom. Photo by Ginger Cat. Source: Prachatai, content partner of Global Voices. Thai activist Netiporn “Bung” Sanesangkhom died on May 14 while under pre-trial detention for charges related to royal defamation. Her death sparked outcry from human rights advocates, who urged the government to reform the lèse-majesté (royal insult) law and to stop persecuting state critics. Bung, 28, was an English tutor before she became involved with the youth-led democracy movement in 2020 that campaigned for the restoration of civilian rule. She later joined Thaluwang, a...
Global Voices
Four years on from the 2019 protests and unrest, Hong Kong was finally able to legally restrict the performance and distribution of the movement’s anthem Glory to Hong Kong – a move that its composer foresaw back in 2020. But why is the song controversial, and where did it come from? How did the government win at the appeals court? Was the song already illegal? And how did YouTube seek to comply with the legal ruling? HKFP examines how the government enacted the ban, and how a city – once a bulwark of free expression in Asia – came to insist that a song was a threat to China, the world’s secon...
Hong Kong Free Press
Image by Arzu Geybullayeva Turkey, following in the footsteps of Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Hungary, and Georgia to name a few, is considering adopting its own version of the controversial foreign agent law. Expected to be submitted to the Grand National Assembly — Turkey's parliament — before the end of the legislative year on July 1, 2024, the package includes a legislative amendment that would introduce criminal penalties for what it calls “foreign influence agents” by expanding the definitions of “espionage” and “spying.” Critics and rights watchdogs say the proposal targets free expression and i...
Global Voices
Massive protests have roiled Georgia since April 8, 2024, when Georgia's ruling party re-introduced the controversial foreign agent bill. But despite the month of public outcry and international condemnation, the parliament approved the bill in its third reading on May 13 and adopted the bill on May 14. Meanwhile, as thousands of Georgians continue to take to the streets, the government said it would create a database of “undesirables” namely, “people involved in or publicly supporting violence, threats, and blackmail during the protests.” There have also been reports of government critics get...
Global Voices
Google has blocked Hong Kong users from accessing pro-democracy protest song Glory to Hong Kong on YouTube following a court order. It comes days after Secretary for Justice Paul Lam said the government was “anxious” for the tech company’s response to the ruling. Last Wednesday, a court banned people from “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing” the song with seditious intent. The Court of Appeal sided with the government, overturning last year’s decision by a lower court rejecting the injunction that c...
Hong Kong Free Press
閲覧を続けるには、ノアドット株式会社が「プライバシーポリシー」に定める「アクセスデータ」を取得することを含む「nor.利用規約」に同意する必要があります。
「これは何?」という方はこちら