The Citizen Lab

Chinese dissidents barred from meeting with President Obama; calls for Aung San Suu Kyi's release
Posted Nov 21, 2009 in Censorship by sgolshan. 
During U.S. President Barack Obama's first visit to Asia as president this month, Human Rights Watch urged him to call on the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to resolve issues of impunity and major restraints on freedom of expression throughout the region. As well, IFEX members called on the President to press for the release of imprisoned Chinese journalists and writers on his first official visit to the People's Republic of China. From IFEX

Online censorship and arrests of Internet users
Posted Nov 21, 2009 in Censorship by sgolshan. 
The legal tools that the authorities abuse to restrict free expression in Thailand are the 2007 Computer Crime Act and the lese majeste law (section 112 of the criminal code), which mainly targets Internet users. Harassment and intimidation are constantly employed to dissuade Internet users from freely expressing their views. From Reporters Without Borders

Iran moves to silence opposition with internet crime unit
Posted Nov 20, 2009 in Censorship by sgolshan. 
Iran has moved to block the last remaining outlet of expression for the country's political opposition with the launch of a special force to police the internet. From The Guardian

Faculty generate 10 of top 25 world-changing ideas
Posted Nov 20, 2009 in Citizen Lab News by sgolshan. 
Professor Ron Deibert, director of Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, and his team grabbed the top spot on the list for Psiphon, a tool that allows broad Internet access to citizens of countries where use is censored by the government without the fear of their being detected, since the tool uses safe serves outside their home countries. Toronto Life hails them for making "Internet use is a human right." From University of Toronto

Some Facts about the Incident at the IGF Egypt
Posted Nov 17, 2009 in Citizen Lab News by sgolshan. 
1. We were told that the banner had to be removed because of the reference to China. This was repeated on several occasions, in front of about two dozen witnesses and officials, including the UN Special Rapporteur For Human Rights, who asked that I send in a formal letter of complaint. From Ron Deibert's Blog

IGF2009: #UNfail?
Posted Nov 17, 2009 in MediaCoverage by sgolshan. 
A medium size poster, in English, promoting the 2nd ONI volume “Access Controlled” book was removed by the Internet Governance Forum security forces, because of a phrase on it saying: The first generation of Internet controls consisted largely of building firewalls at key Internet gateways; China's famous “Great Firewall of China” is one of the first national Internet filtering systems. From Global Voices

Internet rights poster sparks UN fight
Posted Nov 17, 2009 in MediaCoverage by sgolshan. 
The United Nations is drawing fire after disrupting a meeting of rights activists at its internet governance convention in Egypt.
From CBC News

UN slated for stifling net debate
Posted Nov 16, 2009 in MediaCoverage by sgolshan. 
The UN has been criticised for stifling debate about net censorship after it disrupted a meeting of free-speech advocates in Egypt.
From BBC News

UN Security take down new ONI censorship book poster at IGF '09
Posted Nov 15, 2009 in MediaCoverage by sgolshan. 
Poster for ONI's new censorship book lies on the ground after UN security takes it down at Internet Governance Forum on November 15, 2009.

Video found here

Access: Mobilizing Global Internet Freedom
Posted Nov 15, 2009 in NGO by sgolshan. 
Born out of the aftermath of the 2009 Iranian election, Access provides innovative, crowd-sourced tech tools to help reutrn the political process to the people. Found here at http://www.accessnow.org